parking charge notice

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Mon 5 Nov 2012 22:04
parking charge notice - l33

Hi All,

I wonder if anybody can help me, My wife drove our teenager back to University in Surrey today and basically parked on a road on campus with no signage or road markings, she actually parked next to another car, and when she came back from unloading my daughters things she found she had a PARKING CHARGE NOTICE from a company called town and city parking ltd and this was for obstruction, now my wife has taken photos and from what i can see she was not obstructing anyone, but i was not there and do not know enough about traffic law.
The charge is for £60 reduced to £30 if paid within 10 days, my wife is quite annoyed but ready to pay to make it go away. Although i am the registered keeper so will receive all correspondence.
I would be very grateful for any advice on how to approach this or should we just pay it
Many thanks in advance

l33

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Tue 6 Nov 2012 08:13
parking charge notice - Dwight Van Driver

Prior to 1.10.12 any Parking Charge Notices were subject to civil law of contract and a matter between driver and land owner/Co acting oin their behalf. They had to prove who the driver was and there was no obligation on the Reg Keeper or for him to name the driver. Hence it became practice to ignore such tickets.

1.10.12 came into being the Protection of Fredom Act 2012 which gave the right to pursue the Reg Keeper for charges.

However S 56 of that Act said this could only be done if there were signs indicating the charges clearly visible. None mentioned.

BUT interesting in this case is the fact that the ticket was not issued in relation to an infringment of a PARKING CHARGE but one of obstruction which to me is not covered under the Section.

If there was an obstruction then this was on a private road and not attracting a PENALTY CHARGE NOTICE/FIXED PENALTY TICKET under Road Traffic Acts i.e. criminal offence.

It would therefore seem that we go back to the old matter of contract between driver and landowner/company acting on their behalf.

So to me one of three courses of action:

1. Ignore the ticket and any future threatening letters unless there is a letter detailing an action at a County Court. Very doubtful they will take this action in view of time trouble and expense to do so. Even if they did there is an argument as outlined above that this would be unlawful. Still collect evidence re photos of area and lack of signs in case.

2. Run an appeal back to them on the above grounds. Very doubtful that they will accept.

3. Bend over and accept and pay up.

Would be intresting to hear of views of others on this site.

dvd

Edited by Dwight Van Driver on 06/11/2012 at 08:14

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Tue 6 Nov 2012 09:18
parking charge notice - RT

Unloading is permitted on public highways, even on yellow lines, unless there is a loading/unloading restriction in force - excluding motorways, clearways and red routes of course.

I can't think of a reason why restrictions on private land should be more draconian than public highway.

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Tue 6 Nov 2012 12:42
parking charge notice - daveyjp
Just ignore it.
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