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Hi,
I recently got a parking fine for parking down at the halfmoon bay ferry terminal which i disagree with. It would be good to get your take.

On arrival: Saw parking restriction signs on weekend. Drove around and saw on every drive "Trailer parking only on weekends" so believed this to be the restriction. Three lanes had this sign, and the final had nothing on the road, but sign stating mon-fri 22hour limit. It was a Saturday so assumed okay.

So we parked on the road we believed was restricted mon-fri only. Fast forward 12 hours and on our return we had a lady ticketing our car.

Turns out there was a sign, which could be viewed from a certain angle. Hidden by trees until parked, and if you were to back up 5-10 spaces in the other direction to the ferry. Ie. We had no idea it was there and could not see it on our drive to the park. Needless to say the other 20 cars with tickets didn't see it either.

Our argument is
1) the signage is confusing. Having road markings stating that there are parking restrictions on 3 out of 4 lanes leads to the assumption that the 4th is ok.
2) Also not being able to see the sign on the approach to the park means you can only see this if you go in the opposite direction to that of the ferry. The visible sign is hidden by a tree
3) The person we approached said this happened every weekend. The place was deserted apart from this one row of cars without signage. All with tickets.

The lady was there who ticketed us. She took a photo from the location 10 paces back where you can see the sign. We took photos from the angle of approach, the tree blocking etc and sent in for an appeal.

They simply replied showing the photo from the agent and no answers to any of our points. Our fine is only $40 but i don't see how it will ever be stopped unless people stand up for these unfair fines.

But, before we go to court, effectively doubling our fine, it would be good to get a legal perspective on if we stand a chance of defending this.

Best Regards.

Unclear or confusing signage is a common complaint. Are you saying you formally wrote to the council to appeal and they rejected it? If so, they may choose to take you to court; our experience suggests the chances of winning are quite variable. Email your contact details to mstockdale@aa.co.nz and we will approach the council and ask them to review it again.