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Then turn the argument round, amend to remove reference to the current regulatory sign and change to weave in:

..in every one of the CEO's photos and in recent GSV shots of the area (enclosed) parking with 4 wheels on the footway is commonplace along Becontree and side roads. The authority cannot therefore claim that this is not permitted, although they do need to answer the question where the regulatory signs which convey this permission are located because there's none in the immediate area.

And as parking wholly on the footway is permitted - or if not permitted then tolerated as a matter of policy- then there was no justification in issuing the PCN in question because my car was simply parked wholly on the footway. The PCN must therefore be cancelled......

If I may try and pre-empt possible responses from the authority:

I was parked too far onto the footway: Cannot apply because in the absence of regulatory signs to the contrary there is no limit to where a vehicle may be parked on the footway;

My car was partially in contravention of the double yellow lines on the carriageway and therefore not permitted to be parked on the road at all, whether carriageway or footway: Correct. This was my mistake but this doesn't solve the authority's problem because in such a case the only grounds available are '01 - Parked in a restricted street etc....' and not Parked on the footway.

.....

and whatever other contextual amendments might be needed.


OP, the 14-day risk-free challenge period ends on 6 Nov.

Hi, sorry for the late reply. I received a reply from the council. They rejected the appeal. I'm attaching their response to this post. Do you think this is worth escalating? What are my chances? Thanks.

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That's fine. They're saying that parking on the footway at all is not permitted at the location. Play a straight bat and reply to them.

Re PCN *********

Thank you for your letter dated **** rejecting my representations.

Your reasoning requires me to request from you the council resolution which permits footway parking along Becontree Avenue and details of where the signs to which you refer are located.

I require this as soon as possible please. If you are unable to provide, then please pass this to the relevant department within the council. 

For the avoidance of doubt, this is not a continuation of my representations but simply a request for information.

Yours....

Hi, how would I go about doing that? No means of communication was offered via the letter. It seems like they're saying pay or wait for the Notice of Owner to formally challenge the PCN.

?

Their postal address is on the letter.

Ah, my bad. I got the response by email so that didn't even occur to me. I thought we were talking about some way to contact them online. The email they sent the response from is a "donotreply" email so that's not an option. Wouldn't a response by mail take too long? If this goes further, how good are my chances of winning?

Their reply is nonsense. You're just taking the first steps to unravel their, shall we say, lack of understanding so that hopefully you could put this to them in your formal reps.

Virtually every London council misunderstands footway parking. It is a statutory prohibition but councils may exclude areas and/or place conditions but ONLY by the council passing a resolution to this effect. Not officers working with hearsay, anecdote and received wisdom. 

As you've got time and I presume it's local pl look around and snap which, if any, of the regulatory footway parking signs are in the area.

But get your request in pl.

Morning. Yes, I am local. I've already walked down the street both ways and could not find any signage, even though cars are parked on the footway down the entire road. There are some marked bays around and some disabled bays too, but very few. The majority of cars are parked unmolested on the footway. I'll get the reply printed and mailed today. Hopefully, they're fast with their response. Cheers.

Continuing...

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Last

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Hi,

This is a continuation of a previous post that I haven't received a reply to in some time. I have a minimal amount of time to decide whether I will pay the reduced amount or proceed to the tribunal.

This is the previous post for reference: https://www.ftla.uk/civil-penalty-charge-notices-(councils-tfl-and-so-on)/barking-dagenham-pcn-contravention-code-62-(parking-on-footpath)-location-becont/

I'll outline what's happened from start to finish below. I also have an imgur album with all correspondence and evidence related to the PCN.

Imgur album: https://imgur.com/a/EpbXWGc


Summary:

I was at Becontree Medical Centre and parked on my car the wide footpath like everyone else had done. There were no sign indicating that I couldn't and no marked  bays for parking. I asked inside whether or not that would be a problem and was told that it's fine. Now, I've come out and found a PCN on my windscreen. Apparently, the lady at the reception tried coming out to stop the guy from giving me the PCN and was told that I wasn't allowed to park there since there were double yellow lines on the road. As far as I was aware, they only applied to the road, not the pavement since it offers no obstruction.

Parking on the pavement on that road is commonplace. In fact, you can see a sign specifically allowing it in Google street view. It's since then been removed but parking on the pavement is occurring all the way down the road. There was even a car parking behind me in the pictures the CEO took that wasn't ticketed.

Following advice from this forum, I submitted an informal appeal outlining my case which was denied in a completely nonsensical manner. The council essentially sent a prewritten response just to take up space on the page, it was irrelevant to my appeal.

Based on further advice, I looked around and found a way to send the letter for more information online. While I waited for a response, the Notice to Owner arrived. After I didn't receive a response, I sent the letter via mail. Bare in mind that the letter explicitly stated that this is not an appeal, simply a request for more information. 2 days later, I received a Notice of Rejected of Representation which completely ignored everything in the letter and simply regurgitated the same nonsense sent in response to the Informal Appeal.


I hope someone can advise me before the deadline. I really want to fight this but I'm also worried it will take too much time or be too difficult without understanding the laws at play.


Thanks in advance