2 fines in 2 days

[extrobe]

Wonder if anyone has any advice for me on this one please (I'll accept suck it up and pay as an answer!)

 

I've received 2 PCN's - one of Friday 17th, and a second on Monday 20th

 

Background:

I have a commuters permit, which allows discounted parking, and earlier parking for commuters using the train station. The permit is free, but I then buy parking against that permit, which I do in 1 month batches via RingGo. (See attached image)

 

The permit is 'electronic' and just says I can park in 'Long Stay'. I was unsure where this was, but for reasons that are probably not relevant, I thought I could park in a certain place in the cheap bays. I've been using this same location for about 10 weeks

 

Ticket 1

So, on Friday I get a ticket stating I do not have a relevant permit (not that I haven't paid parking, just the permit I had does not allow me to park at that time in the day).

I dropped them an appeal email showing I had a permit and had paid for parking, which has been rejected on the basis my permit was not valid there.

 

Ticket 2

Over the weekend, I tried to find out where I should be parking. I stumbled across this parking map (it's dated May 2015 when lots of changes to zones and fares occurred - not been able to find an earlier one)

https://www.milton-keynes.gov.uk/assets/attach/16110/CMK%20Parking%20Map%20May%202015%203c.pdf

(note the 21 different types of zone!)

 

Because I knew I could park in 'Long Stay', I parked in the blue & black stripped zone to the left of that map, parked 'Long stay fixed tariff'.

(Note, I had previously been parking in the purple zone to the immediate right of this stripped zone)

However, I came back to another ticket. I've not yet appealed formally, but had a heated 'chat' with the phone line who basically stated that I could only park in a blue zone, and the fact I knew I had a commuter permit meant i must have known I could only park in a zone marked 'CO'. Turns out these are the plain blue areas to the north & south of where i parked. That was the first I knew of the link between CO and commuter permits - it is down there on the bottom right, but had never seen this map before I spent 30 mins searching for it, and still didn't see it when looking for where I could I park- and it certainly wasn't mentioned on the permit or the process for applying for it.

 

The 1st ticket sounds like it's probably a write-off, but do I have any leg to stand on on the second one, given the only info made available to me was that I could park in the 'long stay' parking, and based on the map, that's where I parked.

 

As an aside - I'm sure when I took out the permit it mentioned it being an E2 permit, and I drove around one weekend looking for e2 zones - and that's how i ended up in those purple bays. I can find no reference to e2 now though - but there was a big shake-up of parking zones in May, so could have changed - but equally I could have it wrong.

 

 

Thanks for your time as always

 

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ps - sorry, just occurred to me the title isn't very helpful - I meant to change it before submitting my post - sorry

[Jamberson]

Who issued the PCNs?

[extrobe]

They were issued by Milton Keynes Council

[Jamberson]

In that case, I have to agree about the first one. It's unlikely they will cancel it on a second appeal, and of course you will forfeit the discount if you fight it. I'd recommend paying it.

 

As for the second, definitely appeal. I think a letter along the lines you described - how you got a PCN on the Friday, then did your research to find out where you were allowed to park. Show them a copy of the map etc and explain what happened. You have a reasonable chance on that one. Put your appeal letter up here before you send it, if you like, and someone will give you any tips if it needs tweaking.

[extrobe]

Awesome, thanks Jamberson - I'll get on it in the next day or two.

 

Do I still go through the standard '1st base' appeal first? (In all honesty, I don't think they even read the email when appealing, just reply with a pdf with the photos attached)

[Jamberson]

Yes, you have to do that. I presume you are still pre-Notice to Owner, so just write a letter with the PCN number, your name and address and a polite explanation/plea for mercy.

[extrobe]

Ok, so on my 'plea' email (they're fine with email, and will reply formally by PDF email - is there a strong reason, at this point, why I should write instead?) simple states...

 

{PCN ID in subject}

 

Good morning,

 

With reference to the PCN issued on the 20th July 2015

 

I WISH TO CHALLENGE THIS CHARGE

 

Following a separate PCN received on the 17th July 2015, I checked my Commuter Permit, which states it's valid in the zone 'Long Stay'.

 

I cross referenced this against the the file 'CMK Parking Map May 2015 3c.pdf' from the official MK Council website which lists the Grafton Gate car park as being 'Long Stay Fixed Tariff'

 

As this description matched that on my commuter permit, I had reason to believe it was a permitted place to park my vehicle.

 

Regards

 

me

[Jamberson]

There's no requirement to write a letter, if they accept emails. However I would include your postal address anyway, just to prevent any possible issues (it used to be the case that they wouldn't consider appeals without one).

 

Your email is OK. All I would say is that it is very succinct. It might be better to explain in a bit more detail - for example your last sentence, you could say,

 

"I checked what my permit said, and it has 'Long Stay' printed on it, so I reasoned that I could park my car in the places described as Long Stay on your map. It seems confusing to me that these areas are designated 'Long Stay' but a permit bearing that description is apparently not suitable for use there. I do now realise the issue (the restriction on 'fixed tariffs'), but this was a genuine misunderstanding on my part and not an attempt to defraud the system."

 

- you get my drift? It's sometimes better to spoon feed them, as thinking isn't necessarily their strongest point!

[extrobe]

Thanks Jamberson - I've added a bit more detail, and toned it down a little - I'll see what they come back with!

 

Thanks again

[extrobe]

SUCCESS!

 

Ticket number 2 cancelled on the first email!

 

They stated that whilst the ticket was correctly given, they acknowledged a mistake was made and cancelled the ticket

 

Thank you Jamberson for giving me the confidence to challenge it, and guiding me on the best approach - and thanks of course to the wider CAG team, an incredible bunch.

[Jamberson]

Excellent - well done. Wasn't expecting a result quite that quickly!