Parking fine for being parked in country lay-by.

[henrygregory]

Hi, I have just come back to my car to find a fine placed on the windscreen. The company concerned are Parking Partnership (working as agents for the enforcement authority Essex County Council). I was parked in a country lay-by. There are no signs to say no parking, and there are double yellows the entire way down the road but not in the bays. I saw something on BBC WatchDog about this a couple of weeks ago, there are no signs at all to say no parking. The fine reason says Parked in a restricted street during prescribed hours.

Can anyone tell me if I have done anything wrong as I can't see how they can fine someone when the bay is not marked with any signs and I am parked on the wrong side of the double yellows. This has so far taken me 45 minutes in my own time to upload images, write up in this forum and search on google. I have a good mind to send them the bill for my time. It seems I was not the only unfortunate person to get a ticket.

[Inca]

Re: Parking fine for being parked in country lay-by.

There weren't any signs at the beginning of the road were there?? (am thinking they may be 'passing places')

Oh,,and to LegalBeagles

[henrygregory]

Re: Parking fine for being parked in country lay-by.

There weren't any signs at the beginning of the road were there?? (am thinking they may be 'passing places')

Oh,,and to LegalBeagles

Hi, thanks for your post, no no signs, and they never used to be passing places. I have parked my car there occasionally for years. It is really close to a National Trust property, so they are obviously trying to clamp down on people who can't afford the expensive National Trust parking prices.

[Eloise01]

Re: Parking fine for being parked in country lay-by.

I may be utterly wrong about this, but I don't think that legally that area is a "parking bay". My understanding is that a legal parking bay has broken white lines - not double yellow ones. Parking "the other side of double yellow lines" I think doesn't make it a parking place.

[henrygregory]

Re: Parking fine for being parked in country lay-by.

I may be utterly wrong about this, but I don't think that legally that area is a "parking bay". My understanding is that a legal parking bay has broken white lines - not double yellow ones. Parking "the other side of double yellow lines" I think doesn't make it a parking place.

Thanks for your post. I had no idea about the broken lines. I was sure I had seen something on BBC Watchdog about this sort of thing the other week. No worries, if I do need to pay the fine, I will do so but I will then make certain I follow through with a pot hole claim which caused several hundred pounds to my vehicle back in Jan. The money merry go round with the council lol

[Inca]

Re: Parking fine for being parked in country lay-by.

yep,,,it's best to pay these things and find a way to get revenge..msl:

[Eloise01]

Re: Parking fine for being parked in country lay-by.

Don't take my word for it though! I am only telling you what I thought was the case and I may be wrong. Good luck with the pothole though. Same thing happened to me a couple of years ago and I never saw a penny

[enquirer]

Re: Parking fine for being parked in country lay-by.

Eloise1 may well be right. It does not appear to be a layby. It looks more as if a piece of the verge had been worn down by repeated offroad parking. The tarmac does not apear to extend to the area on which the cars are parked.

It does however beg the question - is this actually the highway? If the local authority says that it is, then it would be interesting to push them to produce some sort of case law or legislation.

After all, if it's the highway, then why would an accident report say 'left the road', if after a collision the OP's car had ended up exactly in that position?

[labman]

Re: Parking fine for being parked in country lay-by.

You might find this interesting reading:

http://www.echo-news.co.uk/news/9457...king_in_layby/

and sadly these people are usually spot on as they specialise in motoring offences:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=41229

[Eloise01]

Re: Parking fine for being parked in country lay-by.

Gosh, I know something about traffic regulations (other than driving at 97 mph is always illegal on a public road, Inca, which I was sure about!). But I had thought that I had read something about this somewhere, and I am pretty sure, but not positive that it's a white broken line that indicates a lay by. Anyway - that's the rule I'll be sticking to!

[Inca]

Re: Parking fine for being parked in country lay-by.

In my defence Eloise..............ummmmmmmm..well actually I don't have a defence lol I have now hung my driving shoes up

[des8]

Re: Parking fine for being parked in country lay-by.

When I was in our local town today I met with our local CC parking enforcer who was looking for driver of a car parked on grass verge inside double yellows. He actually wanted to tell the responsible person to move it, as otherwise he would have to issue a ticket, and as it was next to the cemetery he didn't want to upset a possible visitor there. On querying how the regulations were being broken he explained the lines covered from centre of road to edge of adjoining private property, and he then went into the cemetery looking for the driver. (Here in West Wales some people have a heart!!)

[labman]

Re: Parking fine for being parked in country lay-by.

When I was in our local town today I met with our local CC parking enforcer who was looking for driver of a car parked on grass verge inside double yellows. He actually wanted to tell the responsible person to move it, as otherwise he would have to issue a ticket, and as it was next to the cemetery he didn't want to upset a possible visitor there. On querying how the regulations were being broken he explained the lines covered from centre of road to edge of adjoining private property, and he then went into the cemetery looking for the driver. (Here in West Wales some people have a heart!!)

Exactly as stated in the Pepipoo link above, so it is beginning to sound like that's correct.

[ploddertom]

Re: Parking fine for being parked in country lay-by.

Exactly as stated in the Pepipoo link above, so it is beginning to sound like that's correct.

I'll most certainly agree with that

[Eloise01]

Re: Parking fine for being parked in country lay-by.

I knew there was a good reason to be a member of the National Trust....