Hi all,

First time poster here, so please bear with me if I am repeating anything - I have had a good look through the forums and haven't been able to find anything similar to my situation. I have registered with MCOL and informed them online that I intend to contest the whole notice. I need to get my defence in before Christmas, so by the end of next week ideally, and am looking for some help or possibly even a template on how I should word my defence.

They are now claiming £303.45 for the two tickets, which were each £60 to begin with (£30 if paid within 2 weeks)

I have attached a photo of my claim form, apologies for the DIY block job - the bit of paper over the particulars of claim is just blocking out my car registration number.

I have been issued a county court notice by District Enforcement for 2 parking 'tickets' they issued a few months apart on my car whilst parked outside my work place on the Purfleet Industrial Park in Ockendon, Essex. The first one I never got a ticket, only a notice to keeper several months later.

My defence as I see it is based around signage, although there may be other angles of attack too. - the signage on the whole site is very sparse,inconsistent, dirty, broken, facing the wrong way and generally very poorly maintained. The section where the car was parked, there was only one sign on a stretch of road of approx 50 metres, which was completely blocked by a large HGV Vehicle as there is a HGV Garage there. This section of road always has dozens of cars parked along it, as it is not obvious at all that parking is restricted and the signage is so poor.

There is also a larger sign at the entrance to the estate warning of parking restrictions on the estate which has the details of another different parking company on it, not District Enforcement. This is on a main road junction, which you have to pass at a fair speed as you are crossing traffic on a busy road and is barely legible.

I have got extensive photographic and video evidence of the entire site.

When I received the 'notice to keepers' I did engage in written dialogue with District Enforcement by way of two letters for each notice, but rather foolishly didn't keep a record of my first letter. The first one basically stated I wouldn't pay the charge based on the signage information written above. I didn't mention who was driving the car. Their reply refused this and threatened legal action. My second letter to them was very short and blunt - basically asking them to take me to court as I would not be paying them directly. I then got a letter from their solicitor threatening legal action who I sent more or less the same letter to.A short time after this I got the summons.

Any help or advice very gratefully received.


Many thanks
Reece

The signs form only part of the defence

Go through threads and search for "Gladstones claims"
They all have the same feature that Gladstones don't see any client documents before they issue claims

That's why they contain no details and why you have to attack the point that they provide no explanation of what the driver did wrong

Multiple tickets (ok, for the 2nd one at least) may diminish the signs argument.

Would be good to see the wording on the signs - amazing how £60 has turned into £150. (Other than an unashamed money grab for having the audicity to challenge)

If there were 2 companies in the area which what is the compnay name on the sign closest to you.

Did you still have the Notice to Keepers? There is a large time between date and due date so perhaps they didn't serve the NTK in time.

DE usually do their own claims. So this is an odd one where Gladstones are doing the work.

Have a suspicion there will be something not kosher in the paperwork, so I'd check it thoroughly. Contract is the most likely.