Debt and parking fine

[moose53]

Yesterday I had a meeting with the Citizens Advice Bureau about my debt. I bought a parking ticket to cover me for two hours, thinking this would be ample.

 

Unfortunately my meeting lasted over three hours and so consequently I recieved a £60 fine, reduced to £30 if I pay it within a fortnight.

 

Needless to say, I haven't got the money. I wouldn't usually try to wriggle out of paying, but I'm thinking of writing to the council to explain the circumstances.

 

Does anybody have any views on this? All feedback greatly appreciated.

[Pete Gibbs]

OI have tried to get out of parking tickets loads of times but no joy they really make you feel like it should be your top priority to pay them, you can of course set up payment plans with them and i would do that straight away other wise they put that 60 upto 90 and then 95 quite quicky. I dont know of any way of getting out of them.

[moose53]

Thanks Pete, I think I'll try to raise the £30 and offer it to them but at the same time try to appeal.

[Rob S]

The only possible get out clause you might have is if the wording of the PCN does not comply with the model set out by the DfT (I think). There are some threads on here which cover that angle, so its worth a look.

[moose53]

Cheers Rob

[bandonbhoy]

this issue is close to te main thread. yesterday i parked in street in hamilton scotland. i knew i was only going to bank so put in the money for the least amount of time. that was 20p for 15 mins. i put it in at 1046 on my watch, but when ticket came out it showed expiry time at 1057. so i was only going to get 9 mins. when i checked the ticket itshowed that the time of issue was 1042.

so i had to purchase a new ticket for longer time so that i could complete my business. how many of those clocks in the parking machines are incoreectly set deliberately/accidently ? and that would be ok if the meter attendants have set their watches to themachine time.

I had noticed this clock aberration at prestweick airport recently where you can enter a car park and stay free for 10 mins before a chrage incurs. but their clocks are aslso not accuarte with accurate time.

is it legal to operate such a system with inaccurate clocks?

[gooner14]

ref Bandonbhoy

No it is not legal to operate with incorrect clocks, if the attendants are using handheld comps to issue the tickets they are required to ensure that they are all showing the correct time at the start of shift. Most councils link their servers to the atomic clock for precisly that reason.

Ref moose53

Dependant on your councils policy it may be worth a try, our council works well in this respect, if you do have debt and were in fact with CAB to discuss this it might be worth getting a letter off the CAB as supporting evidence and giving an appeal a whirl.