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Parking Fine Question


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A while back, I received a ticket for parking in a council car park without a ticket. Soon afterwards, I offered to pay the £25 payment in installments, saying I couldn't afford to pay it all at once. By the time the council got back to me, the charge due had increased to £50.

 

Today, the council sent me the following letter (via email):

Parking Contravention: 83 Parked in a car park without clearly displaying a valid pay and display ticket or voucher or parking clock.

Dear Mr W,

Firstly I must advise you that the process for appealing a penalty charge notice does not allow for it to be kept at the reduced rate indefinitely whilst you continue to appeal. Once the initial 14 days has passed the penalty reverts to the original charge of either £50.00 or £70.00 depending on the contravention, in this case £50.00.

You initially challenged the PCN and were re-offered the discount which was again offered with the rejection of representations on 18/5/2012. As you chose to continue to email and contest the charge the penalty reverted to the full amount as is the correct procedure laid down by the Department for Transport..

I am not prepared to offer the discounted charge again as this case has been ongoing since the 1/4/2012. The Charge Certificate was issued to you on the 2/8/2012 which increased the amount owing by a further 50% to £75.00 as you were advised would happen in the rejection of representations. The procedure that has been followed is the correct one and as such no further lines of appeal are open. I must also advise you that the case does not go to court, the appeals process that was provided to you in our previous letters have now been exhausted.

I note that you have once again requested a payment plan, however as per my previous email, this is not possible due to the default on your case.

If payment is not made in full by the 31/8/2012 the debt will registered at the Traffic Enforcement Centre and a further £7.00 costs will be added, if payment is not made after this the debt will be passed to the bailiff for collection who are at liberty to add their own costs.

Is the council correct in their assessment of my situation? Surely they cannot act as judge, jury and executioner, rather than the case being looked at by an independent third party.

 

Also, the council have been corresponding with me by email, but didn't make any checks to ensure that I wasn't an imposter, such as asking me my DOB. Is that legal?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Jeff

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So despite offering to pay by instalments, over the next 4 months you failed to actually pay anything. Quite apart from the fact that councils do not generally allow payment of PCNs by installments, as far as the council were concerned you were a 'won't pay' as opposed to a 'can't pay'. They were still offering the discount 7 weeks after the date of the PCN, plenty of time to have saved up £25, I would have thought.

 

The council have followed the correct procedure. You have 3 weeks to pay £75, before bailiffs come and clamp your car.

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I've done nothing wrong. Why should I make payments when a payment scheme hasn't been agreed to? I made it quite clear to the council that I was happy to pay the £25 in installments, and they took forever to get back to me. That is not my fault.

 

Re: 'The council have followed the correct procedure. You have 3 weeks to pay £75, before bailiffslink3.gif come and clamp your car.' - Can anyone confirm or deny this?

 

With respect, I cannot help wondering whether you are presenting your take on the morality of my actions, rather than the official position. :)

 

Jeff

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How can you say that, knowing absolutely nothing about my finances?

 

Jeff

 

They were still offering the discount 7 weeks after the date of the PCN, plenty of time to have saved up £25, I would have thought.

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How can you say that, knowing absolutely nothing about my finances?

 

Jeff

 

I would think, reading your original post, that Michael made the assumption that, as you had asked to pay in installments you were able to make a small weekly payment to clear the debt - how much had you intended asking them to accept and over what period of time to clear this PCN?

 

Feebee_71

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Freebee - Yes, he did, but it was presumptuous of him to assume that I could have paid it off by now. And even if I could have done, why should I have done so, when my offer was still being considered? The council could have said 'OK, we accept your offer, but if you break the terms of it then the offer is rescinded'. Instead, they chose to wait till the fee had increased to £50 before declining my repayment offer, which strikes me as an underhand tactic.

 

I can't remember off hand what I offered to pay (it may have been a fiver a week), but it's not relevant as Michael Browne didn't know what is affordable to me. :)

 

Jeff

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In that case, with respect, I'll let others confirm the bad news.

They might have trouble locating the car in question, given that I scapped it a few weeks ago...

 

I've bought a new car since. Can they clamp it?

 

Jeff

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From http://www.penaltychargenotice.co.uk/the-enforcement-process/pcn-issued-at-the-scene/registration-of-debt-order-for-recovery-warrant-of-execution-and-witness-statement-%28formerly-a-statutory-declaration%29/:

 

'if the penalty is not then paid, the authority may apply to the court for a pcn.pcn. which will then allow the enforcing authority to instruct bailiffs to recover the debt.'

 

This would seem to contradict the council's claim in their letter to me that 'I must also advise you that the case does not go to court'...

 

Jeff

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