Free Traffic Legal Advice

Thank you, will do.

Thanks for your answers. Apologies but I did not send the letter above. I opted for another forum advice of first contacting Bewl Water themselves and asked them to cancel this as it was predatory. They said they would look into it and never got back to me then I received this letter yesterday.

On the next letter I receive from DCBL, I will post the letter above to them. Or do you think I should just post it now before they contact again?

Thank you for your help.

The Bewl Water FAQ itself says parking is charged from 08:00:

https://www.bewlwater.co.uk/faq/

Registered keeper has now received a £100 PCN from First Parking LLP for Bewl Water.

The notice says the car entered at 06:46 and left at 09:17 (151 minutes). The allegation is that payment wasn’t made for the full duration.

The alleged driver has a Ringo receipt showing payment from 08:03–09:03. The car left at 09:17.

So it looks like 3 minutes late to start and 14 minutes over at the end. But surely there should be a grace period either side?

It’s highly confusing – the website itself shows 08:00, which is exactly why payment wasn’t made before then. Registered keeper has no idea what this clear signage is outside Bewl Water about private land that letter aludes to. Keeper is only aware that there is on grounds parking which begins at 08:00 which was largely respected.

To make things worse, the letter is dated 17/09/2025, but it was only found on the doormat this morning (27/09/2025). It says the £100 full charge must be paid by 01/10/2025 at 11:42am, which doesn’t leave much time to deal with it properly.

How does this add up to a £100 bill? It makes no sense at all.

https://ibb.co/NgxGH8K8

Thanks both. Just to check my understanding so far:

- I don’t need to take any immediate action and can ignore the 19th April deadline in the Letter of Claim, unless I receive a County Court claim form (N1SDT) from the CCBC.
- If that happens, I’ll redact my name, address, claim number and MCOL password before posting it here, but leave the dates and PoC fully visible.

I haven’t yet sent the robust response to BW Legal as outlined in the MSE Newbies thread (disputing the debt, requesting a 30-day hold, asking the two questions about VAT and damages vs contract). I’ve also not submitted a complaint to the landowner.

Should I be doing both of those now, and in what order? Just want to make sure I’m following the right steps.

FURTHER UPDATE

I believe I was manipulated into paying CDER group. The enforcement agent told me that between the time TEC respond about my appeal and now, my car is still on an active search and will be towed if found. He suggested it was better to pay the fine of the latest CDER fine of £424 and then when TEC approve my case I can get a refund through Council.

In speaking to Council they do not take any liability now that I have paid.

They said they did not know what CDER group was talking about regarding this and this is not how it works.

I am now £424 out of pocket and trying to contact TEC on phone to see if CDER group can issue refunds or I can appeal it. Unlikely.

FYI, I have heard back from the council with below. They want me to fill out a TE9 form and a witness statement to explain the situation and submit it to tribunal. Once tribunal receive they will pause Bailiffs and Bailiffs will notify council too, until a decision is made.

I will have to just play the sorry card and explain the address issue. If there are any comments about how I should write this letter please do send them asap as I have a deadline of tomorrow morning 6am to pay bailiff.

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Traffic Management Act 2004
Thank you for contacting us.
Your case is out of our hands: the Debt Recovery Agent now have a warrant to recover the money from you.
We sent you a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) because our camera evidence shows your vehicle in Mount
Pleasant Road bus lane/gate at a time when only buses are allowed there. All this evidence is available to view
online.

If you wish to pay or contact someone, contact the Debt Recovery Agent. They are: Mid Kent Enforcement
Services (MKES) enquiries@midkentenforcement.co.uk or call 01622 602599.
You have stated you didn’t receive the original letters and weren’t aware that these had been issued but have
now been contacted by our enforcement agents. I can confirm DVLA provided us your address which all the
required statutory documents were sent too.

Without payment or an appeal, the case has progressed to the debt recovery stage. Our debt recovery agents
appear to have traced and contacted you. They apply additional charges to the original penalty.
The only advice we can give is to visit the Traffic Enforcement Centre (TEC) website (detailed below) and
complete a Witness Statement (Form TE9).

https://www.gov.uk/appeal-against-a-penalty-charge-notice/court-order
The section you need to go to is: “How to challenge”, and select: “a moving traffic contravention outside of
London if your fine was issued on or after 1 June 2022 - use form TE9”. Please show evidence that you have
contact TEC to the enforcement agent.

Once TEC receives the TE9, they will ask us to put the case on hold and issue a Revoking Order (RO). When
we receive the RO, we will re-issue the NtO to the contact details you provided in the TE9. At that point, the
PCN will revert to the appeals stage and charge level (£70), and you can either pay the PCN or submit a
formal challenge.

Hi All

Thanks for your responses. This is my first time in the forum, it is great to see such a constructive community here.

The address on the V5C was actually an even older London address I had which I lived in early 2023. I forgot to change my V5C when moving address (which I have now done). I appreciate this is not ideal and just makes the situation more confusing. Basically between my last official London address and my current residence, I was waiting for houses to complete and so was moving around between in laws and my parents house with my wife so the address situation is a bit all over the place.

The reason I potentially have had the letter sent to my mother in laws address is that I had another PCN in the same area (Tunbridge Wells), so possibly the council had the address details for the reg plate from a previous submission I did where I may have been staying with my mother and thus used her address. Otherwise, there is no way they would know that address as my V5C does not have it. Although I have received a CDER letter, I do not have ANY correspondence from the council itself abot the initial contravention asking for payment. I have no idea where these letters are or where they are sent. When they didn't hear anything from me on the current PCN, they likely forwarded it to CDER with the same address I used on a previous submission (just a hypothesis).

I know it was advised not to do this, but I did contact the council. If it has made the situation worse then so be it, I will just clear the current charge. I have told the council that letters have not been received and as such, I am happy to clear the original charge with the council on the misunderstanding explained.

CDER have given me a deadline of 6am on the 6th November to respond to them. The email below to council was sent yesterday, and obviously they were closed so I would look to have a call with them tomorrow morning.

Letter below:

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Dear Tunbridge Wells Borough Council,

I am writing to request your assistance regarding a Penalty Charge Notice issued for a bus lane contravention on 6th May 2023, associated with my vehicle registration number *****.

At the time of the incident, I was temporarily residing with my mother-in-law at ****, Tunbridge Wells. I have since relocated to a new residence in Mayfield at the beginning of 2024 and have not returned to my mother-in-law’s house. Consequently, I was not aware of any correspondence regarding this fine, as I did not receive any notices sent to the *** address.

Recently, my wife found a letter from CDER Group, dated 24th October 2024, indicating a total outstanding amount of £189. This amount includes what I understand to be the original fine of £114 as well as an additional £75 enforcement fee. However, I am unclear if £114 is the initial amount or if it has been adjusted over time due to missed deadlines from prior correspondence.

I would like to confirm the original amount of the penalty at the time of the contravention on 6th May 2023. Given that I missed the initial notices due to the change of address, I am kindly requesting if I could be permitted to pay this original contravention amount only, without the added enforcement fee. Had I been aware of the initial correspondence from the council, I would have paid promptly to avoid any escalation.

Please let me know if there are further steps I need to take to resolve this situation and settle this matter as soon as possible.

Thank you for your understanding and consideration.