Free Traffic Legal Advice
Live cases legal advice => Civil penalty charge notices (Councils, TFL and so on) => Topic started by: Nubley on December 11, 2023, 05:45:02 pm
-
It's in the small print at the bottom of the sign though and you wouldn't be able to read it unless you stopped your car and got out before going through the barrier; or walked back to the entrance after parking just in order to read the sign.
Which is exactly what you're required to do.
-
Oh dear. Not much chance with that one. She really did invent her own space, didn’t she?
For what it’s worth, barriers will let you back out within 5-10 minutes without paying, even in expensive private car parks like NCP or Q-Park. I’ve done it many times before.
As far as the law goes, councils need to put a terms and conditions board in a fairly obvious place, usually next to the entrance or payment machines. Looks like they’ve done that, and you’ve said it mentions parking correctly in a marked space.
Unless you can find a technicality, this is probably one to pay before it doubles. Forget about adjudicators - they only decide whether the contravention occurred or not. They can’t take any mitigating circumstances into account and can’t let you off. As far as they’re concerned, if you broke a rule, you broke a rule. End of story.
At the end of the day, if a car park is full you’re supposed to leave and go somewhere else. The barriers will let you back out if you leave within 5-10 minutes. They have to - in case you can’t find a space or don’t agree with the rates.
A council or an adjudicator won’t accept “parking correctly would have made me late” as a valid argument. Looks like she chanced it and got caught. I’ve done it before - it’s a risk you take. This time it didn’t work out.
-
My wife parked outside one of the marked bays at the Watergate Street council car park in Chester on a busy afternoon last weekend and received a £50 penalty charge notice (£25 if paid within 14 days).
All the bays were full so (probably naively) she parked in a spot where she judged that her car wouldn't create an obstruction (see light blue Honda in photos). There is a flat £5 parking fee and she assumed once she had entered the car park she wouldn't have been able to leave without paying.
Cheshire West and Chester Council have rejected her informal appeal and claim there must have been a space available because otherwise the counting technology would not have allowed her to enter the car park.
The authority does concede that if someone has parked across two bays, there might not be a visible space, but doesn't accept that as just grounds for appeal. In which case, what was my wife to do? Did they expect her to just sit there until another car departed? This would have made her late for an engagement, which hardly seems fair, particularly as she paid the £5 fee and did her best to park responsibly.
The council points out that there is a warning on the sign at the car park entrance to the effect that failure to park within the marked bays will result in a penalty charge. It's in the small print at the bottom of the sign though and you wouldn't be able to read it unless you stopped your car and got out before going through the barrier; or walked back to the entrance after parking just in order to read the sign.
We are therefore wondering whether we would stand a sufficient chance of having the charge overturned to make it worth our while proceeding to formal appeal and then quite possibly to independent adjudication, bearing in mind it might well cost us another £25.
Any advice would be much appreciated.
[attachment deleted by admin]