Thread: Ecn/pcn

The Road Traffic Act 1991 superceded the previous one, as it was completely irrelavant for modern day vehicle and road safety. Quoting 1991 has the same effect as the previous Act. An argument on this basis would not even get to court I'm afraid!

However, an Excess Charge Notice is one which is normally issued for off street parking, and a Penalty Charge Notice is one which is normally issued for street parking. An Excess Charge Notice is normally given to those who pay, say, the 40p for one hour and don't come back for two (for example).



HOWEVER:

Check to see any dates on the ticket - it should have a date of the offence, not issue! Section 66 of the RTA 1991 states that the ticket MUST have the date of the offence, as the ticket could (in theory) be issued AFTER the alleged offence occurred (by way of speeding cameras).

Due to the huge amount of loopholes, it's becoming harder and harder to fight tickets. However, one things which normally works is 'extenuating' circumstances - in my case, my car overheated and in a friend's case, their friend had an asthma attack in the shopping centre..if you see what I mean!!

CHESHAM quoted: -

The Road Traffic Act 1991 superceded the previous one, as it was completely irrelavant for modern day vehicle and road safety. Quoting 1991 has the same effect as the previous Act. An argument on this basis would not even get to court I'm afraid!

However, an Excess Charge Notice is one which is normally issued for off street parking, and a Penalty Charge Notice is one which is normally issued for street parking. An Excess Charge Notice is normally given to those who pay, say, the 40p for one hour and don't come back for two (for example).



HOWEVER:

Check to see any dates on the ticket - it should have a date of the offence, not issue! Section 66 of the RTA 1991 states that the ticket MUST have the date of the offence, as the ticket could (in theory) be issued AFTER the alleged offence occurred (by way of speeding cameras).

Due to the huge amount of loopholes, it's becoming harder and harder to fight tickets. However, one things which normally works is 'extenuating' circumstances - in my case, my car overheated and in a friend's case, their friend had an asthma attack in the shopping centre..if you see what I mean!!

THE AUTHOR asks

So does this effectively mean that on an Excess Charge Notice if it states "Date of Issue XXXXXXX" and does not state "Date of Offence xxxxxxx" then under section 66 of the RTA 1991, then this Excess Charge Notice is flawed on a technicallity and is therefore illegal?

That's what I thought, but when I read Chesham's reply to Don-e I was a little confused as initially Don-e asked and I quote: -

So, if I recive a ticket after failing to display a aplrking ticket in a Borough Council Car park and this ticket is headed Penatly charge Notice - and goes on to quote Road Traffic Act 1991 (as amended) Sections 43, 66, 76, 77 schedule 3 and shedule 6

Is this legit? shouldnt it be an Excess Charge Notice, and should it not quote the 1984 RDA?

Would this argument stand up?

Where it was stated the notice was a pcn not, as he rightly states, an ECN then Chesham gave an answer which confused me even more by seemingly suggesting that both PCN's & ECN's were subjected to similar requirements - as laid down under the RTA!!! However thank you for the clarification on this point, my question(s) now are: -
(1) what - if any - are the legal/techinical points on ECN's? For example should they include/not include certain relevant information/items before they are regarded as legal/illegal? I would be interested to hear people's comment on this one.
(2) If one has received an ECN which appears to be correct and they have sent in the minimum payment by cheque with the pre-requisite slip of paper, and the cheque has not been cashed, can the council legally chase payment through a magistrates court?
(3) I was under the impression that for any authority to issue proceedings via the magistrates court the contravention must be criminalised - and with off street parking etc I was under the impression that all fines/excess charges should be through civil proceedings as councils were only authorised to collect monies for parking because the law was no longer criminalised i.e. one was in contravention of a said piece of legislation and no offence had taken place?
(4) If a council can take proceedings in a magistrates court then surely there is a legal bar/time limit as per offences committed in the case of the RTA. For example Police tend to issue a NIP (Notice of Intended Prosecution) by way of a HORTI - this then allows them to issue a summons after the statutory time has expired (I believe that if a NIP is not issued then they have only 14 days grace in which to issue proceedings/a summons etc otherwise they are out of time), therefore based on this scenario are councils bound by the same time interval?

As we have received notification about possible proceedings more than 6 months after the council claim that the payment was not received, I wondered if there was some get out for their lack of response until now?