AIBU - Penalty charge notice re parking

[InYearAdmissions]

So we have parking restrictions outside our house and so we purchased an annual visitors parking permit at the cost of over £100 a year to enable visitors etc to be able to park.

My childminder uses this permit twice a week on a Tues and Weds when she picks my children up from school. Several weeks ago she got a parking ticket. She parked the car up 5 doors down in nearest place, came into the house to get the permit, went back out to put it in the car and had a ticket. Car was observed at 14:48 and ticket issued at 14:50. We appealed on the grounds that she was going into the house to get the permit to display it. It has been rejected on the basis that you have to have the permit on display. I rang them and asked how is this fair she had 2 minutes to get into the house (my childminder is 70) and back and display the permit. Apparently 2 minutes is the statutory time limit it takes no account of types of road (e.g. where you might have to park further away) or age of individual and basically tough. She said it used to be longer but all London councils decided 2 minutes was long enough so it was reduced across the whole of London.

I asked them why would anyone buy a visitors permit then if you are always at risk when someone has to go in and get the permit (admittedly we were unlucky). Their solution - buy another visitors permit so your childminder can have one all the time. WTF???

AIBU to think this is really unfair and they are penalising people who have no intention of parking without a permit, and the only reason they reduced the length of time in my opinion is to generate more revenue from parking tickets.

Apparently the only option open to me now is not to pay the fine and wait for it to double and then appeal again at that point, but I wonder what the point is as I don't have a leg to stand on if we have breached the time limit set out in statute.

two minutes? that's a bloody short time.

I think if it's likely to end up costing more and it's genuinely unlikely you'd win an appeal then galling as it is, it might be best to just pay up.

On tues and weds can one of your children take the pass to school with them? Or would they risk losing it?

Isn't that disability discrimination?

DON'T PAY IT!!!!! Is it a private parking company or council parking? If it's a private parking company there is a 'winning formula' appeal you can use, have a look at the MSE and Pepipoo sites to get more information. Even if it's council ticket Pepipoo can let you know if it's worth appealing. BTW if it's a ticket on the windscreen the Pofa act says they have to send you 'notice to keeper' between 28 -56 days AFTER the ticket was issued, so you may have a bit more time than you think you do.

Utterly ridiculous. Ticketing is aimed at those people who abuse the system by parking where they shouldn't, not someone going to get their permit. That's the really stupid thing about the 2 minute policy.

A two minute rule is ridiculous. It takes no account of the fact that disabled drivers may well take more than two minutes to walk even a short distance, which would mean that people like you could never have disabled visitors - or at least it would be unnecessarily complicated. I suspect that you if you point that fact out they might find themselves able to rethink. It might be worth contacting the Equality and Human Rights Commission, they sometimes support legal challenges.

There is loophole that states you only have to pay if they can prove in court that they suffered a loss as a result of the actions. As you have a visitors pass that your CM was on their way to get they will not be able to do this. Stand your ground!!

This isn't the best of links but it does give a link to someone who will challenge them for you.

www.theladbible.com/articles/lad-with-law-master-s-degree-finds-loophole-to-get-all-your-parking-ticket-fines-back

Also check out the info on money supermarket! They have fab info. Basically unless the company is lisenced by the council they can't ticket you anyway ;)

In the London borough where I allegedly committed a traffic offence they allow you to appeal without paying, on the understanding that once the result of the appeal is notified you have only a few days within which you can pay at the reduced rate. (Not sure that's very clear, but what I mean is that the clock stops at the point where you make an appeal and starts again once the appeal has been considered. So you don't have to pay up front, and you don't lose the benefit of the discount for prompt payment.)

Sadly, they weren't swayed by my considered, logical explanation!!

Yanbu. 2 minutes is a ridiculously short time. I was under the impression it was 5 minutes. Our borough only issues one off visitors permits, so people park and then get them.

Appeal to the council. I hope you get some good advice as to the legalities.