PCN Issued for LGV unloading in loading bay: is the onus on me or council to prove...

[Discontented]

Greetings

I received a PCN for unloading my LGV in a loading bay. It was the normal of parking attendant viewed for 5 minutes, nothing happening, so issued the PCN. I wrote off to the Council highlighting the cases:

Sprake - v - Tester (1955) 53 LGR 194

Richards - v - McKnight [1977] RTR 289

Bulman - v - Godbold [1981] RTR 242

Boulton - v - Pilkington [1981] RTR 87

Whiteside - v - Watson 1952 SLT 367

McLeod - v - Wojkowska 1963 SLT (Notes) 51

Holder - v - Walker [1964] Crim LR 61

Chafen - v - Another Supplement to the Justice of the Peace and Local Government Review 21st March 1970

Pratt - v - Hayward [1969] 3 All ER 1094

Funnell - v - Johnson [1962] Crim LR 488

Police - v - Hadelka [1963] Crim LR 706

Decision of a Stipendiary Magistrate sitting at North London Magistrates Court, Journal of Criminal Law Vol XVI No 3, 193 (1952)

Decision of a Stipendiary Magistrate sitting at Clerkenwell Magistrates Court (102 SJ 358) (1958)

 

Which covers and confirms that I was not mis-using the terms of the loading bay.

 

The Council in question, responded by ignoring the above test cases and stating tha the onus is on me to prove that I was using the bay correctly.

 

As far as I'm aware, the onus is on the Council to prove that I contravened the terms of the loading bay. Am I correct in this assumption?.

 

Many thanks

[Michael Browne]

As far as the council are concerned they observed for 5 mins without seeing any loading/unloading activity

 

The easiest way to counter the council's is to provide documentation in the form of delivery note etc.

[Jamberson]

The onus is on the driver, not the council.

 

With the cases you mention, there is no principle of a legal precedent as there is in law. Each case is different. If you want to get the PCN cancelled, prove you were unloading. The cases you mention say nothing about what you were doing in those five minutes.