London council - legal issue, what can I do?

[chaiseloungedaylong]

Fuming. Back in early May I had a mechanical issue with my car as I was driving. Was on a busy road and pulled in for safety. Trouble is, I pulled onto a 'no cars' side street. I didn't continue to drive down the side street onto another junction (which is what the 'no cars' rule is trying to prevent), and backed out of the side street after a minute or two.

I got photographed and issued with a PCN for £120. The photographs show me backing out of the road and not driving over it! I appealed the notice, explaining the issue. I thought perhaps they had revoked the charge, as I heard nothing more...

...until today. Received a charge certificate claiming that because I either didn't appeal (I did and have email confirmation of that) or because they rejected the appeal and because I had not 'paid within the time frame or appealed to the adjudicator' they are now doubling the fee to £240 and threatening bailiffs if I don't pay up within 14 days.

Legally, they should have sent me a letter within 56 days of my appeal saying that my appeal was rejected and giving me an opportunity to pay the original fee of £120. I called the parking department - finally spoke to someone after kicking up a fuss, he sounded very shifty and suggested that the 'letter must have got lost in the post'.

I call bullshit. None of my other letters have gone missing - I am convinced they NEVER sent the interim letter, and money grab this way. What can I do here?

To be clear, if they had sent me a letter saying 'appeal rejected because of these reasons, you have 14 days to pay £120', I wouldn't have a problem. Annoying, yes. But this seems VERY questionable, if not illegal...

Appeal it again, I had a similar issue with a local council. If you've got a genuine reason why the PCN is incorrect then they will end up dropping it. Just make sure you keep all the email confirmations, because worst case scenario you could need that evidence for small claims court.

When I has a similar issue (I went into bus lane that had no warning signs displayed, then was stuck in it due to curb on both sides of the lane for a little bit). I had to dispute the penalty notice twice before they actually actioned my dispute and dropped it. Not that they accepted there was an issue, they worded the dismal 'as a gesture of goodwill we have decided not to proceed further with the penalty'.

@BlissfullHaze - thanks so much. What I'm worried about is that if I appeal again and 14 days passes, I risk even further charges and bailiffs showing up. That scares me. I'm already coming up against 'computer says no' type issues here - they do everything in their power to make this difficult and I could just see this being an automated process.

Like I said, it would be one thing if they had come back within the legal time frame and gave reasons for the appeal being rejected and game me an opportunity to pay the original PCN or appeal again. But they didn't do that, despite claiming they 'sent a letter'. It seems too suspicious with the 56 day deadline, particularly as this is a council known for trying to increase their revenue from PCNs.

If they are deliberately NOT sending interim letters between appeals and issuing Charge Certificates in order to double their takings, that is, of course, illegal. And I think that's what they're doing!