Parking fine advice?

[applestrudels]

I got a parking fine and I can't decide whether to just pay it now or appeal it. If I pay it today it's £25 but if I appeal it and lose it'll be £50 (I'm right at the end of the 14 day window for the 50% discount as I've been on holiday!)

Basically, I live in a residence permit area, and I have to buy a new permit every 3 months. The last permit I bought never arrived, so I emailed the council to inform them and ask them what to do and they never got back to me. So I just did what most people do while waiting for their permit to arrive and put a little sign on the dashboard saying "Parking permit bought" then the reference number. This worked for a full 2 and a half months, until one day I came down to a parking ticket.

If I appeal, my evidence would be: the receipt of payment for the parking permit, the email I sent to the council informing them that the permit had not arrived (and their lack of response), and also a close-up photo of the sign in the windscreen saying I had applied for a new permit (which is also visible in the photographs the traffic warden took.

Does anyone have any experience of this sort of thing? Do you think I would be successful if I appealed or should I just cough up?

I think you stand a reasonable chance of appeal but I would have chased the council every week.

You didn’t chase for two months? Usually when you appeal they hold the reduce charge and if they find against you the original charge of the lesser amount is still payable for a additional period of 14 days but it should tell you on the appeal website, I’ve had a fair few tickets.

If you had a valid permit the day the fine was issued, but just not received the physical item, and it and the fine was issued by the council rather than a private parking company, you had done what you could reasonably do to chase up the missing permit and you had a sign explaining, which presumably the traffic warden could have checked on the system, then I would appeal, because you had a permit and did what was reasonable to display it, but you were prevented from doing so due to failings in the system that were outside your control.

Our council tells you to write the details on paper until you get your permit. I’d call and find out why the permit was delayed/check it’s actually been processed before deciding

Appeal definitely. We are permitted also. Total pita!!

Look on the money saving expert forum, loads of advice on there. I've recently successfully appealed against one.

2 and a half months and you didn't think to call them?

Just pay it.

Appeal. It's a contractual situation.
You've paid for your parking ticket and can prove it.

Thanks for the advice everyone! I have appealed it and thankfully they put it on hold until a decision is reached, which means I should still be able to pay the reduced fee if they reject the appeal.

And yes, I know I should have put more effort into chasing up the missing permit in the first place, I just got a bit complacent since the note in the windscreen was doing its job and since the permit was only for 3 months anyway, every week that passed without a problem just made me think "oh well, it's obviously fine then until I get the next permit". (The email telling me to renew arrived literally the day after I got the fine, so I was so close to the finish line!)