Free Traffic Legal Advice

I got a PCN on Clarence Road in Grays even though I had paid for parking and clearly displayed a ticket.

The issue is that there are two pay and display machines on opposite sides of the same road with different tariffs and different maximum stay times. One side is short stay and the other is long stay, but this is not made clear enough on the street itself. It is just one stretch of on street parking, with no obvious bay separation that would make a driver realise the machine on one side does not apply to the other.

I bought a ticket at 12:36 and displayed it. The officer issued the PCN at 13:27 to 13:28. I later spoke to an attendant who confirmed that one side is short stay and the other is long stay with different tariffs, and also said this happens a lot.

So the problem is not that I failed to pay. I did pay and displayed a ticket. The problem is that the layout is confusing and seems to catch people out regularly.

Has anyone else had this issue on Clarence Road in Grays or successfully challenged a PCN there on the basis of unclear signage or confusing machine placement?

The Golden Rule of parking is that the opposite signs and ticket machines do not apply, only those on the side you parked. There are exceptions, though, as I found out last Saturday in Hereford where a machine on the opposite side is used for parking both sides, but the sign does say to use machine opposite, so its OK.

https://postimg.cc/gallery/v9Mw4rq

The PCN has the location as Orsett Road, so I would say this is a fatal error if it's wrong.