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I come back from the trails to find that some twunt of a civil enforcement officer has decided, at 16:37 to issue me with a Parking fine to the princely sum of £50. I had a valid ticket on top of the dash which I'd paid for.
So now it's going to be my word against a CEO what chance do I have?
What should be my next course of action?
I'd calm down, call the number on the fine and explain that you have a valid ticket and that the CEO must have made a mistake. Then offer to email them a scan of the ticket and expect cancellation forthwith.
Everyone makes mistakes. I had the same from a carpark in Windsor. Cancellation is straightforward if you have the ticket as evidence.
Don't pay it.
Was it on a public road.If not there non enforceable .
Send a picture of your ticket to whoever you pay the fine to.
Was your ticket properly displayed? If not you maybe stuffed.
Is your ticket dated? Is it valid for the time of the fine?
If so, send them copies and tell them to poke it.
Sod the ticket.You don't have to pay these parking fines in not on a public road.Massive loop hole.
It's a council run car park so the fine will apply. Is this what you're getting at robhughes - [url= http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/private-parking-tickets ]Parking fines on private land[/url]?
O well.Looks like you need to take action.The private ones aren't worth the paper there written one.Just trying to help bud..
Ticket was valid at the issue time of the fine. It has made me question though whether the ticket was the right way up on the dash. I wouldn't of put it on the dash upside-down.
Was it displayed clearly? They take a picture of the vehicle. The scan and forget won't work, I fought them but it's run by Vinci and they play hardball I really had to fight. And i believe that council carparks are protected by bylaw so the it's not enforceable claim won't help.
As above they may argue but stick to your guns and they will drop it.
Never send the original ticket even if they ask as it will conveniently get lost in the post.
I had a similar situation elsewhere, they kept insisting I should pay despite me repeatedly sending them copies of the ticket. Until they said they would take me to court and I replied I will see you there and I will bring my ticket.
Then they wrote to say they would let me off against there better judgment , and not to do it again .
I am sure it will all be fine. I got issued with a fine once because my ticket had dropped off the window onto the floor. Just a quick email and all was sorted.
send them dead wasps.
Write them a polite but firm letter including a scan/photocopy of the parking ticket saying it was clearly displayed on the dash. From a purely technical point I believe the ticket probably states it should be stuck to the windscreen but they won't hold you to that. FYI the CEO's have targets to meet in terms of the number of tickets issued so they can be quite trigger happy.
Me too on Saturday!
Planning on scanning the ticket and penalty charge notice and including that in a cheery email.
Something like 50% of challenged PCN's get overturned, be lucky 🙂
And calling these people CEO's is hilarious, I don't recall many Chief Executive Officers plodding round carparks in a fluorescent tabard.
I would drive your car straight through the front of their offices.
handyandy - Member
send them [s]dead[/s] a bike full of live wasps.
FTFY.
Don't know about CEOs, it's council parking enforcement officials, although maybe outsourced, they ultimately answer to bureaucrats in Bracknell council and elected councillors, if not the local MP also.
The parking enforcement there has been pretty aggressive, though they stated from day one the one and only aim for the parking charges there was to fund council budget shortcuts. From the figures I've heard about they've made far more than expected and a nice chunk of it specifically comes from fines which I'm sure they depend on. It could be too many people are paying up properly and leaving on time, so if fines are down they'll get more picky 😉
I'd be wary of ignoring it if it's anything to do with the council.
If it's from some Portakabin based knuckledragger firm just totally ignore it. Don't plead innocence, just ignore.
If it's the council, they usually have photographic evidence that your ticket wasn't displayed. The one in Brum did when I tried to get away with it. Ticket had honestly blown off the dash when I shut the door. I showed them a valid ticket, but they just kept pointing to [i]failure to display a valid ticket[/i].
What annoys me is that, if I hadn't bothered buying a ticket I'd be no worse off.
Face it, your just an honest law abiding citizen against a morally corrupt regime.
Those in positions of power won't change the system as they can just get tickets cancelled at will anyway.
Just email a scan, any issue then just ask for a copy of their photo.
Do the tickets they dispense have sticky backs? If not I think you can get them on a technicality over failure to display/blown off etc as its up to them to provide means of affixing it. You'd have to crawl of the parking forums like pepipoo though.
