Paid-for Time Overstay Not Proven by Proper Observation
For an overstay ticket the council must prove your vehicle actually remained parked beyond the paid-for or permitted time — council enforcement codes require the officer to log the vehicle at two separate times (often recording tyre-valve positions) to show it did not move. If the PCN rests on a single sighting, or the alleged overstay is only a few minutes and depends on the machine's or officer's clock being right, the council can be put to strict proof it cannot meet.
Legal basis
Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 ss 45-46; council civil parking enforcement codes of practice requiring timed double observations for code 30 overstays (e.g. LB Ealing Code of Practice: 'two loggings are required with the same valve positions'); burden on the enforcement authority to prove the contravention; Civil Enforcement of Road Traffic Contraventions (Representations and Appeals) (England) Regulations 2022 (SI 2022/576) reg 5(4)(a)
How to identify this in your case
Is your PCN for staying too long (codes such as 30 or 05) rather than not paying at all? Keep your ticket, app receipt or session record and compare its end time with the PCN issue time — is the gap only minutes? Note whether you had moved the vehicle between any observations. Small gaps and single sightings are exactly where this ground bites.
Sample appeal wording
formal
Replace [PARKING DATE], [NtK DATE] etc. with your own dates before sending.
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Scan your PCN — our AI checks if this ground applies to your specific ticket, drafts a properly-cited appeal letter, and submits it to the council on your behalf. Only pay if you win.
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Related appeal grounds
- Aberdeen Clean Air Zone ticket issued too early
- Appealing a Scottish tribunal's legal error to a higher tribunal
- Attorney acting for keeper under Scottish power of attorney
- Bailiff acted without proper advance warning notice
- Bath CAZ — Sunset Period for Pre-Registered Commercial Vehicles
- Bay Obstructed or Too Small — Could Not Park Within the Bay Markings