Went to Hastings yesterday as sun was shining as I often have..parked bike in usual place..designated bike parking area at front of Marine Parade car park. This is a separate area to the car park with restricet acess for bikes only. Returned after a few hours to find it had a parking ticket on it. No signs to say bikes pay...upon checking board in the car park it seems bikes buy a a ticket for an hr,which lasts all day. Now,I not against paying for an hrs parking ticket (£1) but I was really pissed off it seems to have been introduced without any signage. That said,as far as I aware I never had to pay for bike parking before as its generaly viewed to be beneficial for people to use bikes and lessen congestion,therefore bikes havnt had to pay? Furthermore how the hell do you display a ticket on a bike without risk of loosing it? So a leisure trip to Hastings cost me £25 spent there plus fuel plus potentialy a £60 FINE! Needless to say I think I will now visit anywhere but Hastings and what will happen next Mayday run when thousands of bikes descend on Hastings? your comment peeps  welcome.                                                                                                                                                                             

Were there any 'Have u paid and displayed' notices?                                                                                                                                                                             

how could they prove that you didnt buy a ticket & someone took it off your bike??                                                                                                                                                                             

Me and boyfriend had exactly the same thing about Sept last year. As far as he was aware he didn't have to pay, and we saw no signs saying bikes had to pay. He wasn't a happy bunny either!                                                                                                                                                                             

Could try appealing? You never know....I got off with a parking fine for a car once cos I came up with a damn fine excuse                                                                                                                                                                             

say you brought a ticket and left it on the bike so if they didnt see it then it must of fell off                                                                                                                                                                              

fight it mate.. either 'insufficient signage' / similar, or ticket stolen(?)
Might be best going with 1st option, and get other bikers to complain or back it up. Check for any recent similar cases, especially if they were fought.. go straight to council, don't bother with any private parking companies.

From what you say above there's a good chance the council might (should!) respond favourably.. they can only say 'no' ;)

i  still dont see how they can prove you didnt buy a ticket - impossible to securely display a ticket on a bike!                                                                                                                                                                             

Check to see if there are any cameras near the machine in case they can prove you didn't buy a ticket and just walked away. 
I'd say you bought the ticket and it fell off though.

                                                                                                                                                                             

thanks folks for replies....I checked for cameras and couldn see any...however one cant be sure. I agree that a parking ticket left on a bike could so easily be stolen or simply blow away.. As for signage.well yes two signs that I assumed applied to the cars in the car park,none saying bikes had to pay,bays simply marked m/cycle parking.                                                                                                                                                                             

Sorry mate, wrong assumption, should have read the pay machine rules. But u could always claim u paid, as already said, and the ticket blew away or got nicked.                                                                                                                                                                              

I think local councils & privately owned car parks expect m/cyclists to take their ticket with them & in the case of being booked you then present the ticket as evidence of payment(makes sense really) so blown away/stolen ticket wont wash with them.   Your only recourse is probably ignorance, play the *I've always parked there, when did charges come into force?*-law abiding biker, regular visitor to beautiful Hastings, I can assure you sir this will not happen again..Slim chance but the only one you've got..Good luck.                                                                                                                                                                             

i would guess in a "pay & display" car park, to expect someone to do otherwise is a little unreasonable!!                                                                                                                                                                             

Exactly Mandy. Whilst I appreciate what people are saying on this topic, it seems unreasonable to expect to park free unless there's a sign saying bikes have to pay. It's up to you to check if bike parking is free not assume you can park free unless told otherwise. If anything the sign would say bike parking is free not bike parking is chargable.
                                                                                                                                                                             

my point was, it can hardly be "pay & display" and then the powers that be expect you to take your ticket with you to produce if called upon - im guessing the fine was given due to the ticket not being displayed?? my initial point was that its impossible to display a bike ticket securely & it could quite easily be taken off a bike by someone for use in their vehicle, and i believe the onus should be on the authorities to prove that wasnt the case.                                                                                                                                                                             

I've found two ways to stop anyone swiping the ticket off a bike if I have to buy one.
first - carry a pen with you, then on the ticket write motorbike and your registration number.
Second - most phones now have camera facility, so after writing on it, stick it on the bike then take a close up shot of the ticket so that details can clearly be seen, proving it is valid. Then take a shot further back showing the part of the bike where you've placed the ticket.

Writing m'bike and reg number usually puts anyone off from stealing it, and photographing it gives you evidence that you have paid for one, just in case anyone does still take it.

This has worked twice for me, hope it helps.

  If a ticket is issued for motorcycles doesn't it have 2 parts? One for the bike and the other you take with you? Then no matter what happens to the other half you have your half to prove you paid for parking.    Also wouldn't there be a keypad for you to insert your bike registration number, and it be printed on your ticket, so that the ticket would be useless to any other vehicle?                                                                                                                                                                                     

Some ticket machines have keypads to enter part registrations but not all of them have this facility.  guess we're lucky in Peterborough as there are free parking areas for bikes in the City Centre with solid metal rails fixed into the ground to lock bikes to. These areas are covered by the CCTV system, and are listed as free bike parks on the council website.
                                                                                                                                                                             

Recently had another incident in Blackpool. After our ticket at Hastings I thought I'd do the right thing and check the info at pay and display - there was nothing to say motorbikes didn't have to pay. However, a traffic warden happened to be passing so we asked him. He said we didn't have to pay and was surprised when I said there was no notice to that effect - he even went to check himself. Parked in same place several times with no ticket being issued.

As mentioned above.
Only times I've paid for bike specific parking
In a "car park" the machine has an extra button, which is
Bike-specific (such as in helmsely) so that 2x tickets are issued
Therefore in event ticket "lost or stolen" you have proof.
I hate paying to park, but given pay and display, it does seem
The rule rather than the exception. Pretty much no ground to
"get away" with it if parking using official site?