It's good to ask! Firstly, it doesn't take a minute to snap a picture. If the meter in this example is turning to P003, then it only takes a second to take the photo using the digital camera on it's auto setting. and it doesn't take long to fill in the details using the touch screen of the DAP. the printer is IR, and prints using thermal technology, so no inks to leak or get blotted by the elements. To fold the PCN and place in pouch doesn't take long when you've had alot of practice, and yes, a photo of the PCN near the tax disk on the car, in one photo, again.... only taking another second of your time.. ok....two at most! When it's your job to do so, and your efficient, you really don't hang about...it's not in your interest too. It used to take me about 6 minutes when i first started...but your mind plays tricks on you, and you don't have a system. It's all mis-matched data, and you don't know what to do with it all. when you get to about 3 minutes, you think your getting somewhere, but accidents still happen. This resolves to a squashed pcn, where you enter it as inccorect data or a squashed pcn and you redo it. Timing comes from perfecting the system. knowing what info the dap wants next, and knowing when to take your photos. You can size up your shots as your printing, and get into position.

further more... [snap] photo taken, 1 second of my time details entered, printed, signed and placed. WELL within a minute. [snap] tax [snap] meter [snap] location [snap] yada yada yada It doesn't take more than a second to press a button on a camera.

No because you misworded what i said. Example: A meter goes 3 minutes into penalty, 2 minutes in penalty (area specific) is safe. The meter shows P002, then it shows P003. at P003, a photo get's taken showing that the meter is now three minutes in penalty, and like i originally said, i can print sign place in an envleope and put on the car WITHIN 60 seconds of taking the photo....so no... your wrong. the minute the meter is P003 (offence commited as you put it), the ticket is on the car and i'm walking away and the meter is STILL showing P003, not P004. All done within the minute of expiry. Nothing stops me from taking the photographs of the car's location, the tax disk, etc etc AFTER the iniitial photograph of the meter in expiry and the ticket printed. Everything is time stamped, and we can't change the DAPs times. so what they'd get is for example: 10:23am photograph of meter PO215 displaying P003 minutes in penalty 10:23am PCN issued to vehicle occupying bay PO215 10:23am photograph of tax disk of said car, and location. 10:23am log of street and location on street while on beat.

Depending where you are, that may not make a difference. Yes, you have 5 minute time frame for loading, and if observed 5 minutes later to be loading, he may walk away...but the point here is, that if one warden marks you down as loading at 11:12a and sees you walk into the building with bags, and he walks off to return at 11:16a to observe for the final minute, nothing stops another warden from turning up at 11:14a and walking off after logging you for 5 minutes. You return at 11:16a and the warden walks off, you now thing you have another 5 minutes, but in reality, if your not at your vehicle at 11:19a warden #2 can issue. It may seem stupid, but i think the reason for this is so you don't tie up a SYL all day. Genuinly 5 minutes is ample for loading/unloading no?

No offence, but the independant appeals officer is lying. I can walk down a street, see a contravention and if it warants an immediate ticket, i could have it printed, signed, folded in the envelope and on the car within 60 seconds of me taking the photographs of the contravention.

Ok...but the PA wouldn't ticket a commercial vehicle on SYL/DYL, he'd just take note of the time he/they arrived. He would however ticket a car if parked on DYL with no signs of unloading, i.e. a car boot up, guy walking to and fro, from the car. I beg to differ, where the borough of Kensington and Chelsea will give you a 5 minute grace period after your meter expires, Westminster give you a 2 minute grace period. (this is just one example of time frames, d/bays resbays, DYL, etc etc have different periods)

NCPs Parking allowance for Westminster Class of Vehicle-ALL: 20 minute on resident bay; shared use bay; P&D machine; meter-including OutOfOrder; national disabled bay. Active signs of loading/unloading must be seen (not necessary for commercial vehicles). Maybe not where you are, but boroughs and counties have different rules.

What a refreshing change! Obviously a PA thats had their quota of PCNs! In all fairness though, on DoubleYellowLines, a van doesn't need to be seen loading/unloading. they have 20 minutes specifically for that (unless there were curb markings indicating a loading ban). Now a car...that's a different story True...but my posting was trying to imply that unless you knew what i quoted you saying just now, alot of people wouldn't bother appealing...they'd take it for as-is.

With all due respect...The Secretary of State’s and the parking adjudicators in Londons views are different to that of the local authorities and with the local athorities view being differently, it however gets mailed out via the aid of DVLA. Micia, seylectric would be right in saying to forget persuing the matter reguarding grace period, as the MET and PAs do have different methods and allowances to when they can issue. As far as the contravention code not being provided, as long as the ticket has notified you into the reason why you got the ticket... i.e.stopped where prohibited (on a red route or clearway) then to argue there was no contravention code would be pointless...it is making it clear why. The reason why people would complain regarding contravention code is because the ticket would give the wrong code. Example, 62(4) instead of a 01, in this instance the ticket would be saying you were parked on a footway with all 4 wheels off the road, but the actual code 01 would be relevant as you were parked on DYLs. This is when you would say that the contravention code is incorect and the ticket invalid. Did you actually stop on a red route or clearway? If you didn't but got given this reason for the ticket, then your chances for appeal are high.

