A case study in why wanting to pay for your parking and taking every commonsense precaution to park legally is not enough

UPDATE (November 2011): It has been brought to my attention that Westminster have in fact updated their parking protocols to explicitly accept K&C parking tickets on Queen's Gate, see Point 3 under "Exemptions" on page 45 of their parking protocol (Thanks to John Tipple for the information). This is also confirmed on page 7 of K&C's parking report for 2011.

This is a true story (but unfortunately not a uncommon one).

Imagine that you decide one day to take your family out for a day in Kensington and Chelsea (so the kids can see the Science Museum).

You drive into central London. You have heard about how strict on-street parking enforcement is in London, but are not worried - you are a law abiding citizen and have every intention of parking legally. In fact you positively WANT to pay for your parking.

To make sure you park legally, you stop and ask a parking attendant in Queen's Gate (a road just around the block from the Science Museum) if he can tell you where to park. He helpfully points out a set of nearby Pay and Display bays with a four hour limit.

You park up where recommended, and get out of your car, looking for somewhere to pay. Looking to your right, you see:

Apparently nowhere to pay there then. Looking to your left you see resident's parking places (in fact this photo was taken on another day, but the point is to show what's there):

But looking towards the central reservation you see:

Yes, that is a Pay and Display machine and it is undoubtedly the nearest one to your vehicle. The sign above it has the universal white-on-blue P for parking and says "Pay here". So you walk over to it and inspect it carefully:

Determined not to miss a trick you read the "Conditions of use" on the machine very carefully:

  1. Tickets must be purchased only at the time of parking. (No worries there!)
  2. Check nearest pay and display sign to ensure bay is not suspended. (You check around your vehicle - no suspension signs in sight!)
  3. It is a criminal offence to insert any object other than permitted coins. (No worries - you are in posssesion of legal tender in the correct denominations required).
You are liable - the small print continues - to receive a PENALTY CHARGE NOTICE if you:
  1. Park without displaying a valid ticket. (No worries there - you intend to purchase yourself a valid ticket and to display it correctly).
  2. Remain parked after expiry time of ticket. (No worries there - you make a mental note to self to be back in good time before the ticket expires; and in case you forget you also set your mobile phone to alert you).
  3. Make an additional payment to extend the stay beyond expiry of time initially purchased (meter feeding). (No worries there - you intend to pay only once, at the time of parking).
  4. Return to any bay within this parking place within 1 hour. (No worries there).
  5. Transfer tickets between vehicles. (No worries there).
  6. Park outside the marking of a parking bay. (You check your vehicle to make sure, and yes you are wholly within the markings of the bay).
  7. Park in a bay when a suspension is in place. (You check again to be sure).
  8. Vehicles incurring a PENALTY CHARGE NOTICE may also be CLAMPED OR REMOVED. (Sounds scary but you are going to obey the rules so no fears).

There is also some general information to say pay and display tickets are not valid in resident's parking bays. (So you check to be sure the bay you are parked in is clearly marked "Pay and Display". It is.)

There are more regulations concerning maximum stay time (4 hours) (no problems), hours of charging (8:30am to 6:30pm, Monday to Saturday), so since it is around 11am you should pay. The charge per hour is 3 pounds (20p buys you 4 minutes). You read the instructions for purchasing a ticket carefully (basically it says buy a ticket and display it clearly).

You want your family to have time to enjoy the Science Museum, so you dutifully insert your £12, and receive your ticket:

Beautiful - that cost a lot of money but you have purchased a ticket apparently authorising you to park in Queen's Gate for four hours. You appear to have satisfied all the conditions set out on the machine from which you bought your ticket.

So far so good, surely? Not wanting to fall at the final hurdle, you make sure your ticket is clearly displayed for the any passing parking attendants to see:

There - you are all set. You have done everything in your power to pay for your parking and to park legally. You set off to the Science Museum and the kids have a great time.

