Hello Friends,
I am a Leeds city resident and I got three parking tickets in a span of two weeks.
There are multiple issues with these PCNs as I spotted some discrepancies in councils guidance on the time limits.
Few years back Leeds city council has introduced a mobile based parking solution by partnering with a company called parkmobile.
Being a daily commuter I really love the convenience of the app though it charges 25P convenience fee for each transaction.
The way the app works is as below:
Step 1: Drive to the intented parking space and open the app.
Step2: App presents the user a map with the exact location of your car by using mobile’s gps location.
The map also shows the parking machine Ids on the map corresponding to the street.
The same ID is also displayed on the parking machine with big, bright and bold letters so that any one can see it from far distance as well.
Step 3: User selects the parking machine ID and click on pay now button
Step 4: App asks user to re confirm the Vehicle registration
Step 5: Counter starts
The beauty of the app is that it also incorporates any timing restrictions that may have been imposed on that street parking machine (for eg : Maximum Parking Duration 2 hours), Price list for each of the hours (for eg 0-2 hrs – 2£).
My case:
Now coming to my case, I drive a fully electric car and Leeds City council incentivise all EV drivers with a free parking permit(to be displayed on windscreen) which enable EV drivers to park for free on any of the city’s street parking spaces.
As I am so used to the parking app since its launch I always use it to check the parking restrictions and payments etc.
On this occasion I parked on a street named as ‘Edward Street’ which has 2 hour maximum parking rule according to council and as per the front facia of the parking machine.
But to the contrary on parkmobile app it was tagged as full day parking.
Following the guidance from the parkmobile app I simply parked on the street
came back in the evening only to find a PCN attached to Windscreen.
Later in the week I started parking in a different street and it has also got similar issue and ended up getting another PCN.
. Finally I ended up in getting 3 PCNs
I was so desperate to speak to the Enforcement officer.
Luckily I got hold of one of the officers sooner than later and explained the situation.
Officer heard the whole story and agrees that there is a problem and council has to correct it. Officer also advised me to park in another street near by where the parkmobile info marry up with the front facia info.
Since then I stopped getting tickets.
Current situation:
Current situation is that I appealed all the PCNs and council politely rejected and sent a NTO letter on my wife’s name as my wife is Registered Keeper of the car.
Way forward:
I am thinking to take a video of the whole situation, parking app usage video and put similar explanation as above in my respresentation to council.
Questions I do have now:
1) The NTO letter is on my wife’s name, As me being the driver at the time PCN issuance can I do the representation?
2) How strong is my case and what are the chances of cancelling the PCN by council after my representation?
3) PCN states a contravention code as
“06 – Parked with out clearly Displaying a valid pay and display ticket or voucher”.
I think rather it should state
“07-Parked with payment made to extend the stay beyond initial time” as I am displaying the council permit on windscreen all the time.
Does this discrepancy invalidates the PCN?
4) Does council accepts the video as evidences in representation?
5) Any other suggestions please ?