Would you pay this parking fine?

[LadyKyliePonsonbyFarquhar]

DH and I went into town the other evening. There is a festival on and it's very busy, drove around for a bit looking for a parking space. Someone comes out just in front of us - line of cars parked along the side of the road- so we nipped in. I went to check if we had to pay and the sign said "payable between 8am and 6pm" and it was almost 7pm so off we went. What I did not notice was another sign saying "taxi rank after 8pm" so when we got back to the car there was a ticket on the windscreen.
After a moment we realised what we'd done and went home cursing but with every intention of paying (£35 if we paid within 2 weeks).
Anyway, I sat down todo the payment on line and upon closer inspection noticed that the registration number is not correct on the ticket - one letter is different. DH is now saying not to pay, I'm not so sure, so dear Mumsnet jury WWYD.?

do you think you being parked there created an inconvenience for taxi drivers or their customers? My answer comes down to whether your parking there really caused a problem to anyone.

Who gets the £35, the council?

if its a council one call - chances are the fine will be made invalid.

Call though simply ignoring is not the right thing to do

Yes, I think it's from the council and no, we didn't cause any inconvenience.

If you ring council you'll be admitting liability.
If I could spare the £35 I'd pay up & forget about it.

Yes, it says on the back of the ticket.
If you wish to challenge this PCN contact us with your PCN number, address and registration number.

I suppose I could ring the council and say I'm asking "for a friend".

If I give them my name can they find out that I'm the owner of a vehicle with the correct registration number?

I think traffic wardens often take photos these days so although they may have transcribed it wrong they may have proof it was your car.

If you do not wish to pay the fine try Martin Lewis Moneysaving website for how to challenge a parking fine. Did the job for me earlier this year. I think you will win, as they have made a mistake on their paperwork.

Ask Martin Lewis on moneysaving expert.com
There's a wealth of knowledge on there

no, we didn't cause any inconvenience.

How do you know?

Ok. I will look on Martin Lewis' website.
I don't THINK we caused any convenience. It was a proper parking space and when we came back at about 11pm all the other spaces around us were free. It was a taxi driver waiting opposite who confirmed to us that the area becomes a taxi rank at 8pm. He wasn't particularly offended.

Our council traffic wardens take photos of the car as proof. I'd pay the £35 and chalk it up to bad luck.

So I have filled in a challenge form on the council website and will see what happens. They will either decide it's invalid and cancel the charge or I will pay up £35.
I'll update later.

Of course you challenge it- everyone on MN seems intent on giving away money. May as well try. Don’t overly go into details just respond saying this is not my car reg- up to them to prove it was your car.

It's super important you don't admit your car was there.

Result !!
Had a letter from the council this morning.
"We have cancelled your PCN after carefully considering what you say...
We agree that your PCN was incorrectly issued. We are sorry for our mistake and for the inconvenience this has caused you" 😆
Thanks for everyone's advice.

I mean you're splitting hairs here. You parked somewhere where you shouldn't park and because someone mistyped a letter/number you don't want to pay. Fair enough if you hadn't parked incorrectly and it was a legitimate case of mistaken identity - challenge away, but this is just like saying "if you do something wrong but don't get caught, then it's totally okay to do"