The reason why they cancelled the ticket is perfectly clear ... they didn't want this brought before an adjudicator or referred upwards to the High Court.
Parking Appeals has a message to every motorist who has received a parking ticket in Medway in the last 7 years ... drop us a line at enquiries@parkingappeals.co.uk and you may be in for a surprise.
Meanwhile, anyone with a current ticket ... drop us a line and we will show you exactly how to appeal successfully.
Parking Appeals' member Ian Holland's is set to become a local hero which is not a bad result for £9.99 for twelve month's membership.
We have been provided with some of the comments from a Medway Council spokesman attempting to defend the authority's approach to parking fines ... (before the appeal went in).
My comments are in red.
He said: "The council regularly checks its parking procedures with the Department for Transport and the National Parking Adjudication Service."
A series of questions and a Freedom of Information Request has been submitted.
"The wording on both the penalty charge notice and notice to owner is legal and accurate."
Well let's get a case to the adjudicator and test it. Anyone in Medway got a ticket pending?
"The use of the word 'offence' is a commonly used adjective that the majority of the public would understand."
It's a noun ... and the draftsmen of the legislation would not take kindly to councils 'assuming' what they meant and replacing words with ones they consider would be 'more easily understood.'
"The parking adjudicator suggests that the word 'contravention' and not 'offence' should be used on the notice to owner, but this is only a suggestion and this is not mandatory."
Schedule 6 of the 1991 Road Traffic Act is mandatory. Can't wait for the source of the statement from the parking adjudicator.
"The penalty charge notice therefore legally still stands, but the holder may still use our appeals process."
He did and the ticket was cancelled for one of the best excuses we have ever heard. Read it below ...
Motorist wins parking fine fight ...
• Victory over wording on notice could spark flood of appeals
by Hayley Robinson
hrobinson@thekmgroup.co.uk
Medway Messenger
A MOTORIST has won his battle against a parking fine because of incorrect wording.
Ian Hollands was issued with the ticket in Rochester High Street while carrying out security work at a jewellery shop on New Year's Eve.
But a Notice to Owner document, issued to motorists when they haven't paid their penalty charge within 28 days, describes the violation as an 'offence'.
Protest group parkingappeals.co.uk told Mr Hollands that under the decriminalised scheme brought in by the Road Traffic Act 1991, as no crime has occurred, the use of the word 'offence' rendered the penalty invalid.
As a result, hundreds of thousands of parking tickets issued to motorists could be challenged.
Medway Council has given another reason for their decision to cancel the ticket.
Its letter to Mr Hollands reads:
"It has been recorded that you had a conversation with the parking attendant at the time that the ticket was issued and the attendant noted that you were working in the High Street at the time."
Mr Hollands said:
"Like anyone, I'm pleased that I don't have to pay the fine but I'm disappointed Medway Council has not addressed the issue that the wrong wording is being used on their Notice to Owner letter."
Medway Council said the wording was legal and accurate and it is suggested, not mandatory, that the word 'contravention' and not 'offence' should be used on the notice to owner.
Nick (?) Herron, spokesman for the website, says the council is wrong.
He said:
"It is a mandatory requirement to use the word contravention instead of offence as in schedule six of the Road Traffic Act 1991."
Medway Messenger, 21 March 2008
1 comment:
I have just been issued (July 09)with a parking ticket in Rochester High Street and it now states 'contravention' all over the ticket rather than 'offence'
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