On Mon, 4 Aug 2003 18:28:29 +0100, Andrew P Smith wrote:

In article , Wanderer
writes
On 4 Aug 2003 03:44:26 -0700, AOL's down again... wrote:

Hi folks.

On saturday last, I got a parking ticket in the delightful London
borough of Southwark. The ticket was issued by APCOA Parking for and
on behalf of the aforementioned London Borough. I was parked in a bay
marked "PERMIT HOLDERS ONLY MON-FRI 8am - 6pm". The ticket states that
the attendant believed I was "PARKED IN A PERMIT BAY WITHOUT
DISPLAYING A VALID PERMIT".

Clearly, as this happened on a saturday, I don't want to pay the £100
fine, nor do I want to pay the "reduced" £50 charge for paying within
14 days.

Are you satisfied that the details on the ticket are correctly entered? Has
the warden put the correct date down? If everything is correctly entered,
then I'd sit on it until you get the relevant notice to owner, but if
they're not then at best he could be acting dishonestly or fraudulently,
and I think I'd want a solicitor's opinion on that! Do you have a legal
assistance option on your car or house insurance? You might be able to get
some free legal advice that way.

I suggest that is bad advice. Go to the Parking Manager at the council
concerned and if he will not do anything about this ticket (if all the
details you have given are correct and the bay wasn't suspended etc)
then go direct to the Parking Appeals service and if all you say is
correct the ticket should be quashed.

Umm, asking if he's satified that everything about the ticket details are
correct is bad advice? Suggesting that he might be able to get legal advice
through either his motoring or household insurance is bad advice?

Reading other comments in the thread, the Parking Office is not obligated
to respond to his representations, and it's not unreasonable to suggest
that they are unlikely to be responsive before they issue the notice, given
that there is little opinion to the contrary. Yes, he can make his
representations as soon as he likes, but he's likely to get 4/5ths of Sweet
F.A. in response.