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Case 17 of 19 · Level 2
A council parking ticket · a loading ban
A wheelchair outside the bank
The thick file · about 10 minutes
The complaint
She stopped the car on a road where loading was prohibited so that her husband, who uses a wheelchair, could go into the bank. She took the wheelchair out of the car, helped him into it, and came back within a short time to move the car. A penalty charge notice had been issued at two minutes past ten, for £80, for parking or loading where it was prohibited. She wrote to the council as a lay person and said she had been unloading, which she believed was allowed. The council rejected that, so she appealed to the adjudicator.
The council's answer
The council says loading and unloading were expressly prohibited on that road at that time, that the car was stopped on the restriction when the notice was issued, and that the unloading exemption she relies on cannot apply where loading itself is banned. The penalty charge is £80.
Evidence in the file
Exhibit A · The penalty charge notice
Issued at two minutes past ten in the morning for parking or loading where prohibited. Penalty charge £80.
Exhibit B · The restriction
A London borough road on which loading and unloading were expressly prohibited at the time the notice was issued.
Exhibit C · The driver's account
She stopped so her husband could go to the bank, took his wheelchair from the car, helped him into it, and came back within a short time to move the car. The car was not left.
Exhibit D · Her representations
She told the council she had been unloading, and that unloading was allowed. She did not use any other words for what she had done.
Exhibit E · The council's reply
Representations rejected: loading and unloading were prohibited there, so the exemption she claimed could not apply. A notice to owner followed.
The exemption that fits
Helping a passenger into or out of a vehicle is boarding or alighting, not loading. The two are different exemptions, and the boarding and alighting exemption applies even on a road where loading is banned. The wrong point was argued to the council: what happened was never unloading.
How long the car was stopped
The papers say she took the wheelchair out, helped her husband into it and returned within a short time to move the car. No number of minutes is recorded, and the council does not say the car stayed longer than that.
The notice to owner
The council rejected her representations on one ground: loading was prohibited, so an unloading exemption could not apply. It did not consider whether what she described was boarding or alighting.
Photographs or the officer's notes
Not in the file. No photographs and no officer's notes are part of this case; the facts of what she did were not disputed.
Loading against boarding
Background, not from this file: loading means moving goods to or from a vehicle. Boarding and alighting means a passenger getting in or out, with the time reasonably needed for it, and for a passenger who needs help that includes getting a wheelchair out and helping them into it. Restrictions commonly ban one without the other.
Which way do you decide?
The ruling
Given by the adjudicator
Appeal allowed
Why
The adjudicator said the wrong issue had been argued. Helping a wheelchair user out of a car is boarding or alighting, not unloading, and that exemption applies even where loading is prohibited. Her mistake in calling it unloading was understandable for a lay person, and the council should have recognised the circumstances from what she told it: the case should never have reached an appeal.
What had to be done
The penalty charge notice and the notice to owner were cancelled. Nothing to pay.
What an adjudicator takes from this. Describe what happened before you name a rule. She lost at the council because she reached for the wrong word, and won on appeal because the facts had never been in doubt. A council reading representations is expected to see the exemption that fits, but the surest way is to tell it plainly what you did, with the times, and let the label follow. This decision is from 2003 and the rules have been rewritten since, but adjudicators still treat a passenger getting in or out, with the help they need, as boarding or alighting, and still ask the council why it did not see it.
Rewritten in our own words from a decision the tribunal published.
Read the guide: Challenging a parking charge notice: who hears it, and when
What is fair and reasonable is a judgement. The ombudsman gives one; people who read the same file often give another, and this game is about how people weigh the same facts, not about being right. Built from cases the Financial Ombudsman Service and other bodies have published, and from Docketory's own files, rewritten in our own words with every name removed. Docketory is not connected with any of them, and this game is not advice on your own case.
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