So I've emailed them explaining the situation and asking them to adjust their records accordingly. They will probably ask me for a copy of the ticket which I will then send them. The ticket doesn't have a sticky back and it looks like one of the heat sensitive paper types so will it fry if I scan it?
take a photo of it and email that.
will do..
Does a mistakenly given parking fine (that you haven't contested yet) really need this level of bitterness, resentment and crying?
Send a email and be nice. It'll all be sorted by Friday.
I had a fine overturned last year. Warden had issued me a penalty because he/she apparently couldn't properly see the ticket on my dash. I'd left a window down as dog was in the car so a breeze must have flipped the ticket over blah blah. Explained this over the phone and emailed copy. Penalty revoked.
Quick update. I received a reply today from the Bracknell forest council rejecting my appeal as the supplied photos show my ticket upside down on the dash. I'm a bit gutted really. I certainly haven't deliberately set out to deceive or anything. I followed the rules and paid for the service I was using. I expect to be given the benefit of doubt.
I would say that now is the time to send them dead wasps (where can I buy dead wasps online?)
It's irrelevant that it was upside down surely?
You paid the required fee, I'd be following this up again if I were you.
Simply tell them you will see them in court. Job jobbed. No one in their right mind would allow that to go to court
i would reply respectfully telling them to foxtrot oscar. upside down, righto. the amount of time the enforcement officer would have had to take to read it upside down is far less than it took them to produce the ticket. stick to your guns.
I'm guessing by upside down he means face down.
bugger off with your sensible replies. 😀
^^^^^^^ excellent go to the toppers of the class
* Oxford council will note on pcn if ticket is upside down & presumably let you off if you then produce a correctly paid ticket (number plate & time recorded on ticket) - I say presumably because numpty who issued me with one wrote down the wrong reg number 🙂
[i]Quick update. I received a reply today from the Bracknell forest council rejecting my appeal as the supplied photos show my ticket upside down on the dash.[/i]
Stuff like this seriously pi55es me off. You'd bought a ticket and they could both see it and read it - they were just been ****s.
At this point, I'd not converse with them any more - but don't park at Swinley again though..., in case they've some 'enforcement' measures.
On the flip side some people just don't get parking tickets.
One bloke near my shop has a lime green Subaru that he parks all day in the hour bay .
Then there's my best mate (not really) who uses a disabled badge ,though clearly able bodied and parks all day in the loading bay when the limit for disabled badges is 3 hours. Today he even had his front wheels outside the box and on the red route.
Bitter,you bet.
Ps cycling to work I really shouldn't give a shit but grrrrrrrr.
if they've refused to cancel it, then take it to Tribunal - quote NPAS case RF4
I also assume face down. Clarity needed here...?
@ br...enforcement measures? Their surely not gonna clamp just yet? I've haven't put my second appeal yet ( or sent them wasps )...
Sorry but yes I did mean face down. Not placed deliberately thus so must've flipped whilst changing or closing the door.
@ ninfan...what is this RF4 you speak of?
It is probably a condition of the ticket that it is displayed so that it can be read. I'd check up on that.
NPAS case RF4
In case number RF4 brought before NPAS, a pay and display ticket had been purchased from the machine but was displayed upside down so it could not be read. The motorist received a PCN and appealed. The adjudicator said that the council had not exercised discretion because their policy had no regard to particular circumstances of each case.An adjudicator cannot cancel a PCN on compassionate grounds or for compelling reasons but he can refer the matter back to the council if he believes that they did not discharge their duty to do so.
They'll likely tell you to poke off and probably refer you to the bit where it has to be displayed so it can be read.
I had this exact problem with north Tyneside council . My ticket blew on the dashboard and was upside down.
After a long wrangling period of letters and discussions of court they cancelled it.
They'll never turn up a court as they'll have other stuff to do.
It's galling but just keep at it. It made my blood boil at the time. Good lick sir.
I think you have much less of a case with a face down ticket. A pain, but I think they have a more valid case.
I hate stuff like this- who pays who here?
You had a valid ticket- end of.
Be strong comrade 😉
Seriously, are we all now duty bound to make sure that every time we slam the boot shut, the blast of air hasn't dislodged the ticket- if they cared that much they should provide sticky ones.