If the PCN has the wrong VRM, then the ticket is void. Doesn't matter if he has photos showing the correct VRM as the ticket is printed up with a differet one, and that doesn't apply to your vehicle. Same as if the colour on the PCN was white, and your car was black...it's void.

That's one of the criteria on taking photos...it PROVES the car isn't in motion as there are at least three photographs of the same car parked in the same place without anyone in the vehicle....i.e. photo taken from the rear of the car showing no one in driver/passenger seat, the VRM, and it's location, i.e. contravention. Another from the front of the vehicle, with the obvious notion that you are not going to get run down by an empty vehicle, the VRM, the location i.e. contravention. The PCN taken with highest resolution (around 4-5megapixel) on macro setting showing there is a PCN in the envelope and it's also in the same shot as the tax disk. If i take a picture of my car, it generally shows a still of a stationary vehicle as cameras these days are such high resolution that you can tell the differnece between someone in the car, and no one in the car. I feel bad that someone took a photograph of your windscreen with an empty PCN envelope, but as a rule, generally the photo is taken to show where the PCN was affixed to vehicle. You can't rule out the fact that someone could have taken the ticket from the vehicle, i'm not saying they did, but i'm not saying they didn't either...there are many factors to why there maynot have been a ticket in the envelope, but the photograph is meanto to display that the ticket had been placed on the vehicle. If the issuer of PCN took full notes, then he should have a printed ticket (with PCN Number) which would match his notes. You must admit for someone to print up a PCN conpile his notes and paperwork at the end of the day, it would seem odd for him to take all the necasary action to print out a ticket, take photographs and then not put the ticket in the envelope, or take the ticket out of the envelope before walking away. Date/Time stamps can be changed yes, but in briefing at the start of the day, times on cameras and watches are checked for syncronisation (for obvious reasons). This isn't to say that the time on camera can not be changed, it can. But the time on the ticket machine can not. The machines we use are called DAP, and run by Microsoft operating systems...It's linked to a realtime database, and restrictions on the DAP are limited to just the running of the PCN software. If someone was to change the time on his cmaera to 1 hour earlier, then he must have issued a ticket one hour earlier to a car he knew was going to be taking a photogrpah of one hour later, if that makes sense. Just seems pointless. Your not wrong there...but generally it isn't worth getting caught, and sooner or later you will be. I've seen it happen...so yes things happen which there not supposed too...but you could say that of any occupation, including the suggestion of theft from a part timer at a newsagents. There will always be regulations and people willing to break them. But for the majority of us sane people, we know it isn't worth getting caught for. I think 99% is a bit high isn't it? But you got your point accross. In training you are aware that some tickets will be issued unfairly, not because your out to gain a couple of ticket to your quota...but merely out of technicality. Similar to what you suggest and was brought up in training...take this scenario as an example. You get a long street like Oxford Street, and there's DYL (Double Yellow Lines) running the way through it. There is however on this day 20 cars pared along the DYLs, and you can clearly see that they are parked up...but your at one end of O.St. Question....do you walk the entire length of O.St. to see if there is a tbar at the other end before you issue a ticket? Or if your in the middle before cars drive up and blaintly park in front of you....do you walk to one end, then walk to the opposite end in which time the cars could have driven away? It's this kind of technicality which gets the motorist off the ticket...but needless to sayyour average run of the mill warden won't check...especially if the street he's on is 5miles long (for argmuents sake - you know what i mean.) This scenario could also be true if there are t-bars at either end, but on the broken part of the yellow, a vehicle maybe covering it, or the warden is inexperienced, or...all wardens do it on this particular street, and tro not issue 20 or attempt to issue the 20 tickets you won't be in a job very long....in all fairness if you are aware of the DYL broken or not T'ed at the end, why walk up there? Well, there maybe 01 offences (blocking traffic - doesn't have to be parked along the DYL) could be a 01e - Doubel Parked though CPZ hours, could be a 62 offence, parked on the footway. But if you didn't see and of these except for the 01 DYL contravention, would you say "screw it", and walk away from the possible 20 tickets, and out that street into another only for another warden to claim the tickets? Again...true to some extent. Like the example i gave, law doesn't depict the officer to walk both ends of a 5mile street before he gives out a ticket...if you walk on average 4 miles an hour, it could be 2 hours before he issues a ticket in which case...and that's just stupid. If the ticket is wrongly issued, then you won't have any problems getting it cancelled. .....In theory anyway

