How Can I Challenge A Walthamstow PCN?
This blog serves to answer the question “How Can I Challenge A Walthamstow PCN?” You may not be able to immediately come up with a reason for challenging your PCN so it is better to take a few days to correctly recall the events leading to your traffic violation. Video footage of the incident or photographs taken by a passenger travelling with you can help to prove the existence of any special circumstances which caused you to breach the restriction or to show that the traffic violation didn’t occur.
How Can I Challenge A Walthamstow PCN?
Walthamstow Town forms part of the London Borough of Waltham Forest Council and the Waltham Forest Council is responsible for serving and dealing with Penalty Charge Notices in the Walthamstow Town Council. So a Penalty Charge Notice issued in Walthamstow Town is actually a Waltham Forest PCN.
The London Borough of Waltham Forest will also decide the result of your Walthamstow PCN challenge and will either choose to withdraw your PCN or send you a Notice of Rejection of Representations. Your Walthamstow PCN challenge should be able to communicate your intention of avoiding the traffic contravention and must demonstrate a prior awareness of the relevant contravention code enforced at the road junction or restricted parking zone.
You can challenge your Penalty Charge Notice on the London Borough of Waltham Forest website by filling in the online formal representation form or by sending a handwritten PCN challenge to the Waltham Forest Council by mail. Mitigating circumstances which prevented you from averting the traffic violation should be backed by video evidence or medical certificates from a certified General Practitioner (in the case of a serious health condition).
The proof of the existence of your health condition (which can also be Covid-19) should be dated from a week or so before the incident and must include symptoms that impeded your ability to operate your vehicle properly. Other mitigating circumstances can relate to avoiding a collision with an oncoming vehicle on the road or to the sudden stalling of your vehicle ( which led you to stop on the road).
This appeal should not involve reasons which display a lack of urgency or seriousness to avoid committing a certain traffic contravention. A lack of knowledge about the Parking, Bus Lane, or Moving Traffic contraventions enforced in Walthamstow Town council will put your case in serious jeopardy as any such grounds for a PCN challenge are not entertained by the council.
In many cases, PCNs are not enforceable and you may be able to win your case and avoid having to pay your fine.
You could begin the process by speaking to an online solicitor for as little as £5.
What is a Penalty Charge Notice?
A Penalty Charge Notice is a monetary penalty issued to drivers or motorists for committing certain traffic contraventions including violating Parking, Bus Lane and Moving Traffic restrictions. A PCN is issued for failing to follow Parking zone, bus lane enforcement and moving traffic restrictions mentioned in the Road Traffic Act 1984 and the Traffic Management Act 2004.
A penalty charge notice can be handed to you by a Civil Enforcement Officer or dispatched to your (DVLA) residential address by post. CCTV cameras and Civil Enforcement Officers observe traffic contraventions before a violation is detected and the vehicle is charged with a PCN.
A PCN might also be issued for failing to pay road charges on time. You have 28 days to decide how and if you would like to challenge your Penalty Charge Notice. After 28 days if you have neither paid nor challenged your PCN, you will be sent a charge certificate from the Traffic Penalty Tribunal.
If you don’t challenge a PCN, you should pay the fine within 28 days, otherwise, its amount will increase by 50%. A £130 PCN will be worth £195 if you pay it in the 14 days after receiving your charge certificate.
What is the procedure for appealing against a Walthamstow PCN?
Walthamstow Town forms part of the London Borough of Waltham Forest Council and the Waltham Forest Council is responsible for serving and dealing with Penalty Charge Notices in the Walthamstow Town Council. So a Penalty Charge Notice issued in Walthamstow Town is actually a Waltham Forest PCN.
The London Borough of Waltham Forest will also decide the result of your Walthamstow PCN challenge and will either choose to withdraw your PCN or send you a Notice of Rejection of Representations. You can submit a formal representation to your Walthamstow PCN by writing a letter addressed to the Waltham Forest Council or by filling in the online formal representation form on the Waltham Forest Council website.
