I have never come across such a deceitful local authority as Ealing Council, this is not the first occasion I have been robbed and probally not the last but they cant be allowed to get away with this!

I always park my car on the drive outside my house, avoiding paying the £45 permit for the 6 months of the year the enforcement is in place. 24 October I leave my car outside my house (directly opposite) and on way to work, about to move it into drive and battery is flat! In a rush to get to work, I chance it.. and as expected return later that evening to find a PCN sitting there.

Challenge the PCN in writing, and they reply saying understand the situation so provide a repair invoice for the breakdown and PCN will be terminated. So i do exactly that, however i roll the car onto the drive for the weekend, and get the new battery the following Monday evening after a bump start to Halfords! send off the receipt, couple of days later give phonecall to chase and was told catergorically yes we have recieved the invoice and it shall be cancelled as agreed. Yesterday receive that letter only explaining invoice was from monday not friday (date PCN issued) therefore, cough up £50 or pay £100 in 14 days! Is this right ?

Now this not the first time they robbed me, previously got caught out because I had a temp permit on display wrong way up, challenged it within 14 days.. they replied 128 days later!! challenge rejected and pay up, missed the payment date by 2 days and then had to pay £90.

Think they remember me from a previous PCN, when the photograph didnt display my reg plate properly and they had to leave it go, oh the joy on that one.

Never, ever believe ANYTHING that a council say on the phone. They are well known for telling lies just to get rid of the person on the other end. Always insist they confirm things in writing and get the name of the person that you spoke to.

I think you may have a problem with the receipt for the new battery being 3 days later than the PCN. They will only say you should have pushed the car onto your drive at the time rather than leaving it where it was. I think you could be hard pushed to get that past the adjudicator. By all means though threaten the council with taking the matter all the way though. You never know it may frighten them off!!

I just want to create as much hassle for them as possible, if im going to have to pay it, then they can earn it just like I have had to earn that £50 - and it wasnt from walking around a load of streets gazing through car windscreens.

I thought about asking them who I actually spoke with when he said 'we have the invoice we requested and just finalising the investigation, it should be cancelled and you'll receive the written confirmation in the post'. They obviously use some sort of case handling tool which would keep an audit of who went in that day etc. Under the data protection act 1998 they would have to provide all information they have on me from past and present, that would be a good place to start, threaten them with that if they stand their ground tommorow over the phone.

Or you could just show us the PCN and some pictures of the signs and bays where you parked.

They are meant to log on the system any call relating to a PCN.

I advise obtaining the Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) and looking through the exemptions. Most TRO's contain an exemption for vehicles that suffer a mechanical failure. It is very very uncommon for a TRO to stipulate that a vehicle is limited in time to be fixed and should be moved and you can use this point to your advantage. You can argue that you took action within a reasonable time afterall it may have taken some time for the battery to be in stock or some other factor.

If they reject and say that you should have moved your vehicle, ask them where does it stipulate that in their Traffic Regulation Order (I'm hoping it won't).

never believe a phone call from council - thisn applies tom any area

always get a name and direct tel no and not date/time

then confoirm in writing

Do you actually want to contest this effectively and constructively or did you just want an emotive rant?

This is the PCN, apologies that it looks so scrumpled!

Rear also please?

Rejection due to repair invoice being for a repair the following working day! just missed the left edge out.



Back of PCN





Constructively with great satifaction if it comes off.

seems an arbitrary decision. can't recall any legislation thats says you have to repair the vehicle same day. people have budgets to keep to FFS ! Three days seems reasonable to me, more than reasonable. An interesting one this one for sure. A less than venal council would have cancelled by now.
If anyone finds a less than venal council let us all know !!

Rung them this morning and explained the situation, he couldnt actually believe they rejected the challenge because the repair invoice was for the next working day, but suggested I reappeal once they have issued me with the NTO in 14-days.

Asked for a copy of their TRO for the area so I can check out what it stipulates under excemppions, don't think he had a clue what I was talking about and mentioned they are govered by the Road Traffic Act 1991?

Also, I sent them the original invoice and forgot to make a copy, do you think I could get this back in case it needs to do before an adjucator?

I hope you took the name of the person you spoke with this time.

The more evidence you have of the council being completely haphazard, the more chance that when it gets to your formal appeal, someone will say "cancel this now, or it will be embarrassing when it goes in front of the adjudicator".

Just a thought. There are some characters that haven't printed out properly, e.g. the "l" in clearly, the "d" in display. Following that line up heads straight through your VRM - if a character within in that hasn't printed off then I believe the PCN is invalid?