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proceduralUK · England & WalesDifficulty: moderate

Vehicle Substantially Within the Bay — Trivial Projection Over the Line

If your car was essentially inside the bay and only a wheel or bumper edge sat on or fractionally over the line, the council must still prove you were 'not parked correctly within the markings'. Government statutory guidance requires enforcement to be proportionate and targeted only where action is needed, and many councils' own guidelines tell officers not to ticket trivial overhangs. The council's photographs often fail to prove any meaningful projection at all.

Legal basis

Contravention code 24 (not parked correctly within the markings of the bay or space); Traffic Management Act 2004 s.87 statutory guidance to local authorities on civil enforcement of parking contraventions (proportionate, consistent, targeted enforcement)

How to identify this in your case

Was your vehicle almost entirely inside the bay, with only a wheel touching the line or a small part just over it? Photograph the vehicle position from front, back and side before moving it if possible, and check the council's own PCN photos — do they actually show any part of the car clearly outside the markings?

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.

I am appealing this penalty charge issued under contravention code 24. My vehicle was parked substantially within the marked bay; at most a trivial part of the vehicle sat at the margin of the marking. I put the council to strict proof, by its civil enforcement officer's photographs, that the vehicle was not parked correctly within the markings of the bay, and that any projection was more than trivial. The Secretary of State's statutory guidance issued under section 87 of the Traffic Management Act 2004 requires enforcement to be proportionate, consistent and targeted only where action is needed. Enforcing against a vehicle positioned as mine was is not a proportionate exercise of the council's discretion, and I ask that the penalty be cancelled.

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Vehicle Substantially Within the Bay — Trivial Projection Over the Line

Legal basis

How to identify this in your case

Sample appeal wording

Beat It writes this argument automatically

Sources

Related appeal grounds

Next steps