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Civil penalty charge notices (Councils, TFL and so on) / PCN for parking outside of marked bay in Chester
« on: December 11, 2023, 05:45:02 pm »
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.
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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.
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