You need to brainstorm reasons to challenge a Walthamstow PCN from the day of the incident and list them down in word processing software or on paper. It is essential to have some authentic evidence to attach with your PCN appeal in the form of video footage of the traffic violation, medical certificates explaining your mitigating circumstances, or pay and display tickets.
The evidence must be matched with the grounds for your appeal before describing the incident from your point of view. Your rough formal representation can be edited for clarity multiple times before it is ready to attach to your online appeal to Waltham Forest Council. You need to visit the Waltham Forest Council website to submit a formal representation to your PCN. On this webpage, you will see a chat window with the chatbot max. You need to interact with the chatbot by providing your PCN Number and Vehicle Registration Number.
To the first question put forward by the chatbot, you can reply “Yes I’d like some advice”, and to the second question “Yes I’ve got it to hand” and then enter your PCN number. Once these details are verified by the virtual assistant (you are redirected to this page), you can type in your PCN appeal with relevant reasons and evidence (which can be uploaded to the system).
Otherwise, if you answer (or select) no to any of the first 2 questions, you will be redirected to this webpage where you can enter your Walthamstow PCN number and your Vehicle Registration Number. The chatbot can also guide you to paying your PCN, so you need to be careful not to select the word pay or type in “Pay” into the message space while interacting with the virtual assistant..
Waltham Forest also allows you to view the CCTV footage of your traffic violation online before making your challenge. You need to enter your PCN number and Vehicle Registration Number after clicking on this link to watch the video.
It is essential to upload authentic evidence material with your PCN challenge to describe your mitigating circumstances to the Waltham Forest Council and for explaining your point of view of the events which took place at the traffic violation scene. If you made a video clip of your traffic contravention, you should save snapshots from it by using a video player or video editing software. Most video players such as VLC Player allow you to slow down your video frame by frame and thus take ( a collection of) snapshots to attach with your Walthamstow PCN challenge.
The text of your appeal must state the relevant contravention code on your PCN and explain how you attempted to avoid the error (supported by photos or video footage).
Once you have proofread your appeal to eliminate any reasons for your challenge which might convey a disregard for traffic contravention codes enforced in Walthamstow ward (by mixing up the contraventions) or reasons which involve forgetfulness to justify your actions, you can submit the formal representation.
Another way to send in your Walthamstow PCN challenge is by mail. You can write down a formal representation on the back side of your Notice to Owner and attach evidence documents or photographs to the form using a stapler or paper clip. Your letter should mention your PCN number, date of issue of the PCN, your vehicle registration number, and personal details.
Your PCN appeals form and all accompanying evidence documents (enclosed in an envelope) need to be sent to:
Parking Services,
PCN Representation,
PO Box 74924,
London E17 0UG
If the Waltham Forest Council accepts your PCN appeal, the PCN will be annulled and you will not be liable for paying any monetary penalty. In case the council sends you a “Notice of Rejection” by disapproving of your representation you will have to pay the amount mentioned on your PCN.
How can I pay my Walthamstow PCN fine?
You can pay your Walthamstow PCN on the online payments page or by calling on Waltham Forest Council’s automated payments hotline.
The Waltham Forest Council website provides an online payment service for PCN fines. You need to enter your vehicle registration number, PCN number, the amount of your PCN fine, your full name, telephone number, email address, and postal address after opening the Waltham Forest Council’s Online Payments page. The option “Penalty Charge Notice” is preselected in the type of payments field.
After clicking “Next” you will be shown your Penalty Charge Notice information and in the next window, you can enter your payment card details. You must remember to wait for 24 hours after your PCN is issued before attempting to pay it. The Waltham Forest Council accepts VisaCard, MasterCard, Maestro Card, DeltaCard, Electron Card, and Solo Card.
