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Hello all. Today was a bad day as I received a parking ticket and, when I got back, there was a traffic offence letter waiting for me. I am, however, unsure of where I stand here as I was on my motorbike for both offences and did not know I was offending.
The parking annoys me more as I had gone to a specific, back street area where there is a motorbike parking section. I arrived there and spotted that there was a white boxed area below the motorbike sign and most people had put their bikes in this area. It was full but there was another bike outside the box so I put mine next to that. It was actually next to a cycle area where you can chain your cycle up. Having lived in Manchester for a number of years and parking in random places on the pavement, I didn't think I was doing anything wrong. As I say, it was a back street, no shops near it, no pedestrians and I was not blocking anything whatsoever. This was literally an area where people parked their bikes and motorbikes. The reason stated on the ticket is that I was parked in a restricted street during prescribed hours. There are no signs there about hours, no notice that the motorbikes HAD to be in this box and no mention that the place where I had parked the bike was, in fact, a bicycle area and motorbikes could not use it.
I tried to pay the fine on-line, as it gives me that as an option, but it tells me that the pcn Number is invalid so I can't actually pay it that way.
The Bus Lane incident occurred a week ago. I had slipped into it as there was a queue of traffic. I was on the very edge of it with no buses about and was avoiding the thick white-line as that is dangerous for bikes to be on. There are 3 photos on this letter; the 1st shows 2 bikers in the far distance, the 2nd is a close-up at the front of mine and the 3rd one (the one with my reg on it) shows me in the normal lanes. The time frame of the incident is 67 seconds. Again, I had no idea motorbikes could not use bus lanes and have read since that the government is actually ENCOURAGING councils to allow bikers to use bus lanes. I have had a look on the road and can see ONE sign that gives the operational hours of the bus lane and there is a picture of a bicycle below it. Seeing as the registration picture shows me committing no offence, can I use that in my favour? There are also no signs that say there is a bus lane camera. I seem to have been caught by a camera further down the road that is only signed just below the actual camera itself. I had never seen it before today!
Thanks for any help you all can give me. Failing any loopholes, I will pay the reduced total fine of 65 quid. An expensive day for someone who had no idea!
Mike
Video evidence will confirm any contravention. They should have informed you that is available for you to view.
On what you describe you may be able to claim 'de minimus' - as in - 'of little consequence or effect'.
Always worth posting up the documents mate (don't start telling me about this forum's rules - it's daft i know - use your imagination to overcome it) there are often legal flaws in PCNs.
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They do say I can arrange to view the video in the letter. To be honest, I now know I was in the wrong and simply saying "I didn't know" won't cut it as an excuse. As for saying my offence was of little consequence (which it was seeing as there are no buses in any of the 3 photos), I guess they would say the law is the law.
I'm more miffed about the parking fine and will be challenging that but ONLY when the on0line payment system accepts my PCN number as legit. I can just tell them I tried to pay it on-line but it said it wasn't a legit number so I presumed someone was having a laugh. I recoded on my camera video my trying to enter the number on their site but being given the error notice so they can't say I made it up.
I would post the documents but, as I say, there is nothing of interest on them really. Just imagine a queue of traffic and, in the distance, 2 sets of headlights belonging to 2 motorbike on the edge of an empty bus lane. One of them turns out to be me!
Nottingham parking AND bus lane fine!
Number is invalid so I can't actually pay it that way.
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