Dear Bristol City Council,
In the first instance I note the CEO's photos do not show where the sign is in relation to my vehicle, so it is unclear how you could persuade an adjudicator that a contravention occurred.
In any event the contravention alleged is unsustainable for the following reasons.
Firstly, we do not have physical permits, the council provides electronic permits. It is therefore impossible to display anything at all, and by your logic a PCN could be issued to all permit holders, because the holder of a valid permit would still be guilty of failing to display a valid permit. A motorist cannot be penalised for failing to display something that does not exist, such as physical permits that are no longer issued.
Further to this, the wording of the contravention you have used does not follow the PATROL wording published at
https://www.patrol-uk.info/contravention-codes/ and while the council might be entitled to adopt its own wording, where it does so it must comply with the associated duties under the Traffic Management Act 2004.
Paragraph 9 of Schedule 9 to the Traffic Management Act 2004 provides that:
An enforcement authority for an area outside Greater London shall publish, in such manner as the appropriate national authority may determine, the levels of charges set under this Part of this Schedule.
As the council is not using the PATROL wording, it cannot rely on the PATROL website. However I can find no evidence that the council has independently published the level of charges for the contravention wording used on the PCN, failure to comply with the publication requirement is a procedural impropriety.
Finally I note the PCN provides a premium rate number that carries a surcharge, such a surcharge means the penalty demanded exceeds the amount due in the circumstances of the case. On this point I refer you to the high court ruling in
London Borough of Camden v The Parking Adjudicator & Ors [2011] EWHC 295 (Admin) and the recent Traffic Penalty Tribunal decision in
Paul Bateman v Derbyshire County Council (DJ00037-2209, 10 November 2022)In light of the above, the PCN must be cancelled.
Yours faithfully,
I would recommend you put this in a PDF and upload it to the council website as an attachment, to ensure you preserve all italics formatting and indentation. Also upload copies of
.
Don't forget to get a screenshot of the confirmation page.
