Free Traffic Legal Advice

I find the instructions opaque. There is no such sign as 'A1 or A1 and A2 Pay and display' in the road and there's no plate on the non-existent payment machine.

But putting this to one side.


You were parked from at least 5.19, not 5.27.

I thought I had booked this and was surprised to get a PCN, but have found that it must not have gone through; signal is notoriously bad on this street and it often takes multiple attempts to get the app to load. I thought I had managed this time but clearly not.

IMO, you do not have a statutory defence based upon your account. The CEO was entitled to issue the PCN because you had not obtained parking rights as required, which you acknowledge.

Whether if you* carried on you could get them to revise their stance, perhaps providing further info from you side to substantiate trying to register, or even elicit a material procedural impropriety in a Notice of Rejection, no one knows. Carrying on to the NTO would involve the full penalty which they could still discount in any NOR, but it's at their discretion.


*- next stage is Notice to Owner to registered keeper. Is this you and are your DVLA details current?

Then my reading of the instructions was pretty accurate, they're opaque verging on indecipherable and not matched by on-street realities.

In your shoes, I would focus on a legitimate attempt to register for the residue of the half-hour (and you apologise if this was not successful) and that as you had an A2 permit on display in effect the penalty reflects a 3- minute gap between time of contravention and a period of free parking beginning at 5.30.

I would think about the tone of any formal reps if you decide to continue. You don't want to be faced with the full penalty.

Bump for any further advice re: whether to continue and what to put in the formal rep if so. The council have extended the payment date on the basis that I did not see it due to it being marked as junk.

If you want to go on I would base it on a polite reminder that you are a resident and there was no disadvantage to the council and enforcing serves no traffic management purpose and only provides a penalty to the council.

There is statutory guidance that authorities should act fairly. Richmond cites this in its own enforcement policy.

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https://www.richmond.gov.uk/media/trcp3yjz/parking_enforcement_cancellation_protocol.pdf

Discretion

Mitigation is the primary factor in most informal or formal representations. The
Council has the discretion to cancel any PCN where it believes that the
circumstances warrant such an action. There will always be cases that do not
meet any of the standard criteria for cancellation where the circumstances are
such that the Council may choose to cancel the PCN anyway.
Under the general principles of UK Law, enforcement authorities have a duty
to act fairly and proportionately and are encouraged to exercise discretion
sensibly and reasonably and with due regard to the public interest.
Making a fair decision on cases does not require that all cases are treated
equally. It means that the individual circumstances of the case will be taken
into consideration.
The Council’s approach to the exercise of discretion is objective and without
regard to any financial interest in the penalty or decisions that may have been
taken at an earlier stage in proceedings.

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Statutory guidance

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/civil-enforcement-of-parking-contraventions/guidance-for-local-authorities-on-enforcing-parking-restrictions

I would also reiterate that attempts to set up a session were made in good faith and I expect you have previous records of successful sessions. If they force you to the tribunal, adjudicators can take that as more than mitigation based on testimony from an honest witness that there was a system glitch and not your fault.

Plus we have cases where not paying for something free has been ruled as nonsense.