Free Traffic Legal Advice

Good Evening,

Im looking for a little advice.

I was parked perfectly legal in a council park carpark.

The carpark has a row of disabled bays then a row of electric charging bays.

I was parked in the last disabled bay displaying a valid blue badge. To my right was the first electric charging bay.

Between my space & the electric bay was a charge point.

I received a PCN for contravention 71 (parked in an electric vehicles charging place during restricted hours while not charging)

I WAS NOT in an electric vehicle charging bay.

It was printed at 15:43 today & when i try to go online & appeal it then the online system cannot find the PCN.

Will this be an easy enough win?

They will presumably have a photo of me in the bay showing the electric charge point to my right & the signage further down on the right.

Ill then have a photo of the same bay showing the disabled sign on the ground & the disabled pole sign further down to the left.

Since it is not showing online, should i wait before appealing or give them a call tomorrow morning?

Thanks

Please see attached photos (if i have done it right)

After reviewing, all bays have the disabled sign on tarmac.

To the left of me is solely a disabled bay i assume as there is no ev charger, there is also a disabled sign to the left

To the right of me is a ev charger then after the charger - off centre closer to the space to the right to me is the ev signage

All bays are marked the exact same whether they have an ev charger or not

I now realise that the space i was in may have been a disabled ev only space.

However i still maintain the signage is very misleading & with the bays all looking the same then nothing distinguishes the disabled only from the disabled EV except from in my opinion a random placed ev sign & charger with no clear START - STOP  (i would expect a ev sign in every ev space)

https://ibb.co/Gf2Wwmyg
https://ibb.co/mm9JH7w
https://ibb.co/0jM0crt2
https://ibb.co/hJXhGGdF
https://ibb.co/pjYgWjL7

The full row are marked the same on the tarmac, yellow hatching & yellow disabled sign. I would have thought an EV bay would have to differentiate a little to make it clear e.g ev sign painted or the bay painted green/ green hatchings - something that is accepted universally as EV.

I would have thought the signage should be made clear enough that there is no possibility of assuming it is anything other than a disabled EV charging bay - not that you should have to “assume” it is for disabled ev car drivers.

Unfortunately i dont own an EV & therefore have no knowledge of how EV chargers work. I could not tell you if it can charge 1or 2 cars but i would assume 2. 

There is no terms board. I revisited today to confirm all signage

There is 11 bays in total - all 11 bays have a disabled sign on tarmac & are 100% identical

There is a disabled pole sign infront of bays 4 & 9

The ev pole sign is between bays 10 & 11

I was parked in bay 10 showing a blue badge

It's an off-street contravention and in England/Wales we would expect a board setting out conditions of parking. I would have thought the same applies in Scotland. Without a list of t&cs and contraventions that may give rise to a penalty I can't see that the car park is properly signed.

Did you pay to park - it's often the case that BB holders do not get free parking in car parks.