PCN in free council bay (4hours - no return in 4 hours)

[anarchon]

Hi,

 

Grateful for some advice. I've received a council PCN in relation to parking in a free 4 hours on street parking bay. According to the PCN, I was 'observed' parking in the bay at 8:41 and they slapped the ticket on at 12:53 just after I arrived back at the car to move it (= overstay of 4 hours and 12 minutes - 2 minutes just outside the mandatory 10 minutes grace period). On the council website they 'present' photo evidence of parking in in the bay, however all photos are timestamped with a time of 12:55. They have no evidence of the start time except on the PCN where it says 'observed at 8:41'. I remember parking at around 8:40 - 8:45 that day and I distinctly remember there were no parking wardens anywhere in sight. How would all this stack up at appeal (or even in a court of law)?

[GrumpyToSayTheLeast]

I knew this was going to happen. You were not 2 mons over. You were twelve mins over. Free parking isn't for 4hours and 10 mins. Its for 4 hours.

[green_and_mean]

The start time is generated by the computer when the vehicle is first seen so unless the CEO travelled back in time he must have seen you there at 8.41

[Conniff]

I knew this was going to happen. You were not 2 mons over. You were twelve mins over. Free parking isn't for 4hours and 10 mins. Its for 4 hours.

 

 

Yep! the same would happen if the grace period was 15 minutes or 20 minutes, there would be claims of 'I was only 2 mins past the time'.

[Jamberson]

You're clocked on a hand-held computer when the CEO first sees the car. That's on record permanently and can't be tampered with. That's the evidence they have, and it's all they need. By your own account, you parked up just around that very time - clearly the CEO clocked the vehicle just after it arrived. If you'd really only been there half an hour, and he'd made up the first observation time to be four hours earlier, you'd have reason to suspect foul play, but I can't see you can argue this one.

[anarchon]

FAO Jamberson and green_and_mean: Thank you. That is the info I asked for and you have answered in a helpful way - direct and to the point.

[anarchon]

I knew this was going to happen. You were not 2 mons over. You were twelve mins over. Free parking isn't for 4hours and 10 mins. Its for 4 hours.

 

There is always one. At the risk of feeding the troll . . .

 

Firstly, I don't care much for your attitude. You can also get off your high horse. We all make mistakes. I never claimed I was entitled to 4 hours and 10 minutes. I thought I had been in the 'grace' period when I came back to move the car. Clearly I wasn't. I posted this to ask a question on how wardens 'prove' that a motorist has parked up at a certain time as they haven't supplied photos. I now have the answer from other helpful members - i.e they log it on their hand held machine. That's all I wanted to know. You've added nothing of value to this thread. I don't trust council parking wardens. We all know some use underhand tactics to catch out motorists and we all know that some if not most councils see PCN fines as a nice little earner (with allegations that parking wardens have secret targets).

[green_and_mean]

I knew this was going to happen. You were not 2 mons over. You were twelve mins over. Free parking isn't for 4hours and 10 mins. Its for 4 hours.

 

 

Just goes to show really how the new rules where not really thought out and just a stupid waste of Parliament time just to win a few votes. All it has really done is slightly reduced the cost of parking as you now get 10 mins free but I know of at least a couple of Councils who are already increasing tariffs to allow for the loss of income. The OP has done as many will do and just added the free grace period onto the parking time and got caught out exactly as he would have it it didn't exist!

[SabreSheep]

There is always one. At the risk of feeding the troll . . .

 

Firstly, I don't care much for your attitude. You can also get off your high horse. We all make mistakes. I never claimed I was entitled to 4 hours and 10 minutes. I thought I had been in the 'grace' period when I came back to move the car. Clearly I wasn't. I posted this to ask a question on how wardens 'prove' that a motorist has parked up at a certain time as they haven't supplied photos. I now have the answer from other helpful members - i.e they log it on their hand held machine. That's all I wanted to know. You've added nothing of value to this thread. I don't trust council parking wardens. We all know some use underhand tactics to catch out motorists and we all know that some if not most councils see PCN fines as a nice little earner (with allegations that parking wardens have secret targets).

 

 

No need to take the posters comment personally. It was an observation nothing more. The "I knew his was going to happen" doesn't apply to you, it applies to previous discussions when they introduced the grace period.

This is the problem with non visual communication, tone can be mis-interpreted.