To appeal a parking fine...

[ILoveApples]

Parked outside school, along with several other cars, to collect A level results with DD. Half an hour later returned to find a ticket with a £70 fine (reduced to £35 if paid within two weeks).
I didn't realise that the parking bay was restricted to coaches between the hours of 8-5. However, as it is school holidays there wouldn't be any coaches parking anyway so does anyone think it's worth appealing or shall I just bite the bullet and pay £35?

If it was properly signposted then you won't have much success in appealing.

Definitely appeal. I assume it's a council-issued ticket and not one from a private racketeer parking firm?
Have a look on the Moneysavingexpert site, they have samlle letters for every situation.

Sample letters I mean.

Here. They also have advice on disputing the privately-issued ones.

If its from the council you may not have much luck with an appeal, where there any signs can you remember?

If its a private firm, definitely don't pay it. Let them pay to take you to court over £70, then have it thrown out like they always are... Honestly if more people knew just not to pay the fines from these private firms, they would all just go out of business.

It can be very hard to appeal from experience, but worth giving it a go in case a error was made (for example the attendant did not take enough photos of your car)

The fact it's not term time clearly doesn't exclude the restrictions or you wouldn't have received a ticket. Chalk it down to experience and cough up

pay ticket then appeal - also perhaps raise a query about unecessary restrictions?

If it was properly sign posted to be restricted parking, pay up. Whether there are going to be coaches there isn't the point...the majority of the time, restrictions like this aren't in place as a means to make sure coaches have somewhere to park. The exemption is normally there so that coaches don't block the road.

I've successfully appealed council fines- the deadline for paying the reduced fine gets delayed if you do this so nothing to lose. And each time I got an answer within a day or two.
If it's a private firm appeal only if you're prepared for lots of stress. We've successfully appealed these too but took ages.

Definitely don't ignore it. There was a case recently where the judge found in the private firm's favour, so although they'll probably appeal and may win, atm the waters are muddy so it's best not to ignore.

I got one for parking in a bus stop - despite the fact that the only bus that stops there doesn't run on Sunday, which was why I pulled in there

I paid the fine.

Thank you all for your replies, much appreciated. The warden was probably waiting for us as s/he knew we'd be there on results day . I'll think it over and check MSE before making a decision.

Thing is, you can't lose anything by appealing. Also, they're sometines late in sending the letter out (think it's called a Notice to Driver), in which case they've lost outright.

maddening you can't appeal after paying the ticket - the ehole point of appealing is to avoid payment. Any subsequent attempt at appeal will just go straight in the bin.

If its a private firm, definitely don't pay it. Let them pay to take you to court over £70, then have it thrown out like they always are... Honestly if more people knew just not to pay the fines from these private firms, they would all just go out of business.
They keep sending you letters which tell you the charge has gone up, so the amount they take you to court for may well be higher than £70.
It depends how strong you are feeling. DS (who has ASD) got one. He appealed and the appeal was rejected and they sent a letter saying he owed twice as much.
In the end we paid up because we couldn't face the thought of a long drawn out battle with them, because of all the other things we were facing at the time.
The woman taking the payment over the phone wasn't very pleasant either as if they are trained to assume that everyone is trying to 'get away' with it.

Claims by private firms definitely aren't always thrown out and, as mentioned upthread, one has recently had a victory which has set an important precedent in their favour. So it would be really, really silly to ignore a ticket from a private firm.

Wow £35 in London the half price ticket is £65!
I have appealed 5 tickets and all 4 i won the other I didn't have to end up paying because of a long story but you need to know the traffic law and word it correctly. As it's only £35 I would just pay

If you do appeal firstly do not pay it then appeal. It doesn't work like that.
Scan the ticket for ANY mistakes, car colour, number plate, time or date ANYTHING.
Go look at the sign see what it says, how far is the sign?
pick out all these details

I've successfully appealed council fines- the deadline for paying the reduced fine gets delayed if you do this so nothing to lose. And each time I got an answer within a day or two.
If it's a private firm appeal only if you're prepared for lots of stress. We've successfully appealed these too but took ages.

Crikey! How many parking fines have you incurred? ollieplimsoles

I appealed one earlier this year, waiting on double yellows for a loading bay to clear. Sent a photograph of the manifest (which had the helpful words HIGH VALUE - VULNERABLE) at the top.

We shall skate over the fact that the load wasn't actually loaded at that point...