You return well before your parking ticket expires - around 2pm in fact. This is what you find:

No you are not seeing things - your vehicle really has been clamped and that really is a Penalty Charge Notice on your windscreen. You are now required to pay a minimum of GBP 115 (GBP 65 for the clamp release fee and GBP 50 for the PCN). You will have to make payment before your vehicle can be released, which may take up to two hours after you make payment.

How could this happen? Surely you did everything reasonable within your power to park legally? How can it be within the law for your vehicle to have been clamped in this way?

What you missed

What you missed is that (on this particular stretch of road) one side of Queen's Gate lies in the London Borough of Westminster, and the other lies in The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (along other parts of the road, both sides are in Kensington and Chelsea). It turns out you parked on the Westminster side of the road but bought your ticket from a Kensington and Chelsea machine (the Westminster P&D machine is some distance behind the tree in the photograph above that looks to the right). Since there is no agreement between the boroughs to accept each other's Pay and Display tickets, you were clamped by Westminster. Yet the borough boundary is not marked in any way (other than by rather discreet borough logos on parking signs and on the Pay and Display machines, from which a visitor could not be reasonably expected to deduce anything about the validity of parking tickets). And there is nothing on either the Pay and Display Machines or the tickets which says that tickets are not valid on one side of the road.

The borough logo in question looks like this:

This discreet logo is intended to magically convey the follow message (not stated explicitly anywhere on the signs or pay and display machines of either borough) to motorists:

WARNING: This Pay and Display Bay is in the City of Westminster. The nearest Pay and Display machine to this bay is in fact in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Do NOT buy your ticket from that machine. Only tickets bought from the City of Westminster Pay and Display machine located some distance away behind the tree to the left of this sign (as you are facing it) are valid for parking in this space.

Postscript

Having seen other people caught out in the same "sting" (including an American businessman who had even first tried to pay at the correct Westminster Pay and Display machine, but found it out of order), I wrote to Westminster Parking Services to highlight this problem. They wrote back saying some weeks later to say they believe the action taken in issuing a PCN and clamping the vehicle was correct, and that they will not be taking any action to improve their signage, because they believe it to be adequate (in fact not just adequate, but EXCELLENT). Not only are there borough logos in abundance they say, but there is a "clear division down the middle of the road, with a raised kerb and bollards." The raised kerb and bollards in question look like this:

What a great deal of help those will be in informing motorists about parking regulations then! I believe this is exactly the kind of parking enforcement action and exactly the type of council response which makes Londoners suspect that it is driven by some kind of revenue-related motivation (cf. four hours on-street with a Westminster Parking Attendant). I have once again written to Westminster Parking Services asking them to do something about the situation in Queen's Gate but I am not hopeful.

Incidentally, for those caught out in this or similar borough-boundary stings, I would recommend appealing your case to the Parking and Traffic Appeals service, in which regard a study of the key appeal case Bladon vs. Westminster is very useful. The case concerns cross-borough parking in Lincoln's Inn Fields (which spans Westminster and Camden). The following extract is particularly insightful (emphasis is mine):

The satisfactory operation of the parking place must be satisfactory for the Council and the motorist. It must operate satisfactorily for the purposes of traffic management and also operate in such a way as to provide reasonable information for the motorist concerning what is required in order to lawfully park. It seems to me that, although the Council have provided the normal signs and machines associated with a Pay & Display bay, the unusual nature of the locality necessitates additional signs or arrangements to be put into place...

In my judgment, some form of warning on a sign (if necessary with the approval of the Secretary of State), or on the machine or ticket itself dealing with the need for a motorist to exercise caution in purchasing a ticket from the correct Council's machine is "other work" reasonable [sic.] required for the satisfactory operation of the Pay & Display parking places in Lincoln's Inn Field. Alternatively it would be reasonable for the parking attendants employed by both Westminster and Camden Councils to be instructed to acknowledge and accept (otherwise valid) Pay & Display Tickets issued by each Council when displayed in Lincoln's Inn Field.

William Knottenbelt
February 2005

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