Free Traffic Legal Advice

Hello,

I have unfortunately managed to attract two parking fines in the space of a few weeks. I will likely post about the other one as well, but I'm more confident of winning a court case in that one so this one needs to be priority.

Firstly: I messed up. In both cases I tried to appeal before discovering this site and identified myself as the driver. Yeah. I know. What can I say, some things you learn the very hard way. I will use third person as suggested in the rules, though it may be redundant.

What happened
On 11th February at 12.15, the driver arrived at the Windsor Street Surface Car Park in Stratford Upon Avon. The car park in question is small with some tight turning circles when full. There are also a number of bays that are reserved for the use of local businesses. At the time of parking, the car park was very near full. The driver spent a bit of time navigating to a space as a result, and was extra careful to check that they were in an appropriate bay and not a reserved one.

A payment option at this car park is RingGo which the driver used. They initially had some trouble getting on to the app, and, when on, they exited the app by accident while trying to ensure they had the right car park listed. This is due to there being several car parks in the area including one of a very similar name (Windsor Street Shoppers Car Park as opposed to Windsor Street Surface Car Park). Having satisfied that they had now found and paid for the correct car park, they exited the car. The time the payment went through, according to the receipt, was at 12.24, 9 minutes after being shown on the ANPR camera at the entrance.

The initial payment made was for 2 hours. Having received a notification from RingGo that the parking was due to expire in 10 minutes at 14.16, the driver then used the app to extend the booking by an hour. At 15.16, the driver then received a second text stating the parking was due to expire in 10 minutes at 15.16. The driver headed back to the vehicle and the ANPR camera shows the car leaving at 15.26.Shortly after, a Notice To Keeper was received stating an overstay of 11 minutes.

Appeal grounds
I, the Vehicle's Keeper, appealed the fine almost immediately on the grounds that a good faith attempt to pay correctly for the time used. This was evident in the fact that the driver paid and then followed the text instructions from the parking service. The overstay was prior to payment rather than a late return to the vehicle and was a reflection of actual time parked and not entry and exit time into the car park.The appeal was rejected on the grounds that if additional time was needed it could be paid for. This rejection completely ignored the circumstances presented as the delay was in paying, not in returning to the car.

Advice needed
I don't see the point in taking this to the IAS, as I feel strongly that they'll take the stance that fine should be upheld as an overstay occurred.If I'm going to pay the fine, I would like to do so before it increases soon. BUT. Ideally, I would like to not pay the fine as I feel this is unfair in an instance where a good faith attempt to pay correctly for the parking was made. What I am unsure of is a) what the likelihood is of this going to court and b) the likelihood of a judge finding in their favour.

Supporting Evidence

I have collated all supporting evidence, with redacted sensitive details, into a Google Drive folder found here: folder includes:

Correspondence between myself and the company
Proof of purchase of parking
Google maps screenshots showing the tight parking space and highlighting reserved bays in yellow[/li][/list]

Many thanks in advance for your time. Please let me know if I can provide any further supporting information.[/li][/list]

Remember that they’re not “fines”, they are invoices for payment under contract law because of the contract the driver entered into by reading signs, agreeing to their terms and parking.

Thanks, I do keep forgetting this!

Any thoughts on pay vs ignore?

Remember that they’re not “fines”, they are invoices for payment under contract law because of the contract the driver entered into by reading signs, agreeing to their terms and parking.

Thanks. And yeah. I'd like to think that if I just genuinely forgot and that caused me to overrun, or if I'd thought "no one will notice if I take an extra 5 mins" then I'd take it on the chin as my error. But this was a genuine attempt to pay correctly and it leaves a pretty sour taste in my mouth to receive a PCN for it.

Of course, if everyone here is of the stance that regardless of best intent, I messed up and it is what it is, then I'll just have to deal with it.

Will look into back of the PCN tomorrow.

Strictly speaking you breached the Ts & Cs but in this case you clearly tried to comply and got it wrong by 60 seconds in a 3 hour paid parking period. I'm not always sympathetic to some of the blatant attempts to wriggle out of paying a properly issued PCN, in this case though I'd say don't pay em a penny, make them work for it.