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RobbieS00
Hi All,

My wife was taking the kids to their swimming lesson and parked in the town's car park. Due to traffic problems she was running late and on getting back to the car to collect the kids from their child seat she just put both parts of the ticket on the dashboard. At some point the actual ticket moved from the dashboard, but the refund voucher remained in place.

I've had a look around and have drafted the following, based on some previous examples, including Bogsy's. Any further advice before I send this off is greatly appreciated.

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Dear Sirs

Ref PCN <PCN NUMBER>

I would like to appeal the penalty charge served upon me.

Enclosed is a copy of the Pay & Display ticket that I purchased and displayed for inspection. It can clearly be seen that I paid the appropriate fee and that the ticket was valid when the officer inspected my vehicle. Unfortunately, at some point during my absence from or whilst leaving the vehicle, the ticket somehow moved from the dashboard of the vehicle, where before it had been clearly displayed. I accept that your officer could not have known this and acted accordingly.

The officer did however see the refund voucher that remained on the dashboard when issuing the ticket. I know that both parts were placed on the dashboard as at the time I had both of my young children in the car to take to their swimming lesson, and due to traffic was running late so just placed both parts on the dashboard for ease. I would have thought that the presence of the voucher on display would suffice as proof of parking entitlement, as this refund voucher which is visible in the photographs the officer took clearly shows the amount paid, the date on which the ticket was valid and the time by which the vehicle had to leave the parking place.

Regardless of this point, now that the full ticket has been presented for inspection it is clear that I did not avoid payment of the parking fee or that I had parked beyond time paid for. The only purpose a ticket needs to be displayed is to enable an officer to distinguish between those that have paid for parking and those that have not and those who have exceeded the time paid for. The ticket produced clearly shows that had your officer seen both parts of my ticket at the time of inspection that there would be no need to serve a penalty charge notice.

The only remaining issue is whether the fact that the ticket was not clearly displayed at the time of inspection warrants the council taking a hard line and upholding the penalty charge. I believe that for the council to take such a stance would be contrary to the advice of the DfT and the Secretary of State.

Paragraph 85 from the Secretary of State’s Statutory Guidance to Local Authorities advises;

85. An authority has a discretionary power to cancel a PCN at any point throughout the CPE process. It can do this even when an undoubted contravention has occurred if the authority deems it to be appropriate in the circumstances of the case. Under general principles of public law, authorities have a duty to act fairly and proportionately and are encouraged to exercise discretion sensibly and reasonably and with due regard to the public interest

This statutory guidance is given legal authority by section 87 of the Traffic Management Act 2004 whereby statute instructs that the council must have regard to this guidance. Any failure to have regard to this guidance is a procedural impropriety as defined by regulation 4(5) of the Civil Enforcement of Parking Contraventions (England) Representations and Appeals Regulations 2007;

4(5) In these Regulations “procedural impropriety” means a failure by the enforcement authority to observe any requirement imposed on it by the 2004 Act, by the General Regulations or by these Regulations in relation to the imposition or recovery of a penalty charge or other sum and includes in particular—

As a valid ticket has been presented for inspection it is clear to any reasonable person that it would not be in the public interest to penalise a person who paid the required fee and did nothing to the detriment of the public interest. I cannot think of a more appropriate situation where paragraph 85 applies than this. I therefore politely request that the council act fairly and proportionately in this matter and exercise their discretion sensibly and reasonably by cancelling this penalty charge. It would be best for all if we can resolve this without the need to seek independent adjudication.

Also, I do not feel that I should be forced to admit guilt, for what is a simple mistake, in order to avoid missing the prompt payment discount when it is evident that I have not knowingly attempted to break the law.

Yours etc...


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Both parts of the PCN are attached here:

Click to view attachment


Click to view attachment


Thanks again for any help,

RobbieS
timbstoke
Personally, I'd save that one for the formal reps - it seems a bit OTT for informal reps. Quoting legislation and guidance from the start will put them on notice that you have potential to be an awkward bugger, so they'll structure their response far more carefully. Keep it human and you increase the chances that they'll make a mistake in their response.

Dear Sirs

Ref PCN <PCN NUMBER>

Please consider the below as my representations against the above PCN.

Enclosed is a copy of the Pay & Display ticket that I purchased and displayed for inspection. It can clearly be seen that I paid the appropriate fee and that the ticket was valid when the officer inspected my vehicle. Unfortunately, at some point during my absence from or whilst leaving the vehicle, the ticket somehow moved from the dashboard of the vehicle, where before it had been clearly displayed. I accept that your officer could not have known this and acted accordingly.

The officer did however see the refund voucher that remained on the dashboard when issuing the ticket. I know that both parts were placed on the dashboard as at the time I had both of my young children in the car to take to their swimming lesson, and due to traffic was running late so just placed both parts on the dashboard for ease. I would have thought that the presence of the voucher on display would suffice as proof of parking entitlement, as this refund voucher which is visible in the photographs the officer took clearly shows the amount paid, the date on which the ticket was valid and the time by which the vehicle had to leave the parking place.

Regardless of this point, now that the full ticket has been presented for inspection it is clear that I did not avoid payment of the parking fee or that I had parked beyond time paid for. With this in mind I would ask the council to exercise discretion in this case and cancel this PCN.

Love and kisses....

RobbieS00
Thanks for the feedback timbstoke.

I'll change the wording to be a bit more friendly and send it off. Hopefully they'll see that it's not that we were willingly trying to break the law and write it off.

Cheers,

RobbieS
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