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Why Bother Appealing Parking Ticket?
There has been a drastic increase in a space of a few years in the allocation
and collection of parking ticket. The purpose of the fine was to ensure that
motorists would adhere to the limits and restrictions for the safety of one and
all. But, today it is a mere excuse for a beneficial endowment into the
Government's stake. The intention has become different and we all are feeling it
heavily on our pockets.
Since the time the local councils have taken over the responsibility of parking
regulations for a parking ticket issued have gone up from a mere 794,851 during
2000-2001 to a record 3,402,860 in 2005, almost 19% higher than the previous
year! This leads many to believe a parking ticket to be just a method of revenue
generation for the councils instead of being a road safety ensuring instrument.
Maximum parking tickets were issued by Birmingham with 176,382 tickets followed
by the towns of Brighton & Hove, Manchester, Liverpool, and Nottingham who gave
out 160,018, 136,005, 92,642 and 75,350 parking tickets respectively. The
National Parking Adjudication Service is the body who deal with appeals from
motorists and they say that councils should stop playing “fast and loose” with
the legal restrictions on a parking ticket.
This institution known as the NPAS handles all the left-over appeals from when
the local authorities pass them over.
In 2006, motorists appealed to NPAs with the help of Parking Ticket Appeal
Service and 57% of the cases were won. In fact, motorists always have a higher
chance of winning the appeal even without having to go the NPAs.
The Road Traffic Act of 1991 was passed enabling the councils to enforce
“decriminalised parking ticket” with parking restriction in their areas and
higher parking fines. Needless to say the fine amounts have seen a dramatic rise
each year along with the ruthlessness of the councils and devious attitude of
the traffic wardens. Even cars with painted double lines underneath have been
heard to get a parking ticket.
Councils have been criticized by NPAs for ticketing poor motorists who have gone
to get change for paying for the parking ticket. On moral grounds, it is
undoubtedly an unacceptable practice.
A motorist thus would usually be stuck behind a fumbling driver suffering an
indecisive moment in front of the pay and display machine. Common sense should
be used and the motorist not get a parking ticket.
Some councils even hold the view that motorists should only enter a car park
with the exact change on them. Simply put, you can expect a parking ticket under
any circumstances.
Appealing is by far the best thing to do in these situations, since one must
realize that councils are almost always wrong as they blindly apply parking
ticket regulations and only appealing can stop them from such motorist
harassment.
Moreover, keep in mind that the traffic wardens are always under pressure from
the local council to issue a parking ticket to as many motorists as possible.
Hence, most of the tickets issued have no legal basis whatsoever, precisely why
you have more chances of winning your appeal if you know the loopholes.
Usually motorists never end up appealing a parking ticket since they have a
preconceived notion that an extremely lengthy and complicated parking ticket
appeal letter needs to be written. But this is far from the truth since one just
needs a simple and basic letter to cancel his parking ticket and there exists
numerous websites that provide samples and templates by way of helping you draft
your letter.
You need to draft your parking ticket appeal letter in short and simple
paragraphs, the first stating that you have been issued a parking ticket by
mistake and the later ones justifying your reasons for it. DO not ever use rude
words or technical jargons in your letter which must essentially come across as
polite and in an easy to understand structure.
Your reasons might be that your car was stolen or that you weren’t driving your
car at that point of time. You might also say that there was a break down or
there wasn’t enough signage regarding parking restriction in the area. Keep in
mind that photographic evidence always works wonders for such parking ticket
appeals.
Who Can Appeal Against A Parking Ticket?
Decriminalization in the 90's provided parking control power to the Local
Councils, and as a result, there has been a severe increase in the number of
parking tickets handed out over there years. This small change has prompted more
than a few people to appeal their parking ticket.
Some people argue that the reason why there are more parking tickets issued
since decriminalisation is because Local Authorities and the subcontractors they
use to collect the parking ticket are more interested in the increased revenue
made from the parking fines. This theory seems to correlate with the year on
year increase of parking tickets issued.
There are so many reasons for the recent increase in appeals for a parking
ticket. Recently the cost of the parking ticket has shot up to 120 pounds with
certain motorists which really is unacceptable.
It is always a good idea to contest a parking ticket if you genuinely feel hard
done by or think the parking fine was unfairly issued to you. Around 50% of
motorists who decide to appeal their parking ticket win their appeal. Half the
time Local Councils do not even bother to turn up at these parking appeals.
In case nobody was ever issued with a parking ticket, then there would have been
no issues of chaos and confusion of traffic on the road; the Local Council would
have smaller financial constraints for supporting their travel taxes or they
would have never imposed unfair parking fines for raising revenues in collecting
Council Taxes.
Right now, in spite of the fact that traffic tickets are a necessary evil, there
are more than a few traffic wardens pushing motorists to the edge, stopping them
for every conceivable violation and not bothering to check the legitimacy of
their parking ticket.
So if one finds there is no such signs mentioned for parking in there, or
something he smells fishy for parking, then he should avoid that area because it
is better to avoid a huge parking ticket or appeal for traffic ticket which are
a mere trap to make the commons fool of alleged parking.
To appeal for a parking ticket is not so hard. In spite of this so easy made and
compact procedure, 99% people still don’t pay up their parking fines. All it
takes usually is a simple letter written to the local council or if one is even
more lucky enough then a quick and easy email.
The question right now is whether you believe it would be simpler to pay up in
the range of a few hundred pounds, or whether it would be easier to just write
the letter. It's your choice, but it's so much easier to write the parking
ticket letter. In fact, what we need right now is a website that will guide us
through this process!
Remember that you're going to need evidence before you rush into court, and that
evidence could be photographic or even written proof. For instance you could try
to prove that street signs were not visible or were improperly placed. Believe
it or not, about two thirds of all parking tickets are successfully appealed in
the end due to the fact that they are legally invalid.
Evidence of photography can also be avoided if one provides technical
assistance. Very common technicalities include doing things written on the
tickets like if the ticket says the car was parked in Smith Street when in fact
you were parked in smith road, then you can simply argue that the incident
didn’t even occur thus increasing the parking ticket appeal more strongly and
winning it.
A new phenomenon of private parking ticket is also very famous these days for
those who don’t want to mess up collecting loads of clues and evidences. The
ticket looks very similar when compared to the original one, the only written
form changes which says like “Parking Charge Notice pay within 14 days for a
reduced rate. Non payment will result in us contacting the D.V.L.A. for your
details.”
But paying attention to a parking ticket which are given privately is always a
worse option to opt for. The appeal for a legal parking ticket is rejected when
one usually writes for them. The reason that I discourage you all for pursuing
these companies is that they constantly pest negative threats after issuing the
illegal ticket. This is because they are legally invoices but not tickets.
Let's take a company like Euro Car Parks as an example. They have made more than
a few threats, but they've never actually taken anyone to court. Why? Because if
they dragged an individual into court they would only receive the original
parking ticket fee which would be about three pounds.
To conclude do not respond to the parking ticket companies even if they send you
3 or 4 threatening letters. Once they don’t get any response from you they will
give up or alternatively forward the letters to me and I will bring court orders
on them for harassment. As for other parking ticket appeal companies and their
legalizations please check out their technicality or some useful advice that
they can offer you.
