i got a parking ticket under my windshield of my bike on friday. cant help but think i could have claimed it blew away, but that would be ignorant. local council run car park gave away half the car park to the boat show in southampton, i had owhere to put my bike for free. so i park in a car bay,- mistake! i apparently have to pay for that honour, i cant help but think if i had abandoned it by the pavement i woulds have got away with it. typical!                                                                                                                                                                              

easy peasy....write to them and tell them u paid and displayed a ticket and someone must have stolen it - its not your fault that pay and display wont work on bikes they should have a ticket machine that you type reg number in. no way they will take you to court

i used to know a traffic warden in manchester - she had to hit targets of 8 tickets a day but she always tried to book people she knew would get off on appeal. upside down tickets etc. i would imagine yours is someone trying to make up his quota they wont make u pay it

You could always ask them for there insureance details as the ticket thay unlawfully attached to your motorcycle has damaged the screen and you will be making a claim against them                                                                                                                                                                              

went a photographed the cordoned off motorcycle bays today, then the parking meter that says bikes dont pay in bike bays..... unfortunatly underneath it say bike in car bays do.... hmmm can i photoshop that out?... lol maybe they will be understanding about the lack of bays in a car park that advertises that it has bike bays. they didnt stick it, left it open and sliped it in a gap. maybe the sticky would have improved the screen and took off some of the squashed wildlife. oh well i will tell you when i get the results of this battle. haha                                                                                                                                                                              

the local council cover all their bases dunans- they have a devise they sell you can fix to your bike- thats a load of rubbish a 5 year old could get a ticket out if they wanted and why would i put it on my bike its not colour cordinated, huh they also say you can buy a ticket and put your reg on it so no-one else can use it. that will work or buy a ticket keep it and appeal with the ticket and it will get writen off immediatly. bend over and get the vasaline the city council are coming!!!                                                                                                                                                                                

Hang on if thay have mototcycle bays that have been coned off so free parking is removed ,did thay give notice and are thay under obligastion to surply replacement bays under there own bylaws . Yes if the m/c bays are full thats your problem but thay were closed  to give free parking for a show ????                                                                                                                                                                             

To be honest, I'd just pay it.

You say yourself that you parked in a car bay.  If you had parked a car in the same bay and got a ticket for not paying, would you still be considering appealing against it?

The council isn't obliged to provide parking of any kind, let alone motorcycle parking, so the fact the motorcycle bays are out of action isn't in any way a valid excuse.

It may be hard, but I'm afraid you're gonna have to accept they've got you bang to rights.  There are times when you should appeal against a ticket, but this isn't one of them.  Just consider it a lesson learnt, one to put down to experience.

Also, if you pay within fourteen days you'll also get a 50% discount on the full fine.

So just pay it.  You won't get points on your licence or anything like that, there'll be no record of you as a "bad parker" or similar and if you fight it the chances are that all you'll get is exactly the same fine but then also made to pay the costs of the appeal.

                                                                                                                                                                             

I was under the impression that local council car parks had to provide free parking for motorbikes, and if they cordoned them off shouldn't they provide an alternative as it was not your fault???     Failing that get in touch with MCN, they hate when bikers are treated as 2nd class citizens and will print a story.                                                                                                                                                                                     

I've just had a look at Southampton City Council's website and there are forty two designated motorcycle parking bays in the City, each catering for between three and twelve bikes.

Any of these can be used "without time restriction or payment" by bikes.

Councils don't have to provide free parking for bikes although most of course do.  But even so, compared to other cities, this one looks pretty good.

During my time at Leeds Highways, I spent four years in the Traffic Management department where a lot of my time was spent looking into contested parking tickets.

Please take my advice RRH, just pay the fine and walk away.                                                                                                                                                                             

As above, don't think you've any option but to pay up.   Lesson for all of us, for the future tho.                                                                                                                                                                             

yep your probably right, voices of reason   no intension of contesting beyond the appeal ,  im not losing out by asking them to look at the circumstances that led me to park where i did. 50% discount is frozen. thats what appeals are for so you can ask for someone to look at whether there are circumstances or valid reasons why a mistake could have been made on either side. im not saying i wont have to pay for it, your prob right i will.   im not just blonde- im new to this. i know ignorance is no excuse. within 20 mins of getting home i was on council web site improving my knowledge for future reference, ive looked at   more about parking my bike. how to ensure not getting a fine by purchasing and holding onto a ticket if in a fee paying space as not all bike spaces are free. bike bays, where they are and how many parking restrictions, and indeed fines,   im no vigilantee, just made a mistake that i didnt realise they could fine me for.  i wont be doing again.                                                                                                                                                                              

I always use my phone camera and take a pic of the ticket with the date and time clearly showing, I have had an instance of the ticket being taken and I have proved it by this means.....   Still think it is out of order closing of the bike bays....                                                                                                                                                                             

I would appeal, when Ian and I came back from france we stopped at a place where the same thing had happened and were told by the attendant we did not need a ticket as they had blocked off the bays.

Yes there is as Geoff says no obligation to provide bays however once they do then yes there is that president set.

Also if you appeal and lose you still get the 50% discount if you pay straight away :-)

Good luck whatever you do x

I have to agree with the pay up theory.

It shows what a good idea it is to get knowledge of motocycle bays in a city. I know Southampton a small amount, and can think of at least one area for bikes, but as someone has said if you were a car driver and got a ticket, would you complain then for not paying the charges

Good tip by Johnny. Never thought of that.                                                                                                                                                                             

i would ask the council to waiver the fee because of the closed off bays. if they dont, then i would cough up as well. no point going to appeal for all the reasons already mentioned.

good luck!
                                                                                                                                                                             

end result.
they respectfully advised me that motorcycles when parked in a 'pay and display bay' (thats car bay to me) should buy a ticket. they appologised for the inconvenience experienced within the carpark due to the parking restiction (caused by the boat show) but as i stated on my 'challenge against penalty charge' form that i was unaware that i should have paid under these circumstances and admitted my genuine mistake. they have charged me £4.20  the fee to park normally for 4hours in that car park.   i have been very lucky, but honest at the same time , it cost me nothing to appeal. .                                                                                                                                                                                   

Nice one RRH ...... I spend alot of time in my working week appealing parking tickets and most times i get off them for the engineers.

It never hurts to try the appeal if you really are up front with them and not just trying it on.

Well done again
                                                                                                                                                                             

Just one thing about the councils having no obligations to provide parking for bikes ...... Maybe not but where they have and in this case had decided that the bike bay was closed thy should have provided temp alternatives as you could argue discrimination .

Why didn't they close some car bays >>>>> answer they get revenue from them !!!!!