56 day limit - ** APPEAL ALLOWED **

[stuartw]

Here's an update on this case for anyone interested and rather than go thru all the issues again, I'll presume the previous posts have been read.

 

Finally, a year after the original PCN was issued, I had my day at PATAS. It was a confusing case, I was in there for quite a while and the Adjudicator couldn't decide at the time and wanted to go thru the documentation again. A decision was then posted to me and I'm happy to report that the appeal was allowed due to procedural impropriety.

 

Which was:

1. the council had not included all the correspondence in their evidence pack and had left out the documents that showed their incompetance which included sending me pictures that didn't identify my car and the reponse to my NTO which related to a different PCN that was nothing to do with me.

 

2. I was not the registered keeper (RK) but made an official representation in good faith on behalf of the RK as this is what I've always done and no one has ever told me otherwise, (I do now know, thanks to this forum, that only the RK can make a representation) the council then stopped communicating with me after sending me the wrong rejection notices and then claimed that they had received correspondence from "someone other than the registered keeper". The impropriety here was that they had advanced the case, sending me a charge certificate etc without letting me know that they were not prepared to accept my representaions.

 

Although I'm very happy to have got a result, it does highlight to me how ridiculous the system is as it was quite obvious the contravention occured (I was parked adjacent to a dropped kerb) however I would rather have argued the case with mitigation and had it judged on it's merits instead of having a battle of wits over the paperwork, however I guess that's a debate for another day.

 

Many thanks to those who contributed....

[honeybee13]

Hello there.

 

Well done for persevering, good result. I'll amend your thread title.

 

HB

[stuartw]

Hi,

Just wondering if the 56 day limit applies to an informal appeal or is it only valid for an appeal in responce to a "Notice to Owner"? I have just recieved a reply from the council to an informal appeal against a PCN, a week after the limit was crossed. The appeal was refused and I've been informed that the "notice to owner" will be sent in due course.

 

Can anyone clarify?

Thanks

[Michael Browne]

Statutory 56 day limit only applies to formal representation to the NtO, not informal challenge.

[stuartw]

Ok thanks for the clarification Michael, I thought that would be the case. I better pay it I guess, as in my experience, common sense, intelligence and fair enforcement are largely absent when it comes to dealing with local authority traffic departments and of course, reasoned argument gets you nowhere.