Payment machine couldn't accept your money

If the card or contactless reader on the machine was broken and you could only pay by cash, or if the machine only took cash but wouldn't accept your coins or couldn't give you change, you were effectively stopped from paying the right amount. If no other way to pay (such as an app) was working either, the council's own equipment failure made it impossible for you to pay — and a ticket issued in those circumstances should be cancelled.

Legal basis

Principle of reasonableness in civil enforcement; Consumer Rights Act 2015 ss 49-50; Statutory Guidance on civil parking enforcement (England).

How to identify this in your case

Ask yourself: was the card or contactless reader out of order, forcing you to use cash? Or did a cash-only machine deny your coins or fail to give change? And was there no working app or other payment option available at the time? If yes to any of these, take or find a photo of the machine or any error message it showed, and make a note of the exact time this happened.

Sample appeal wording

Before you send this

Deadline. A late submission can be turned down without your argument being read. Check your notice for the deadline and how it is counted.
Paying may end it. Paying can count as accepting the notice and can close a challenge already under way. Part-paying or acknowledging an old debt can also revive a time limit that had expired.
The amount can change. Check what happens to the sum if you challenge — it may be held, re-offered lower, or keep rising, and fees or enforcement can continue meanwhile.
Use the official route. Use the method, recipient and form your notice specifies, with any reference, evidence and signature it asks for. Sent elsewhere, it may not count.
Only say what is true. Do not copy any statement of fact unless it is true for you, and check the legal point still applies. Delete what does not fit. It may be treated as your statement.
Careful what you volunteer. Avoid unnecessary admissions — naming the driver or accepting responsibility can remove arguments. But answer anything you are legally required to answer, and do include the evidence your ground needs.
Keep the record. Keep what you sent, the attachments, any receipt, and the reply. Note the next deadline.

Sample wording to adapt and send yourself — it may not fit your notice or the stage you are at.

At the material time the machine's card/contactless reader was not working / the machine was cash-only and would not accept my coins or give change, and no working cashless alternative was available. I was willing and able to pay but the authority's equipment would not accept a reasonable means of payment. I request cancellation of the PCN.

Beat It writes this argument automatically

Scan your PCN — our AI checks if this ground applies to your specific ticket, drafts a properly-cited appeal letter, and sends it for you where the council takes email — guiding you through their own online form where they use one, so you press submit. The win fee is only charged if you win.

Scan my ticket

Sources

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/civil-enforcement-of-parking-contraventions