You can also pay on Waltham Forest Council’s automated payments hotline by dialling: 0203 092 0112. Next, you will be required to provide your payment card details, PCN Number, and vehicle registration number. You can enter your PCN number by using a * sign for the letters in the code. This payment hotline is active 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You should wait to receive a confirmation code before ending your call.
How much is the PCN fine for each of the 3 kinds of PCNs served in Walthamstow Town Council?
A Parking PCN in Walthamstow Town Council is served for violating higher or lower level parking restrictions. You have to pay £130 for committing a higher level parking contravention and £80 for a lower level parking contravention. If you pay the parking fine within 14 days, you will just be paying £65 or £40 as a 50% discount is applicable to your payment.
For failing to comply with a bus lane contravention code or a moving traffic restriction in the Walthamstow Town Council you will be charged a £130 Penalty Charge Notice. The 50% early payment discount reduces both these types of PCN fines to £65 if a bus lane PCN is paid within 21 days and a moving traffic PCN is paid within 14 days
What will happen if I don’t pay my Walthamstow PCN within the 28-day limit?
You should not ignore traffic contraventions or the Penalty Charge Notices resulting from them or cultivate a careless attitude towards driving in Walthamstow Town Council. Per your driving license rules, you are bound to abide by Parking, Bus Lane, and Moving Traffic contravention codes in Walthamstow Town Council.
If you neither pay your Walthamstow PCN within 28 days nor decide to appeal against it, you will be sent a charge certificate from Transport For London. The charge certificate increases your PCN fine by 50%, which means you will be paying £105 (or £75) now. You should pay the charge certificate within 14 days as it cannot be appealed and ignoring the charge certificate may result in the filing of a court order (for recovery of debts) against you by the Waltham Forest Council.
You will be sent a “Notice of Debt Registration” and a witness certificate from Transport for London if you don’t pay the charge certificate amount within 14 days. The unpaid amount will be treated as a debt with the Traffic Enforcement Centre at the Northampton County Court.
The court order for debt recovery enforces that the charge certificate amount must be paid in full within 21 days the county court will have to use additional powers to recover the money from your possession which means employing Enforcement Agents to (contact you or) visit your personal premises.
Can I dispute a Walthamstow PCN with the London Tribunals if the council dismisses my appeal?
Yes, you can dispute a Walthamstow PCN with the Traffic Adjudicators at London Tribunals within 28 days of getting your “Notice of Rejection of Representations” from the council. You have to fill in the form provided to you with the Notice of Rejection and mail it to this postal address:
London Tribunals,
PO Box 10598,
Nottingham,
NG6 6DR
You can also choose to dispute the “Notice of Rejection” from the Waltham Forest council with the London Tribunals online by clicking on the “Access the Appellants Portal” button on this webpage. All you will be required to do is simply enter your Vehicle Registration Number, PCN number, and the reference number or code from your “Notice of Rejection of Representations” letter.
You can attach copies of evidence documents online to back up your appeal against the decision of the London Borough of Waltham Forest. Such evidence may also include a signed and dated written statement describing what happened on the scene according to the viewpoint of a bystander.
London Tribunals will notify both you and the “London Borough of Waltham Forest”” of the hearing date. If the London Borough of Waltham Forest contests your appeal, it will provide you with a copy of its application along with the evidence sent by it to the Traffic Adjudicators at London Tribunals. In case the independent parking and traffic adjudicator decides the case in your favour, the London Borough of Waltham Forest will promptly withdraw the PCN.
If the PCN is cancelled at this stage, you will have to pay nothing. If the London Tribunals decide the case in the council’s favour, you will be given another 28 days to pay the PCN fine.
Conclusion
This blog post addressed the question “How Can I Challenge A Walthamstow PCN?” Each reason for challenging your Walthamstow PCN must be backed by specific evidence from the scene of the traffic violation which can also include a written statement from a bystander who was present at the location. The only substitute to this for proving what actually happened on the spot where you were issued the PCN is authentic video footage of the incident, filmed by someone travelling with you.
.