Contesting a parking ticket?

[Posh Pete]

Anyone done it?

On the Friday of the Skye pairty I was packing the bike to go up North. I double parked the bike next to my own car while I was loading it with panniers etc. When I came down from the flat on the last trip ... ticket! Stuck to the tank no less!!!

Course I had a word with the attendant just up the road. No abuse. Just protesting. Got the usual jobsworth stuff.

Wrote off to the parking people to plead my case ...

Resident
Double parked so's not to take up a parking space.
Parked next to my own car.
Bike so minimal disruption to other traffic.

Just got the reply: B**ger off.

So now it's decision time. Pay the £30 blood money or go for broke and continue to contest it and probably have to cough up £60 to the fekking bloodsuckers.

Anyone gone all the way to contest a parking ticket up here?

 

[garfield]

I never realised a council traffic warden could do you for double parking .....I thought you needed a policeman for that

 

[Posh Pete]

Me too!

Yeah. That's what I thought!

 

[garfield]

Yeah. That's what I thought!

I did a search on the web to see what powers they have but couldn't find anything...is it worthwhile chasing that up? Maybe they stepped out of their powers and are bluffing it it wouldn't be the first time

 

[Wicker]

It's worth checking that all the relevant details on the ticket are properly completed and relate to your vehicle. Also worth checking that the parking restrictions signs where you were ticketed were in force at the time you were ticketed. If any of the abvoe were incorrectly appled, you have grounds to appeal.

Also try the following website: http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showforum=30

 

[H.R.H. Nashskye]

I got a ticket in Portree yesterday.. Couldn't possibly contest it though, as it was purely down to 'ach it'll be fine' itis...
Might be worth looking into contesting yours though

 

[garfield]

in my town, 40,000 people, we can only stretch to a part-time traffic warden....only one day a week....chaos on the other six....damn you got unlucky.....

 

[H.R.H. Nashskye]

Our traffic warden is German, so is very much on ze ball and keen on his hand gestures...

 

[garfield]

Our traffic warden is German, so is very much on ze ball and keen on his hand gestures...

I can just imagine the poppet running around the streets....all excited

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you vill not park here......

 

[H.R.H. Nashskye]

Scarily similar to traffic warden...

 

[garfield]

Scarily similar to traffic warden...

if traffic wardens were like him, I might actually like them a little bit.....

 

[Paul Wakefield]

I quite like the traffic warden in our local town. Been doing the job for years and has always had a "relaxed" attitude to bikes.

Mind you I did get done by him in the cage a few years ago when I outstayed my welcome but it was a fair cop.

 

[ovenpaa]

The local parking wardens in MiltonKeynes told me I can park a bike anywhere even in premium areas as bikes are exempt

Still did me in my car one day but it was my fault.

 

[MMC]

I quite like the traffic warden in our local town. Been doing the job for years and has always had a "relaxed" attitude to bikes.

Mind you I did get done by him in the cage a few years ago when I outstayed my welcome but it was a fair cop.

Indeed - West Oxon is VERY civilised at the moment. However, all is about to change (of course). On the basis that Oxfordshire County Council haven't made its subjects' lives unpleasant enough yet, they're about to 'decriminalise' parking in West Oxon.

That beautifully Orwellian phrase means "throw parking enforcement to the privatised wolves". Apparently, it'll only cost about £1.7m a year to run, all funded by fines. But apparently that doesn't mean there'll be a target for fines, oh no.

 

[garfield]

Indeed - West Oxon is VERY civilised at the moment. However, all is about to change (of course). On the basis that Oxfordshire County Council haven't made its subjects' lives unpleasant enough yet, they're about to 'decriminalise' parking in West Oxon.

That beautifully Orwellian phrase means "throw parking enforcement to the privatised wolves". Apparently, it'll only cost about £1.7m a year to run, all funded by fines. But apparently that doesn't mean there'll be a target for fines, oh no.

it'll be like a Facist Party convention for the first few weeks......

 

[Keyframe]

Get your tape measure and camera

Make sure the parking space and it's painted markings are absoutely in accordance with the dimensions laid out in department of Transport guidelines.

AFAIK If any of the parking space dimensions or painted lines are wrong then it isn't a parking space. They might be relying factually on one of the vehicles being "legally" parked.

Do not rely on this post, I have no legal background or training whatsoever.

ooh, two posts in a day, need a lie down...

 

[MMC]

The first few weeks? I suspect not.

Oxford went de-crim about five years ago and the parking nazis are still slavering over their daily fine-fest. If you park on Broad Street (where a lot of tourists who don't know the incredibly arcane rules park), there's a little tin Hitler there all day every day, applying tickets with a thoroughly unpleasant precision.

Mind you, OCC now graciously allow you to park free on Sundays and in the evening, but you can't just park and walk away. Oh no. You need to go to the machine and get a free ticket. If not, that's another £40 for OCC and Control Plus. Funny how the signs explaining that aren't very clear, and are just a bit hidden amongst the forest of Oxford's other parking arcana.

 

[shuck raider]

Slightly off-topic, but there's a clampdown on road-tax evaders in Belfast at the moment and they've brought in these guys to help. Personally, I wouldn't f*ck with them, just smile nervously and stump up

 

[garfield]

Slightly off-topic, but there's a clampdown on road-tax evaders in Belfast at the moment and they've brought in these guys to help. Personally, I wouldn't f*ck with them, just smile nervously and stump up

yep' there's only two things in the world I wouldn't feck with.....the Ghurkas and my Mum.......

 

[L]

contest it!

Not sure about the rest of the world, but in London, I always contested parking tickets - bike or car. Apparently over 80% of contestations are successful.

For example, I parked the bike "illegally" in a parking bay and contested the ticket. At the hearing (no representative from the council of course) the statement said the parking attendant checked all the windows for a ticket blah de blah". The adjudicator then threw out the case on the grounds that because part of the evidence was incorrect (no windows on a bike) all the evidence was in doubt. On another occasion, the council failed to send me the paperwork sufficiently before the hearing, so the adjudicator threw it out again. In fact, I contested these tickets on grounds I thought were right, but in fact, the adjudicator wouldn't have agreed with me... however, the ineptitude of the council for the hearing meant that the tickets couldn't be enforced and I've always walked out the winner. All it cost was a couple of letters and a morning out of the office at the adjudicators. And if you fail the appeal, you just have to pay the full ticket price (i.e. you can't take advantage of the "pay 50% within 14 days".