Free Traffic Legal Advice

FFS, the sign says that payment by phone is an option and also:

'The following will incur a penalty charge'

Parking without prominently displaying a valid ticket or purchasing a virtual permit.'

IMO, the only valid contravention grounds in your case must be 'Parked without payment of the parking charge'.

Everything you've posted to date is irrelevant as regards the cited contravention therefore if you pursue this line you must lose. You did NOT display anything irrespective of wherever you were parked therefore the contravention is proved.

But the grounds are c**p, so IMO change your approach.

thanks for your reply.

Are you saying that the contravention stated on the PCN is incorrect, because it doesn't consider virtual permits, which the T&C's board does?

If so, how would you word that part of the response? And would you then state the wider situation (that I paid using the 'wrong' code) as a secondary argument?

So a quick update - I've now received the 'Notice To Owner' letter, as expected:

https://imgur.com/a/h6f28LS

I need to either pay or make a representation to the enforcement authority by 19/02/25. Any suggestions on a suitable response appreciated !

Many thanks.

So my reading of what happened is that you did not view any car park conditions boards at all, but relied on the Mi Permit app on your phone to present to you on your mobile screen where the parking locations are and their location numbers. It uses satnav to do this and works in a similar way to Ringo on my own phone.

Thanks for your reply. To answer your first point - Yes, I relied on the app (stupidly) and selected the one that was where I was parked. Because its only one digit different to the code on the sign, I didn't notice. The image below is what Mi Permit presents (with my annotations in red):

https://imgur.com/a/6uuQ4Gf

In using the app, I should have selected the carpark location some 50m away from where I was parked, not the one that was directly where I was parked.

So your app should have told you that the location you used was for coaches only; did it ?

The image below is what it shows when you select the carpark I was in, whilst parked in a legitimate car parking space:

https://imgur.com/a/P0OO1e1

It has (coaches) in brackets at the end, which I didn't notice, however I was in the coach park area of a car park so might not have seemed entirely odd.

My view is that you have a reasonably good case, because the app is confusing by showing a number by where you parked, whereas it should really display two numbers there, one for cars parked in car spaces, and one for coaches

So despite their usual Fob-Off letter, I would take this all the way to adjudication and risk the full PCN penalty, but it's your decision.

I agree - as it stands, the tag I should have selected was quite some distance from where I was parked, which I don't believe is very intuitive.

Thanks for your advice.

OK, lots of useful info, but you haven't shown us the sign with the location number for coaches parking that you mistakenly used. If this sign refers to coaches parking you will struggle, but if it doesn't you are in with a chance. We also need to know exactly where you parked in photographic terms and the nearest sign to that.

Also be aware that councils reject virtually all informal challenges, because they know that most people then just cough-up to get the discount. People are far too accepting that councils know what they are doing, the plain fact is most of them haven't a clue, based on experience of this forum !

Thanks for your reply. I don't know where it is, I'll need to go back and look. The only reason I used the wrong code wasn't because of the signage in the carpark, but because the Mi Permit app places the the coaches option over the car park I parked in, and the cars option over the multi-story carpark approx. 50m away - See below:

https://imgur.com/a/6uuQ4Gf

Natural instinct was to select the option closest to where I was parked (in fact, right on top of where I was parked!). Is there any argument around this, or am I best to just pay and get done with it ?

Original post now modified with all the documents attached as links. Thank you.

Good evening - I received a PCN whilst my car was parked in a council run car park on 17/12/24 and would appreciate some advice on how to proceed.

I parked on 17/12/24, and used Mi Permit to pay, leaving well before my expiry time.

Here's the issue:

The carpark consists of a multistory area, and outside that, stretching to approx 50m, a parking area with spaces for both cars and coaches. I parked in the outside area, in a car space. There is a sign giving the Mi Permit car park code (700108). See 3 images - car park entrance, layout and signage on the link below:

https://imgur.com/a/O5bvNpT

Street View:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/vtEW79Kszv6w1fvP6

Within the Mi Permit App, there is in fact 2 tags, 1 for cars and one for coaches. the 'Cars Tag' (700108) is geographically situated on the multistory area, and the 'Coaches Tag' (710108) is geographically placed some 50m away in the outside parking area.

https://imgur.com/a/6uuQ4Gf

Not realising the above, I selected the tag which was in the position I was parked (710108) and being only 1 digit different to the sign, I didn't notice.

So in summary, I paid for a coach, not a car.

The cost was £2.40 for up to 4 hours (I stayed for about 1hr 40mins).

https://imgur.com/a/YffTzVF

If I had selected the other tag, some 50m away from where I was parked, which is for cars, I would have paid £1.70 for up to 2 hours.

I recieved the following PCN:

https://imgur.com/a/8jJD1Oa

I have appealed using the online process, explaining all of the above in detail but and my appeal has been rejected as follows:

https://imgur.com/a/mB7pzMF

The rejection response also had a photo of the Pay and display machine and signage, which I think is in the multi-story section of the car park, and does seem to have some T&Cs on it. I never went into the multi-story, so never saw this, and the outside signage doesn't have any T&Cs printed.

The Mi-Permit receipt did state "Sadlers Mead Car Park (Coaches)" which whilst I didn't notice at the time, doesn't seem entirely strange considering I was in a car parking space within a coach parking area. Ambiguous perhaps.

I think that the way the app is setup is ambiguous and having 2 codes so similar has lead to a genuine mistake that actually resulted in me paying a higher charge than I could have done, but to not recognize this seems somewhat unfair.

Any advice on how to proceed would be appreciated! thank you.