Parking Fine.

[webbo3]

my friend just put a picture on facebook of a parking machine, his wife just came out of the hospital having worked a 12 hr shift and she recieved a £50 fine.

Now, the A4 sign directly above and touching the sign says
MON-fRI 9AM-5PM
pay at machine
Display ticket
Max stay 3 hours.

So its free on a weekend.

The tiny sign on the machine (about 3"x2" says something different and she was fined.

Which sign is right?

Thanks.

Dave.

[THECORBYLOON]

What does the wee sign say?

[webbo3]

Not sure I cant read it but im guessing it contradicts the big one and says you have to pay on a weekend.

[willbewhatiwill]

To be fair, the larger more prominent sign should take priority as it gives the impression that parking is free at weekends (hence no need to go to the pay machine to pay).

[Buenchico]

When someone parks on a car park they automatically enter into a contract with the owner of that car park to pay the charges which are displayed.

HOWEVER . . .
no contract can be entered into where one of the parties has not been made fully aware of the terms which the other party wishes to apply to that contract. A court would be likely to rule that, through not displaying the Saturday parking charges CLEARLY (especially when there's a far larger sign apparently implying that weekend parking is free), the operator of the car park has failed to provide the necessary information for a valid contract to be established.

Well over 90% of the posts here about car parking charges are from people who've not got a moggy-in-Hades chance of getting the charge withdrawn. However, based upon your description of the signs, your friend seems to have a valid case for a successful appeal (with the car park operator having little chance of winning in court if they decided to reject the appeal and sue your friend).

[Peter Pedant]

well it is a penalty and not a fine innit ?
follow the rules for appeal
wait twenty eight days or whatever and then play roulette for the fine

include the photo and put together an argument that the signs must be consistent and it is unfair to change the rules and not make them clear by obscuring the old ( inconsistent) rules

or pay the reduced fine within x days

my spazz card was obscured by the clocky thing so the day was obscured but the month and year OK ( Aug 2019 ) yup Aug 2019 was clear- and got a penalty. I pleaded with a photo that the card HAD been displayed and got a really poncey reply from the appeal operative that I had in fact not displayed the card but they were gonna waive it anyway.

yeah we pay for this unutterable crip

[Buenchico]

PS: I've assumed that there's not a massive sign, with letters a foot high, at the entrance to the car park, reading "CHARGES APPLY AT ALL TIMES. SEE MACHINES FOR DETAILS".

If there is then the car park operator might have a good case for arguing that your friend should have looked more closely at the signs by the machines.

[webbo3]

[IMG]http://i67.tinypic.com/6ypms0.jpg[/IMG]

http://tinypic.com/r/6ypms0/9

[tonyav]

Not working, Dave ^^^^

[Buenchico]

Those links aren't working for me, Webbo.

Try HostingPics instead.
(Instructions in my post here: http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Technology/Question1564552.html )

[webbo3]

I cant get the pic to upload to just says sending failed.

[Buenchico]

Is that with TinyPic or HostingPics? (As the latter is a French site, I'd be surprised to see an error message in English!)

[Peter Pedant]

take a photie of the sign that says dont pay
and say you relied on it

you dont have to say "and to be fair there was this that and the other"

[webbo3]

http://imgur.com/a/aB4RJ

[willbewhatiwill]

Fairness, reasonableness and rules of Equity is part of what a Law Court Judge (hence followed by organisations asking for payment) uses to form his/her judgement.

[Buenchico]

That image suggests that the parking plate above the machine is simply resting there, rather than being attached to anything. (i.e. it might have been ripped down by vandals from somewhere else, with some well-meaning person picking it up and putting on top of the machine).

However it would seem to be enough for a valid appeal:
https://www.bristol.gov.uk/appeal-a-parking-or-bus-lane-fine

[webbo3]

Thanks Chris, my friend is going back up to look for more signs and check the small one on the machine.


Dave.

[tonyav]

Going on that photo I'd definately appeal.

[Buenchico]

For information, here's what the RingGo website says the charges at that location are:
https://img4.hostingpics.net/pics/6740482647Parking.jpg

That's clearly at odds with the sign over the machine.

[mikey4444]

Reading all this, and looking at the photo, I would have thought you had a pretty good case to argue that the signs were conflicting and confusing, so I would challenge this fine.

[Kathyan]

Peter 'spazz card' how offensive!