Penalty Charge Notice

[krakers]

Hi - I live next to an unadopted road. It provides access to a hotel carpark, a tennis club and a private road that runs behind my house. Residents park on this road 24/7/365 and have done since I moved into the house.

The road itself is owned by the tennis club to the rear, who had it surfaced, drained, lit and painted double yellow lines on it around 4 years ago. Once in a while new traffic wardens to the area issue PCN's, which have always been cancelled on appeal.

This morning all the residents (including me) had received PCN's. I caught up with the traffic warden who'd issued them, in case she was new. She told me that at thier briefing that morning, they'd been told to ticket the road from now on. She didn't say why the change had occured, but alluded to a change in the law which means the council can now ticket. Also, that if I park there again (and theres no closer legal parking for about 1/4 mile) then I'll be ticketed again.

I subsequently confirmed with the tennis club committee that they do in fact still own the road, its still unadopted, and they haven't given the council permission to enforce parking on the road.

My questions are :

1 Has there been a change in the law making this ticketing legal ?
2 If not, can I continue to park there and just accumulate tickets until I go to court ?
3 If so, surely they'd have to inform local residents of a change ?

Cheers ...... Krakers.

[fountain]

Sounds like the council are trying to pull a fast one to me! I reckon they're just hoping some people won't challenge the tickets and pay up.

It's rubbish. If the road is private land, it's nothing to do with the council. Are they going to ticket people parking on their driveways next? I would suggest the traffic wardens are trespassing and could be asked to leave by the landowner.

[markja]

send your appeal in with a letter stating it is a private road and that the trafic wardens should be briefed on this. if the council still continue would all the residents get together to sue the council for harasment or such like? or the tennis club issue a formal notice to the council that their wardens are not allowed on site and any that do venture on will be sued for trespass?

bl**dy parking gestapo, quick to try to make us pay, try to get compensation out of them? no chance!

[astondog]

Unadopted means just that and the council will always deny responsibility if repairs are needed so tell where to stick the ticket. Also find out how many people have paid the penalties in the past and get them to claim their money back

[krakers]

Thanks for the replies.

The parking attendants seem to have gone mad. I've counted around 70 tickets issued in the last 3 days. I'm the proud owner of 2 (and will probably have another one in the morning). A disabled neighbour a few doors up has 5. Three for him and two for his daughter.

I've spoken to the tennis club - one of the committee will happily come to court with me. Also I've Emailed the council asking them to confirm the roads status in writing.

Next question - can I get any tickets I accumulate withdrawn at my first court hearing, or do I have to go to court for each ?

They've ticketed a lot of people so far, and anyone not a resident will probably pay up. Surely that can't be legal. Is there any way to get them to hand the money back to all those poor motorists ?

[krakers]

Hi - I got another ticket yesterday, and another this morning.

I spoke with the Parking attendant to let her know she was trespassing on private land today. She caled her supervisor, who then called her supervisor. So there was me and 4 parking attendants in total. They are acting under the guidance of a Road Traffic Order.

The council 2 weeks ago advertised in a local paid for paper that they were going to place an order on the road. When no-one complained they took out the order the following week. They are now implementing it.

Could someone please confirm the legality of this ? It is 100% unadopted, 100% ownder by the tennis club, they have 100% given me permission to park there, and have not under any circumstances authorised the council to do this.

However they are continuing to ticket. Both myself and other residents are feeling very harassed.

Krakers.