Free Traffic Legal Advice
Live cases legal advice => Civil penalty charge notices (Councils, TFL and so on) => Topic started by: Guru334 on January 30, 2026, 03:42:40 pm
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Welcome to FTLA.
For meaningful advice please to have a read of
https://www.ftla.uk/civil-penalty-charge-notices-(councils-tfl-and-so-on)/read-this-first-before-posting-your-case!-this-section-is-for-council-tfl-dartme/.
and post up here copies (not transcripts) of
both sides of the PCN,
your challenge,
their response and any other correspondence to/from council,
any council photos/video,
and
a GSV link to the location.
Only redact yr name & address from documents - leave all else in.
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I suspect from what you have written that the PCN may have been issued too early.
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Hello,
I’m currently in the middle of a PCN dispute with Manchester City Council and would appreciate some input.
The PCN relates to Museum Street, Manchester. It’s a very small street with around five pay-and-display bays, all served by a single payment machine. I parked there and paid for two hours using PayByPhone, using the location code taken from the side of the machine.
Before the expiry of the paid session, I returned to extend my parking, not knowing about a 2-hour restriction on parking there. The PayByPhone app failed to connect (unrelated to restriction), so I went to the payment machine to extend there instead. That machine was not working at all. As there are no other machines on the street, I left the vehicle to try to find another working machine nearby, or a parking warden to explain the situation. While I was doing this, a PCN was issued two minutes after expiry of my paid for time.
The council rejected my challenge (that the machine and app had failed) on the basis that the location has a maximum stay of two hours and that I should have moved the vehicle, I did not know about this restriction at the time as it is not clearly signposted anywhere, so the main issue I have is how this 2 hour restriction is conveyed.
The upright signs on the street do not state “maximum stay 2 hours” anywhere. They simply say to “pay at machine / display ticket”. There is no accompanying plate specifying a maximum stay. The council’s own evidence does not include any photographs of the payment machine. The only place the 2-hour restriction appears to be shown is, allegedly, on the front of the machine itself and, now (not at the time), within the app.
When paying via the app, you only need the side of the machine to obtain the location code. You do not need to go to the front of the machine at all, and this is where the only mention of a restriction of 2 hours is. At the time I parked, I did not see any indication of a maximum stay from the signage I relied on.
Adding to that, the PCN was issued under contravention code 05 (“parked after expiry of paid-for time”), not code 30 (“parked longer than permitted”). I submitted an FOI request and the council confirmed that since January 2024 they have issued 666 PCNs on this street under code 05 and zero under code 30. They also confirmed they hold no internal guidance on which contravention code applies at this location and no signage audits for the street.
I also tested the PayByPhone app afterwards. When it is working, it allows you to add another two-hour session with no warning that a maximum stay would be exceeded, which contradicts the council’s claim that the app prevents overstaying.
Separately, I complained about the machine being faulty. The council replied saying it is currently working and that no faults are recorded, but they did not confirm whether it was working at the time of the PCN, only its status when inspected later.
This feels like a location that is being enforced as pay-to-stay in practice, while the council relies on a maximum stay that is not clearly conveyed on the upright signage. Even the CEO appears to have treated it as an expired parking case rather than exceeding a permitted stay.
I’m now awaiting the next stage response and am considering taking it to tribunal. I’d be interested to hear views from anyone familiar with tribunal decisions on inadequate signage, missing accompanying plates, or incorrect contravention codes in similar circumstances.