How to pay and display

Motorists who have fallen foul of local council parking rules (Mail) may benefit from my experience at a Traffic Tribunal. on May 19 this year, we parked in Bath Road South car park, in Bournemouth. I bought a two-hour ticket and placed it in my vehicle.

Unfortunately, the ticket seems to have fallen on the car floor so when one of the town’s parking officers passed they put a Penalty Charge Notice on my windscreen.

on my return home, I noted that the penalty was for failing to display a ticket so I appealed, sending the ticket to the council as proof that I had paid according to the rules. The appeal was refused on the grounds that I had failed to display the ticket so the officer could see it.

I appealed to a Traffic Penalty Tribunal. It ruled that an offence occurs only if one fails to purchase a ticket for the period of parking and that the display of the ticket is to enable a council to check that payment has been made.

It said the parking officer was correct to write out a penalty notice if the ticket wasn’t clearly displayed but that once the motorist sent the ticket to the council, the display element of the law had been met and the penalty notice satisfied.

The council tried to claim that its fee board carried pictures explaining how a motorist should meet the obligation to display, but the tribunal stated that once the motorist had supplieds the ticket, the council had non discretion and the penalty notice wasw satisfied.

I’ve spoken to other motorists who’ve been fined for placing tickets on the wrong side of the car or not in a designated place, but this ruling shows that display means anywhere in the vehicle where it can be clearly seens or if the ticket is shown to the councilc as proof of purchase.

KENNETH CHIVERS, Westfield, Surrey.