Just hang it out as long as possible- make sure their costs of working on the case far outweigh the fine.
[i]Sorry but yes I did mean face down. Not placed deliberately thus so must've flipped whilst changing or closing the door.[/i]
Ah, that's different then. You can't blame the Operator when they had no idea whether it was a valid ticket or not - if their rules don't allow discretion then pay up. It's your fault.
I think the guy was doing his job and doing it correctly, the ticket was upside down, ie not visible or displayed. To be honest you've shot yourself in the foot by sending them a picture like that. You'd have been better off just sending a photo of the ticket and saying it had fallen off the dash or the inspector "didnt see it". From the councils perspective this looks like someone trying it on, for example got a ticket from a mate who was riding at same time and claimed that was in his car.
[i]To be honest you've shot yourself in the foot by sending them a picture like that.[/i]
I read it that the Operator took the photo, as most do.
My wife and I had the exact same problem in Hebden Bridge the other day (Calderdale council?). Easily solved.
Valid ticket blown on to floor due to open window/not using the sticky bit . CEO wrote a fine for us. We found it. Wife sent a letter with a copy of valid ticket to the address for disputes that was on the fine. About a week later we got the reply saying all was well and no fine will be enforced.
Hope it works out for you OP
send them your middle finger in the post and tell them to swivel on it.
how about telling them that they didn't provide the proper means to apply it to your dashboard? like a sticky bit?
Does the council office have a chimney?
Agree though that they were right to issue ticket from the CEO's perspective. Same scenario as above for me. Ticket had fallen out of view. Sent nice email with photo of ticket. Cancelled without quibble - Leeds CC.
They are very tight down at Swinley. I got caught out too.
They depend on parking fines to boost income for the council. The whole parking fiasco is why I refuse to park there. If it was CE run and proceeds to the upkeep of the forest and trails then I'd be happy, but it's far from this and the enforcement is aggressive. If they just wanted to cover costs of providing parking they'd simply have a pay on exit.
I would ask to see the evidence of the ticket upside down. As others have said I would tell them you will argue this in court
Without wanting to be a smartypants, I do this all the time.Seriously, are we all now duty bound to make sure that every time we slam the boot shut, the blast of air hasn't dislodged the ticket
Local councils round the Swinley area just view drivers as another cash cow so this comes as no surprise. I live in Fleet and there is no free parking anywhere in the town now - there used to be 30 min free bays in each car park but they got removed recently. The result? I no longer 'pop to town' for those little items.
OP - fight it as much as you can, but Bracknell Forest Council are skint so will likely do all they can to squeeze it out of you. In future park at the Broadmoor carpark and ride up the Devils Highway, you can pick up the start of Seagull.
I have a mate who was fined for his ticket being upside down in oxford, not face down, simply oriented in a manner which the CEO took some sort of exception to.
Unfortunately he's an argumentative and irrational individual, so rather than follow some of the sensible advice already posted on this thread, he rang them up went Batshitcrazy at them and the fine was upheald...
Send a copy of your ticket, with a polite, calmly worded letter to the effect that you had purchased a valid ticket (evidence enclosed) and placed it on display. don't mention its orientation, or impugn the CEO's eyesight, it won't help your case...
In future park at the Broadmoor carpark and ride up the Devils Highway, you can pick up the start of Seagull.
A few clubmates have been ticketed in Broadmoor by a private firm, notices are clearly displayed in the car park. Being a private firm, you can tell them to get screwed as it's not a parking fine but an invoice - you know the usual on this, if not google it - but just be aware that you may well get ticketed and 'fined'.
I'm not being let off either despite my cheery "I'm a muppet for not seeing my ticket blow off the dash" email.
These days the offence is 'not correctly displaying the ticket' or words to that effect which covers my 'offence', and as losing £25 won't kill me I'll just pay it and get on with my life.
I have since invested in a bit of blutac for the dash, which has had the added benefit of increasing the value of my car substantially.
A few clubmates have been ticketed in Broadmoor by a private firm, notices are clearly displayed in the car park.
Not the carpark(s) at Broadmoor Hospital, [url= http://goo.gl/maps/0U5Zk ]this one[/url]. Avoid if your car is low though as there are lots of big potholes.