Who pays?

[The Natural Philosopher]

cos that how long it took him to check the rest of the street.

>

[Dave Plowman (News)]

That may have been the case here too as it was 10 minutes or so after the deadline my chap left and the warden had just put the ticket on his van. They'll do cars much sooner than that.

[<me9]

I was given 15 minutes in York to empty my son's flat. That was the time the warden took to go round the block. He was just reappearing as we finished.

[ARWadsworth]

Bugger. I got a ticket today in a residents parking area.

The rules are 1 hour max stay apart from permit holders and no return in 2 hours. I parked up, unloaded my tools and had a cup of tea with the customer whilst we discussed what work we would be doing and how it would be done. I then went and displayed the parking permit the customer had given me. Shortly after I got a ticket.

When I later had words with the warden she said when she first recorded my van there was no permit visible and so when she passed an hour later she ticketed my van. Her argument was I should have displayed the permit when I first parked up and not 45 minutes later. I do not agree with her.

Adam

[The Natural Philosopher]

VERY important point.

I got off a ticket once.

The ticket was for not having paid for a parking meter.

I had paid, so I sent them the ticket showing I had, and expected an end to it.

No, I got doubled up for the privilege, and the warden then complained teh ticket was upside down on the dash. (it wasn't: it was right side up on the dash) and the offence became failure to display..correctly (whatever that means) I complained that it wasn't beyond the bounds to read an upside down ticket. I got doubled up again. Think it was £180 by this time. I went to legal appeal where it was rejected BECAUSE THE ORIGINAL TICKET WAS FAILURE TO PAY, NOT FAILURE TO DISPLAY CORRECTLY. It is illegal to change the offence apparently, to suit the facts if they turn out to be different.

So..

check to see what's written on the ticket.

If it says failure to display, you may be buggered. If it says failure to have a residents permit, which you clearly had, you may yet get away with it.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Write a polite letter to the appropriate council department (should be on the ticket) explaining this 'old lady' took some time to find a pass. They'll usually cave in. But do it as soon as possible.

[ARWadsworth]

I see your sig is watching the messages again:-)

Dave

The fine is £60 reduced to £30 if I pay within 2 weeks.

I will be posting a cheque for £30 tommorrow along with a polite letter explaining the situation (and yes it was an old lady who owned the house). The worst case scenario is that I lose £30.

Adam

[John Rumm]

Normally any appeal will stop the clock running on the fine as well, while the appeal is going on.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Here they put any doubling of the fine for late payment on hold if you appeal. And give you a set time to pay after they've informed you you've lost that appeal. If you decide to take it further and inform them, it again goes on hold.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Computers have no intelligence. ;-)

Here, you don't need to pay immediately if you lodge an appeal. The doubling up also goes on hold until you hear from them. Paying the fine could be taken as an admission of guilt. ;-)

[ARWadsworth]

The council have responded to my letter. They have cancelled the ticket.

After checking the councils web site (which was clearer than the info on the ticket) it was clear that if you appealled to the council and lost you would still have the chance to pay at the reduced rate.

I do not get many parking tickets. That was the third one in 20 years and I was guilty on the first two.

Cheers

Adam