Clapham parking madness!

Well Clappers, you won’t believe what happened to Love Clapham yesterday. My sister is off to Australia for a month and I’m looking after her car  (she lives in Leeds and flew from Heathrow). On Tuesday 29th December, I merrily popped off to the Lambeth Parking Shop to get a month long parking permit, the ladies working there were fantastically helpful. To cover myself in the meantime, I bought a pay and display ticket until 12.30pm. When I arrived back to the house at Midday, with half an hour to spare I found a penalty notice on my car despite the still active ticket being stuck in the windscreen. Oh yes, I was angry!

Not only did this leave me extremely annoyed over the Christmas break, but also worried about having to pay a penalty of between £60 – £120. Hardly a small sum of money. Now, I have faith that my appeal will go through, it’s pretty hard to ignore the times and dates on the tickets. However, my biggest concern is that such a ‘mistake’ could happen to other people. So, I’ve sent the below letter which I’d like to publish here as an open letter.

To whom it may concern

RE: Unfair Penalty Charge Notice

I bought a pay and display parking ticket for my car at 8.29am, expiring at 12.30pm on Tuesday 29^th December for ******* Road, Clapham (the road on which I live). The ticket was clearly displayed on the windscreen, however on returning to the car I found the Penalty Charge (no. LH42439027) had been issued at 11.36, despite having almost an hour left on my ticket. I have enclosed copies of both the penalty charge notice and the parking ticket on display. Please can you review this and cancel the penalty charge notice.

Although I understand mistakes happen, I would also like to register a complaint about Civil Enforcement Officer ****** who should at least have their processes checked. My parking ticket was clearly displayed in the windscreen of the car with considerable time left, so they either didn’t look at all or simply chose to ignore the ticket. Although this letter doesn’t take long to write and send, it is an inconvenience and a worry I shouldn’t have to do deal with, particularly after paying £8.40 for the car to be parked in the zone. My biggest concern is that this could be happening to other people.

One final comment is a recommendation that you please consider allowing this review process to be submitted by email. It would make the entire process far easier for both parties, particularly for people like me who don’t own a printer and would like to keep digital records.

Regards,

Jack Wallington