Hi everyone. Any help on this would be hugely appreciated. I have just had the double whammy of finding myself out of work and then being landed with a huge fine. I've had to pay 260 pounds and I am hoping to appeal.

The Situation: I left my house and found my car on the back of a tow-truck. It had been parked in a residents' bay for which I have a valid permit, but the bay had been, unbeknown to me, suspended. The car was taken to the local pound where I had to pay 200 pounds to get it back, and the 60 pound PCN charge.

Grounds I think I may be able to appeal on:

1) The PCN was issued at 11.27 and the car was towed at 11.30. Do I not have 30 minutes after the PCN is attached to move my car under regulation 5C of the RDVR 1986? Or does this not apply to suspended residents' bays?

2) I asked the warden and driver of the truck to put the car down in an empty residents' bay over the road, but he said that once it was on the back of the truck he had to take it to the pound. Do they have an obligation to try to re-park it, not put it in the pound?

3) I have read that they must make 'all reasonable efforts' to inform residents of bay suspensions. Two things occur to me: A) I didn't recieve a letter in the post about bay suspensions- is this not a reasonable step? B) they texted me to tell me my car was in the pound- should they not have texted me to give me half an hour to move my car or that it was in a suspended bay and would be towed imminently?

Any help would be hugely appreciated.

Should I scan all the documents and put them up here?

Thank you!

The suspension should have been indicated by a sign adjacent to the parking place. Was there anything? Also, they council should place signs around the area to inform drivers prior to the suspension coming into effect.

I hadn't driven the car in a few days. There were signs when it was towed, attached to the lamp posts, but I can't think they were up for very long as I'm pretty observant and would have noticed them.

Are the signs still there? Get a picture ASAP!

Also, pictures of the bay markings (both ends needed too) and measurements.

Signs aren't up anymore... bugger. I'll get on the measurements and photos of the bay ASAP and upload them. Thanks!

could it be worth asking for the approval of the suspension? i remember winning a PCN i received a while back when I parked in a suspended bay. When I asked for the approval of the suspension the council just cancelled the pcn.

Yes, definitely worth adding.

Left (as seen from curb) hand edge of residents' bay :



Right hand edge of residents' bay:



View up the bay:



The sign:



I'll post measurements later- getting my hand on a tape measure soon!

The bay looks OK actually.

Here is the diagram to compare to if you do go and measure it:



(left hand diagram)

Do you think I have any hope of a successful appeal with the three points I outlined in the first post?

I'll take those measurements and ask for the approval of the suspension...

Might also try to find out when they put the signs up, and why the suspension was required.

1) Yes possibly. The 30 minute wait applies only to parking spaces. Whether a suspended bay still counts as a parking space i am not sure. I would suggest you PM southpaw and ask, as he seems to be very clear on these matters.

2) No use.

3) No use.

Find whether the suspension was approved, as mentioned before. This could be very useful. Phone the council and ask how you can get this information. Don't just take their word for it. Go to the records office and get a photocopy of the approval. There may even be an anomaly of worth on it.

After a merry-go-round of phone calls, Camden have told me that they will be phoning me back within the next hour (hmm) to help me find the record of the approval of suspension and the day the signs went up.

Can anyone advise me on my rights to see these documents as he also talked of writing in to request them which will no doubt take so long to hear back from that the appeal period will be over... I said I wanted to come in to the office and take a photocopy.

He also seemed to think that there was no 'approval' document as such- just a request form and an invoice? And how long should the bay-suspension signs be up for?

Just a heads up as to what I'm looking for would be fantastic. Thanks everyone- all the advice is seriously appreciated.

Chazzy

As said above, the 30min rule applies to parking places only so if that parking place is suspended then you can argue that those provisions do not apply.There are two ways the Council can suspend parking: 1. by Temporary Traffic Order; or2. by using provision contained in the parent Order for that parking place. Find out which method was used, get a copy of the Order and then information on what procedures they carried out to get the suspension going. Really you will be looking for photographic evidence signed off by Council officer identifying locations and times when advance warning signs of the suspension were erected. Going by The Road Traffic (Temporary Restrictions) Procedure Regulations 1992, I'd be looking for at least 7 days advance warning on street anything less is too short notice to enforce a temporary restriction, unless it was in an emergency.

Is that sign compliant? Anyone know what kind of sign it's meant to be?

I would think the sign is irrelevant, as the sign he was ticketed for contravening was a temporary suspension sign.

But if the sign isn't valid can the suspension be valid?

No, but we haven't got pictures of the suspension sign, as it had been taken down before he had a chance to photo it.

What I meant was, if the original bay sign is invalid then the bay is invalid and if the bay is invalid then it cannot be suspended as it doesn't exist in law. Just a thought.

Are you sure about that? As i see it, there are two issues here:

-The bay
-The sign

In the case of a temporary suspension, the temporary sign supercedes the original sign. So the revelant factors are the bay and the temporary sign.

But if you have conclusive evidence that the original sign has any bearing then please share, as it could be useful.

No, that's why I said 'just a thought'.