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Hello

I wonder if anyone could kindly help me. I have always paid for parking and haven't received car parking fines before so I'm really in the 'unknown' territory.

I am new to a town in Scotland and parked to do a bit of shopping. I drove up to the unfamiliar car park spot, saw a large sign two car spots away from my space (facing my and the adjacent car bays), read the sign, found a parking payment meter, paid for parking, displayed the ticket on my dash and made sure I had returned within the time on the ticket.

I received a parking fine. Apparently I was right on the edge of a council car park and a private car park. There were not clear (to me) signs where I parked that showed where the private car park started and the council car park ended. There were no signs in my bay where I parked nor on the wall in front of my car park space. I parked two spaces away from a large sign (see attached) and thought that this large sign related to my space.

My argument is that you read the sign closest to your spot, if there was a disabled sign on the wall in front of my bay or on the large sign two bays away I would not have parked there.

I am annoyed as well as the council has been really encouraging people to spend more in their independent shops so I did this for my present shopping.

I challenged and said, for a brand new person (I had recently emigrated to Scotland) it was unclear. I followed the sign and bought a ticket, all in good faith.

The council person who responded to my complaint (by email) said it wasn't unclear and provided the photo (also attached) from google that shows 'ground markings'. How am I supposed to know that 'ground markings' relate to parking if there's no sign to say what those ground markings mean!

There was a council car parking sign when you entered the car park, about 50 metres or so away from where I parked.

I attach a few photos.
1. My car (registration removed)
2. Parking sign two bays away from where I parked
3. The "proof" photo from the council representative (taken from google street view). To be clear, I parked where the silver car is parked against the little stone wall and the sign I followed is on the street lamp closest to that bay).

The council representative said although they can see it was a genuine mistake they won't budge.

Can anyone help me? I will be in a lot of strife if I have to pay the 60 pounds within ten days.

Thank you thank you to anyone who can help.

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People here would like to help if they can, but need more details. At the moment we don't even have a date of the alleged contravention.
Please to have a read of
https://www.ftla.uk/civil-penalty-charge-notices-(councils-tfl-and-so-on)/read-this-first-before-posting-your-case!-this-section-is-for-council-tfl-dartme/

and post here both sides of the unredacted PCN, a copy of your challenge and of the Council reply (only redact your name & address),
with a GSV link to the location.

Could you also repost the screenshot from Google with the bay in which you were parked annotated.

I'm not sure why the link didn't work to Google

trying again (sorry I'm not hugely familiar with images and websites)
https://maps.app.goo.gl/KpQCCScSfSq71D8r6

Well, the first and most important point is that they have served you with an Excess Charge Notice, not a Penalty Charge Notice.  The ECN is based on the 1984 Act, (see the top of the notice), not the 1991 Act that established decriminalised parking enforcement, so there is no adjudication option. If you don't accept what their official has said, you can do nothing and wait for them to prosecute you in the magistrates courts, (or whatever they are called in Scotland).

Very, very, few councils now work under the 1984 Act, governments have been encouraging councils to move to the decrminalised regime of the 1991 Act for decades now, but there are still a few recalcitrant councils around. Needless to say, if you end up at the magistrates court, the potential fine is much larger, but the council get none of it if you're found guilty.

There is very little about car park fines on their website, except here : -
http://www.moray.gov.uk/moray_standard/page_80774.html

Thank you for your help (I hope I have quoted you correctly).

I won't be able to go through the Magistrates court as I wouldn't have the money for the potential fine (let alone the money for the original fine). I did look on the Moray website but, as you say, there's not a lot of information found on there. I did try to google a lot before asking the question on here.

So, I think, if I understand what you've said above, my best option is just to borrow the money from a few friends and pay it. I thank you for your help.

Here is the section of the 1984 Act concerned with enforcement of Excess Charge Notices.
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1984/27/part/VIII/crossheading/enforcement-of-excess-parking-charges

@MaidenInDistress where's the ECN?

@MaidenInDistress put it back please.