@george74 well there are several issues here but in a case like this, I think it's important to remember regulation 7(8) of The Civil Enforcement of Road Traffic Contraventions (Representations and Appeals) (England) Regulations 2022 (https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2022/576/regulation/7):
(8) If an adjudicator—
(a) does not allow an appeal, but
(b) is satisfied that there are compelling reasons why, in the particular circumstances of the case, the enforcement notice should be cancelled,
the adjudicator may recommend to the enforcement authority that it cancel the enforcement notice.
Even if the adjudicator cannot find any legal ground to allow the appeal, I still think virtually all adjudicators would make a recommendation that the penalty be cancelled. In one third of cases the council refuses the recommendation, in one third of cases it accepts it, and in the other third it does not respond, and if there is no response after 35 days then they are deemed to have accepted the adjudicator's recommendation.
Therefore at worst you have a 66% chance of getting the penalty cancelled, and we might also find some statutory ground that the adjudicator accepts, including in particular failure to consider which some adjudicators still accept notwithstanding the Halton judgment, which strictly speaking does not apply to parking cases.
On that ground, my personal recommendation would be to carry on.
@george74 here you go:
Dear London Borough of Barking and Dagenham,
I ask that this penalty charge notice be cancelled for the following reasons.
The parking permit expired two weeks prior to the PCN being issued, my permit expired 2 weeks before this PCN. The permit is held under my wife's account, having checked I can now she that she did receive a renewal reminder but did not act upon it.
I should explain that sadly my wife is suffering from brain cancer, she is currently undergoing whole brain radiotherapy which causes many side effects including memory loss, I believe this has contributed to the permit renewal not being actioned.
In your previous letter you requested supporting evidence, I therefore attach her diagnosis letters, treatment letters and appointment letters. I have asked the nurse if we could be provided with a letter confirming that the side-effects of the treatment include memory loss but apparently only the oncologist can provide this, we have an appointment to see the oncologist in a couple of weeks and will ask for such a letter at the time and we will promptly forward it to you.
We would ask that you keep the case on hold until we have obtained the letter from the oncologist.
Yours faithfully,
Send this online and make sure to keep a screenshot of the confirmation page. If the text doesn't fit, put the text of the representation in a PDF file (do not cut bits of the text out).
If there's a limit on the number of attachments, use https://www.ilovepdf.com/merge_pdf to stitch all the supporting letters together into a single file.