Free Traffic Legal Advice

Hello all,

My father (disabled badge holder) parked in a disabled bay, displayed his blue badge with correct time... then came back about 20 minutes later to find a penalty charge on the windscreen.




He rang the council and spoke to someone who apparently sympathised with his plight. He was promised a call back, but heard nothing since.

I asked him to go back a few days later and take a photo of the sign. My father interpreted the mention of "permit" as meaning the disabled badge itself.



I have never seen such wording. If it referred to a certain type of permit, I would expect it to specify further (e.g. "resident permit holders") or show the representation of the permit (e.g. "C9") in a black box. The disabled symbol below the "P" makes it look like a regular disabled parking bay, at least to me it does.

Location is here: https://maps.app.goo.gl/XwkvBGUEtWx5iUR56

Any help with this would be really appreciated.

Many thanks in advance.

Obviously he didn't notice this sign as he entered the Guildhall Rotunda car park, which is for permit holders and council visitors only : -
https://maps.app.goo.gl/fGQuBrodzJvrtjxW7
I presume if you are a council visitor, you have to register your car at the council offices on arrival.
As a car park, it has spaces set aside for BB holders, but obviously, the overriding need for a permit remains.
I think he should submit informal reps against the PCN stating that the sign for the car park conditions is set very low at the entry point so he must have missed it, and ask for them to cancel on this ocasion. ALso make sure you include details of the BB and clock which was displayed as normally required.

Yes, put it in. Is he a a native Welsh speaker ?

@belt well this could be fun, the Traffic Penalty Tribunal does allow proceedings to be conducted in Welsh so it should be possible to request a Welsh-speaking adjudicator.

Regulation 18 of The Local Authorities’ Traffic Orders (Procedure) (England and Wales) Regulations 1996 obviously apply to Wales so I would argue the signage is inadequate.

However this would have to be taken to the tribunal as I doubt the council would concede its signage is inadequate.

Can we have the PCN number please? As per the guidance here, there's no point in hiding it.

In the meantime I'll get hold of the traffic order, the last time we looked at a bay such as this the traffic order turned out not to exist.

Well I can see why people would easily get caught out here:



@northwalian if I draft a representation would you be able to repost it in Welsh?

Go for it, but I have to say the difference between the spoken Welsh we use up here in the north is a million miles from anything written for legal or semi-legal needs. (compare street English and what's in the Bible). I'd use English myself for something 'important'.
Certainly happy to translate but wouldn't it end up in a Welsh-language tribunal hearing?

That's the whole point ! 

that's my point, who would attend that in welsh?

For most adjudications, the only attendees are the appellant and the adjudicator. The enforcing authority usually don't attend.

I'll draft something as soon as I get a chance, in the meantime here's The Council of the City and County of Swansea the Rotunda Carriageway Fronting the Guildhall Off-Street Parking Place Order Traffic Regulation Order 2019, I've not had a chance to look through it in detail yet, but one obvious issue is that the title of the order suggests it's an off-street car park and the code on the PCN is for an on-street contravention, and also the sign doesn't tell you that it's only for permit types G or M (and maybe if the sign said this it would have been clearer what the meaning is.

There is also the fact that the exemption at 20(f) allows any vehicle with a G or M permit to park, regardless of whether there is a disabled badge, which defeats the whole purpose of the restriction.