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Actually I don't think there is a yellow line in the precise area I am talking about which is the painted car parking bays outside the bank in Brentford opposite Goddards, (Natwest, HSBC, don't know which it is) neither is there a bus lane.  I drove through Brentford on Saturday and confess I noticed yellow signs with a CCTV picture on them.  I also noticed signs saying "no parking in the bus lane between 7.00 and 10.00a.m."  However those signs were outside Barclays Bank which is the opposite side of the high street and I was actually deliberately looking for them.  I did not walk down to check the signage on the other side of the road but my daughter did and said she wished her computer was up and running as she would have taken a photograph and posted it.  There do not, in her opinion, appear to be any signs indicating that the bays are not to be used at any particular time.  As previously stated my son in law did not realise he had done anything wrong when he parked in the bay at 8.00 a.m. and therefore did the same thing the next day.  He was not deliberately parking in the wrong spot, he paid what he thought was the fee, he stuck the ticket in his windscreen and he still got 2 x £50 fines.  Actually I would really like to know why you can't park in those particular bays.  It is not a bus lane at any time and I have never seen anything other than single file traffic along that stretch of road and the bays are in a recess which leaves a straight line of road for that single file.

Bernadette Paul ● 6487d

"I have never actually looked for or read any signs.  As far as I was concerned if there was a parking bay then you could park in it......." No wonder people get PCNs for parking illegally!The Council provides the signs so that motorists, if they actually read them and comply with them, can park without risking a PCN. But it can't force motorists to read and comply. Something to do with personal responsibility that rarely gets mentioned in "Parking" threadsBut, If anyone thinks that a PCN has been issued wrongly - for whatever reason- there is a statutory right of appeal that involves, in the first instance, a written communication to the Parking Office. Phone calls will not start the process - it has to be a written challenge, by law, to safeguard a motorists rightsComplaining to Councillors, rather using the statutory route as suggested by one poster, will not overide the statutory process, nor give a motorist extra time to meet statutory deadlines and to be clear, no Councillor, has the authority to override a decision to cancel(or not) a PCN, made by  an authorised Parking Officer.Complaining to a Councillor, rather than comminicating via the proper stautory route will simply result in a delay in notifying the Parking Office and therefore will give the motorist a reduced time period to pay at the discounted rate.In any case, PCN disputes (per se) are not recognised as  "complaints" under the Council's Complaints Procedure as there is a separate statutory procedure.If, however anyone has a concern about parking policies in general they can write in to me and I will feed this into the curent preview on parking policy.Fred RobinsonAssistant Director - Street Management -

Fred Robinson ● 6490d

Obviously we have reached the stage where we need a Phd in parking.  As I said earlier I rarely park in Brentford High Street but frankly if I saw an empty bay I would park in it and if the meter accepted my money I would assume I was legally parked, I don't spend half my life searching out parking spaces and then reading every sign I can find but clearly that is exactly what I should be doing.  My son in law didn't even know he had done anything wrong as there was no ticket on his car the first time therefore he compounded the problem by doing the same thing the next day whereupon in the post he received 2 fines for £50 each! Obviously he won't make that mistake again but £100 for parking in a bay and paying for the privilege of stopping for a couple of minutes in Brentford is nothing short of highway robbery and I'm not sure there is a bus lane that side of the high street, is there?As far as the parking at St. John's is concerned, my daughter has been ticketed when picking up the children and so have several of the other parents I have spoken to.  I don't know how many visits they make there during the day but just before 6.00p.m. when restrictions end seems to be one of their favourite times.  This road may be a prime road for commuters to park if travelling from Brentford station but if they were being targeted then the wardens could book them at lunchtime if not earlier.  Just before 6.00p.m. and any other time of the afternoon I would have thought the only cars likely to be there are those picking up children from school at 3.00 and nursery thereafter.In any event I think I now know one of the reasons why the council needs to money so badly and its nothing to do with freezing council tax, its to pay the electricity bill for Brentford Library and who knows how many other council buildings?  I was up at the unearthly hour of 3.30a.m. yesterday morning and happened to notice that the library was fully illuminated.  I noticed again this morning that the downstairs rear was lit up.  Why?  The library doesn't even open on Fridays so presumably it will be lit up all day and again tonight unless someone specifically comes in to turn lights off at odd hours.  In these days of "global warming" when we are being told to save energy by both national and local government, isn't it time they practiced what they preach and kept the lecky bills down for the severely fleeced council tax payers?

Bernadette Paul ● 6490d