Ok...what i meant to say but didn't clearly say it, was if a VDA occurs then a VDA is selected as how the ticket was distributed after printing. E.g. Your on yellow lines, i take a photograph of your tax, the car on the yellow lines with maybe a shop in the background (to give some idea of location as well as contravention), any other photograph that maybe neccasary i.e. timeplates, no parking signs, etc..etc... and then i go on to take the ticket details to produce the ticket. If the ticket gets printed and no sign of driver, i place in an envelope (yellow & black = K&C) place on windscreen then take a photogrpah of the ticket on the windscreen with the tax disc all in one photo so it couldn't be any other windscreen. If the VDA happens, then i select VDA, pocket the ticket until i get back to base, before carrying out the paperwork using the pocketed ticket to fill in the VDA sections of all PCNs issued where the VehicleDroveAway. [phew!] In other words, the act doesn't apply to the the car as it is no longer stationary so my options are not hand it to driver or affix to vehicle as the cehicle isn't there. If this act doesn't apply to this situation i would select VDA where the athorities would follow the procedure (if) as all evidence is present to verify that the vehicle was in such a place, at such a time, contravening. (This probably still isn't clear to some - but i know what i'm trying to say ) BTW, i didn't once say I would take a picture of a moving vehicle which proves anything to a parking offence. If you take a photograph of a car parked on a double yellow line and that photograph is timestamped and dated, and is backed up by the same details in your notebook/DAP, and is archived...then why would it be fictisious? Ok, you could alledgedly make it ficticious, but then going around, day-by-day doing the opposite of your job is a) going to get the police involved and b) end you up in a lot of hot water....so why do anything other than what you've been trained to do? i.e. a still of a car timestamped on double yellow lines would prove that the car was parked on double yellow lines.

Code 47, parking in a bust stop/stand. as for signature, yes... we were taught to just mark the paper, innitals, mark, anything....just so long as pen tocuhes paper...to signify the PA was present. Date of Notice, is the same as Issue in my opinion, but i'm sure others would disagree. Would be interested to see other opinions on this. As far as we are aware, a Code 47 is an instant ticket. the Bust stop/stand needs to be kept clear for busses (obviosuly). Good luck.

When you press print, and the ticket has been printed and placed in envelope (or not as the case maybe)...The DAP in order to clear itself will want some following infomation. It basically asks, now that you have your ticket, what did you do with it? How did the driver appear - was you met with violence, verbal abuse, etc.... it makes sense that you get follow on questions to the ticket before the screen reverts back to the main menu. If you put VDA, as you say some authorities will mail it...in the borough i was talking about (Westminster- and many others), it will get mailed. You said when t will reach NPAS/PATAS...why would it if it's a good ticket? If you decided to fight the ticket on solid grounds that your vehicle was clearly not in contravention because you was repairing your car in a garage all of that day, or it wasn't stolen and you know of where your vehicles location at all times, then understandably....yes.....but otherwise, no. I Knew a PA who would do this...and understandably he got caught. The police were involved as the driver kept getting mailers for his tickets when he refused to pay, or when VDA was selected. TBH, the guy had no idea that this was going on, until it started happening on a daily basis. He informed the police and the police impounded his vehicle to see if he was getting any more tickets. He did, on xxxx street, at xxx time... but imposible. The police had the very same vehicle. Needless to say, he didn't work there very long after that. I would like to say concluding this post that alot of PAs (based on the trouble you can get yourself into) would do as they're trained to do...but that too is imposible. There are alot of dishonest PAs out there, and if i was on the receiving end, i would fight it all the way as well. But trying to get around a ticket on a technicality such as driving away before it's handed to you or affixed to windscreen...doesn't always work. Especially moreso when that PA's taken clear photographs of a parked vehicle on a pavement for example with 4 wheels blocking the path for pedestrians and no one in the car. Another photograph of the vehicles tax disc, displaying the 26 numbers that are significant to that tax disk as well as the exp date and VRM. This is a clearcut parking contravention, and with the PAs notes and photographs, wether he drove away or not won't do the driver any good.

Like i said, that is because it applies to stationary vehicles, if a vehicle has driven away then how can this rule apply to it if it isn't in the same place as where it was left, i.e. stationary? It is not an offence to park on double yellow lines...overstay a P&D bay, or 'remain stationary' on a footway so there would be no contravening laws...it would however be a civil matter, and no, the car wouldn't have to be stationary after the photo has been taken, ticket printed, and details collected. Does this mean if i select VDA after you choose not to 'remain stationary' and move on before i get a chance to fix ticket to your windscreen, you won't get your ticket for your typical run-of-the-mill 01 offence? Because i beg to differ.