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pcnprobs
Hi,

I'm new to this forum so apologies if this has been answered before.

I received a pcn from the local council for parking on a pavement with 2 wheels. Apparently, they only put signs up if you are allowed to park on a pavement which I didn't realise. However, at the time of parking in this way, the camera enforcement car was parked in an identical way and that's why I thought it was the correct way to park. The council has said that their cars can park any way they like in carrying out their duties. My argument is that it doesn't seem fair that the camera car identified that the safest way to park in that location was with 2 wheels on the pavement but that any other motorist that did the same would be subject to a fine. In addition, I tried to look for signs to give some guidance as to how I was meant to park but as there were none and because the camera car was being parked in that way, it led me to believe that you should park like that in that location. If it is safe to park on the road, why didn't their car park on the road - it doesn't make sense to me.

Anyway, I appealed and recieved nothing from the council in response until they wrote to tell me that they had doubled my fine as I hadn't paid since they rejected my appeal. I explained that I hadn't received anything and could they send me a copy of the rejection and restart the time but they refused. They say that they are prevented from doing this by legislation. I asked where in the legislation they are prevented from doing this and they have sent me an email (I can share it with anyone is interested in a council's non-lawyer interpretation of the law!). They say that the only option is to wait for the notice from the court and then say that I have not received the rejection but that it will be too late to pay the half price and I might have to pay costs if I still want to appeal. So it misses out the option to appeal to an adjudicator stage which doesn't seem fair either.

Any thoughts? Do I just pay or wait to see what happens? Is it worth fighting on the grounds that it was their behviour which led me to park in the way that I did?

Thanks in advance.
StuartBu
For the benefit of thos able to give advice can you post up scans or pics of all sides of the paperwork you have for this ..mask off or edit out all personal details . Us an external host like Photobucket and it will generate links ..Use the ones starting and ending with [IMG] and post them here .
pcnprobs
Thanks, none of the detail of the question is in any of the paperwork and I haven't received a copy of the rejection letter but I will try to post a pic of the 2 letters later.

The email from the Council as to why they can't resend me a copy of the rejection letter and restart the time of that stage is as follows:

“In summary my conclusion is that the Act does not permit such action to be taken by the Authority and that should we do so we may well give rise to a claim of procedural impropriety, preventing further recovery action – effectively, we may prejudice our own case by stepping outside of the legal recovery framework, no matter what our intentions are.

I have set out below how I have reached the above conclusion.

The purpose of an Act of Parliament is not to tell either party what cannot be done, what it does in this case is establish a civil recovery statutory procedure authorised by the Lord Chancellor which governs the correct and proper processing of civil parking and traffic penalty charges (amongst other things). How the Act is constructed are set out in a series of Statutory Instruments, the Act gives an overview of its purpose, the workings are contained in the Statutory Instruments

Basically, the Act creates a civil recovery framework which all authorities that rely on it for enforcement and recovery are duty bound to follow. In terms of the provisions contained within the Act in instances such as those described by you, in summary, is not a permitted action within the Act and therefore could be deemed as a procedural impropriety, resulting in the inability to pursue the matter through the statutory process.

The most relevant Statutory Instrument is SI 3483: General Regulations – specifically the extract below.

What the extract means is that the only mechanism open to both the Council and the motorist in the event that 1b (as below) is considered applicable is for the Council to obtain a county court order (from the Traffic Enforcement Centre @ Northampton County Court, as the agreed court for civil parking and traffic penalty charge matters), thus enabling the motorist to submit a Witness Statement as set down in the directions below in the event that the motorist considers any of the listed grounds to be valid.

There is no other permitted action associated with the Charge Certificate, it is merely a notice of outstanding payment, it has no corrective actions listed against it and serves to notify only. The correct mechanism to then utilise to get the case back on track is the Witness Statement procedures.

The option of providing a copy of the Notice of Rejection, is not in itself covered by the Act, however, there is no procedural impropriety caused as the Act considers a document to have been served 2 working days after posting (whether it arrives before or after that date or at all), unless it can be proven that delivery did not take place. There is also provision within the Act for the adjudicators to consider appeals received outside of the statutory period and therefore; an appeal could be made against a copy Notice of Rejection with a second appeal form but this would be at the discretion of the adjudicators, they are not bound to accept it.

Even if such an appeal request were refused I do not believe that this would prevent the motorists from seeking relief through the Court processes, as the grounds do make allowances for receipt of copy documents and therefore; the ground that representation was made but a response was not received from the Council would still seem valid.”

Charge certificates

1.—(1) Where a notice to owner is served on any person and the penalty charge to which it relates is not paid before the end of the relevant period, the authority serving the notice may serve on that person a statement (a “charge certificate”) to the effect that the penalty charge in question is increased by the amount of the applicable surcharge.

(1) The relevant period, in relation to a notice to owner, is the period of 28 days beginning—

(a) where no representations are made under regulation 4 of the Representations and Appeals Regulations, with the date on which the notice to owner is served;

(b) where—

(i) such representations are made;

(ii) a notice of rejection is served by the authority concerned; and

(iii) no appeal against the notice of rejection is made,

with the date on which the notice of rejection is served;

© where an adjudicator has, under regulation 7(4) of the Representations and Appeals Regulations, recommended the enforcement authority to cancel the notice to owner, with the date on which the enforcement authority notifies the appellant under regulation 7(5) of those Regulations that it does not accept the recommendation; or

(d) in a case not falling within subparagraph © where there has been an unsuccessful appeal to an adjudicator under the Representations and Appeals Regulations against a notice of rejection, with the date on which notice of the adjudicator’s decision is served on the appellant.

(2) Where an appeal against a notice of rejection is made but is withdrawn before the adjudicator serves notice of his decision, the relevant period in relation to a notice to owner is the period of 14 days beginning with the date on which the appeal is withdrawn.

(3) In this regulation—

(a) references to a “notice to owner” include a regulation 10 penalty charge notice; and

(b) “notice of rejection” has the meaning given by regulation 2 of the Representations and Appeals Regulations.

Enforcement of charge certificate

2. Where a charge certificate has been served on any person and the increased penalty charge provided for in the certificate is not paid before the end of the period of 14 days beginning with the date on which the certificate is served, the enforcement authority may, if a county court so orders, recover the increased charge as if it were payable under a county court order.

Invalid notices

3.—(1) This regulation applies where—

(a) a county court makes an order under regulation 22;

(b) the person against whom it is made makes a witness statement complying with paragraph (2); and

that statement is served on the county court which made the order, before the end
pcnprobs
Here are copies of the notices. Any help or suggestions appreciated!

StuartBu
Pic 1 shows the Penalty Charge Notice number and your vehicles Reg No....Best to sort that .
pcnprobs
Thanks - is there anything that anyone can do with that information? I no longer own the car.

Just hoping to get some advice on my question
DancingDad
Councils have been known to track and refer to advise on here from the PCN or Reg numbers, best to remove them.

What the council have said is almost correct in terms of what they can or must do.
They have forgotten discretion but that is another argument.

However, what they say on waiting for the Order for Recovery and then challenging that on the grounds that reps were submitted but not replied to is correct
This automatically (if submitted to TEC in time) cancels the OFR and CC, leaving the council with the choice of cancelling the PCN or referring direct to adjudication.

OFR can appear after 14 days starting with service of CC. It is worth chasing them after this time to see when or if it has been sent as you really do not want to miss this or have it lost in post.
Once they say it has been sent, the relevant forms can be filled in and sent to TEC even without the OFR arriving.
pcnprobs
Thanks, that's really helpful.
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