Hi,
This morning I received a PCN for parking on a red route. I have a couple of questions regarding whether I can fight this ticket.
Firstly, I stupidly parked in the parking bay not realising it was on a red route. I'll post the picture for the entrance to the street below. I thought that the parking on the left hand side of the road was subject to red route as this does have 3 seperate signs, letting you know it is a red route. On the right hand side of the road there is one sign and from the direction that I entered the street it is facing the opposite direction. It is also halfway along the parking bay so not visible from where I parked my car. So I thought the parking bay I was parked in was subject to the CPZ times. I'm pretty sure ignorance isn't going to get me off but should the sign be more clearly displayed for the parking bay so it is not relient on the direction you are driving i.e. facing the street? Or is the onus on me to check all signs? Also as you will see from the picture of the entrance to the street the red route line stops at the beginning of the street, is very faded and then starts a little just before the bay starts. Would that also be grounds to contest my ticket?
Also I returned to my car at just as the agent was typing details into his handheld gadget. I tried to move my car, not realising that he would be able to post the PCN to me later anyway. The agent was clearly trying to prevent me from driving away and I realise now that is because he had not taken any photos of my car parked in the bay. On the tfl website there is one picture of me driving off with the ticket on my windscreen but no evidence of my registration plate. The second is of the sign.
Lastly my issue is that the observed time was for a period of 1 hour and 5 minutes. I know I was definitely at my car 4 minutes after the observed hour was up whilst the gentleman engaged me in conversation to obvisouly delay me moving my car. Does anyone have any experience of them being lenient with being 4 minutes after the hour I was allowed to park there?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/43928554@N08/4534510078/ sign from TFL photo
http://www.flickr.com/photos/43928554@N08/...in/photostream/ entrance to Road
http://www.flickr.com/photos/43928554@N08/...in/photostream/ pic of bay. I was parked where the silver car was parked with the sign at the bottom right of the photo