Sea of vapours
Guru
- Location
- Clapham, Yorkshire Dales
England : North Yorkshire Yorkshire Dales ride from Settle - DATE CHANGED TO SUNDAY, 3rd July 2016
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OP
OP
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
THE SHORT VERSION:
Yes, another successful Dales ride ... Extremely tough though! Skip ahead to photos. Ignore the waffle!
THE LONG VERSION:
My pal Bill gave me a lift to Settle. We had already decided not to mess about trying to find somewhere to park and so had opted to use the Greenfoot Pay & DIsplay car park which has over 100 spaces and is only (currently) £2.20 for a full day. I bought the ticket while Bill was getting the bikes out of the back of the car. I tried to find a way of sticking the ticket inside the windscreen, but couldn't. Bill told me to put it on the driver's seat and he would see to it when he'd finished with the bikes. HE FORGOT AND I DID NOT REMIND HIM!
As you can see from earlier posts in this thread, we had postponed the ride from Saturday due to a bad forecast for that day (which turned out to be accurate) and a much better forecast for Sunday, which fortunately also turned out to be accurate. There was just the hint of drizzle early on, but we didn't actually get rained on at all. There had been rain (as forecast) further round the route but it had blown over by the time we got to those areas. A few remaining puddles was all there was to show for it. It was windy all day. On our circular route it sometimes helped and sometimes hindered, but it was never a real killer. What it did do was to introduce a significant wind chill factor. Temperatures were only in the mid-teens anyway so it felt pretty nippy when standing around sweaty ...
Bill and I rode down to the start point at Ye Old Naked Man cafe and spotted rusty bearing sat on a bench outside. Sea of vapours turned up soon afterwards. Final rider (non-CycleChatter) Kevin was nowhere to be seen. It turned out that he was early rather than late and was inside the cafe. He eventually emerged and we set off on time.
We made our way round to Little Stainforth and crossed over the infant River Ribble to Stainforth where we started our first big climb of the day. There were 4 hard climbs on the route, and (it turned out) rather a lot of steep little ones which gradually wore us out as the day progressed.
We got that first climb under our belts and crossed over to Littondale, which we descended to Wharfedale, where we turned left and headed north through Kettlewell, Starbotton, and Buckden, after which we turned right up the rather lovely Langstrothdale. That road rises gently until a junction where we turned right to continue north over Fleet Moss to Hawes in Wensleydale. That is a vicious climb/descent in both directions, topping out at about 590 m.
The lads were getting away from me on all of the main climbs. My back had already done its usual wimpy thing of threatening spasms if I pushed too hard and my heart and lungs had walked out in sympathy! It limits my climbing speed on the steep stuff to not much more than walking pace. The trouble is, that means that everybody gets to exposed, windy hilltops several minutes ahead of me and have to stand around getting cold.
Bill had pneumonia in his 20s and is worried about getting too chilled now and ending up like that again. He is scrawny, with very little insulating body fat. So, he usually clears off rather than waiting for me on cold summits. In this case, he went straight over the top of Fleet Moss and headed down to the shelter of Hawes.
I grovelled my way to the top and found RB, SoV, and Kevin waiting for me. I took the customary summit photo of them ...
... and I asked Rusty to take one of me. I am looking for a replacement for my 10 year old avatar, a flattering picture which shows me as a 'more mature' 60 year old!
Hmm ... maybe not - the hunt continues!
We set off down the descent. as promised, I warned everybody about it and told them to be careful. and then ignored my own advice ... So there I was, descending at 65 kph (41 mph), getting blown from side to side by gusting crosswinds, when a tosser in a black car decided that it was perfectly safe to overtake me! It is a narrow road and I was close to the centre of it to allow for lateral movements due to the wind. I couldn't hear anything except for wind noise blasting my ears so it was a complete shock to suddenly find a car a few inches from my right elbow!!!
This might not be the exact spot, but it is close. Imagine riding your bike down there at that speed, close to the centre of the road. Just how can it be safe to overtake?
You will have to ask @rusty bearing for his verdict. He was behind me some way back up the hill and witnessed it.
I found Bill waiting on the outskirts of Hawes and we were joined a few minutes later by the others.
As usual on a dry weekend day in Summer, Hawes was heaving with bikers and other tourists. We managed to find a cafe that wasn't too busy and had a refuelling stop there.
From Hawes there is a fairly long stretch of quite busy A-road to Garsdale Head. The actual road is quite nice but I am always nervous sharing the road with fast-moving motorbikes and cars.
We turned on to the climb of the 'Coal Road' and it was immediately obvious that it is a tough one. I stopped to take my rain jacket/windtop off. I had a gilet underneath and the combination was becoming very 'boil-in-the-bag' on the steep climbs. Everybody else was spread out up the hillside ahead of me, no chance of me catching up with them until the summit. Only streams of motorbikers for company. They were pretty good at holding back when they had to, and only overtaking when it was safe, but it still meant that I was forced to hold my position on the left of the road rather than zigzagging in places, or steering round debris or potholes.
But then I only had to go and mess about with my trusty old GPS! It was doing my head in not knowing how much further the climb went on so I zoomed the GPS out to fit the whole climb/summit/descent onto its screen. I normally have the thing set to 80 m scale, but I zoomed it to 800 m scale. I forgot to reset it before the descent ...
That descent is a bit tricky. The road surface is very poor. We generally had fair/good surfaces in North Yorkshire but we had crossed the border into Cumbria on the road between Hawes and Garsdale Head. It looks like the Cumbrian road maintenance budget is lower!
Our group reassembled in Dentdale and we set off in the direction of Dent. Sea of vapours called out that we were going the wrong way. My GPS appeared to be telling me that we were going the right way. I was confused! SoV lives in that area and rides round there a lot. Clearly, if he said we were wrong, we were wrong! The problem was that I couldn't see how that was possible. I had double-checked the route the night before and my GPS has been totally reliable for over 10 years. I am used to being the navigator on forum rides, just going into auto-pilot following the trail on my GPS screen, representing the route that I have plotted. I wanted to stick to doing that. So we continued the wrong way ...
We got separated and my confusion increased. SoV, Bill and Kevin were ahead of us, I knew that, but I convinced myself that (a) there must have been a turn back up the road and (b) everybody must have gone that way without waiting for us (not very likely!). So Rusty and I turned and went back up the valley the way we had come. Things were getting silly. I couldn't understand how I had made this cock-up. And then I spotted the scale on my GPS screen. It was still set to 800 m! That meant than any errors in navigation only looked 1/10th as bad as they actually were. I switched to my usual scale and could suddenly see what SoV had said earlier, that we were on the wrong side of the valley. Oh, crap!
We turned again and headed back down the same length of road for the 3rd time. We passed a couple of elderly ramblers for the 3rd time and they gave me a look which translated as "You're lost, aren't you!"
I knew that the others would be wondering what the hell had happened to us. They would be getting cold waiting for us. They would probably assume that we'd had mechanical problems. It flitted through my mind to beg Rusty to lie for me and say that I'd had a puncture, but I decided to be honest and confess to my idiocy. I didn't have to wait long for the opportunity ... SoV came whizzing back up the road towards us!
He made it fairly clear that this whole problem was unnecessary, if only I had taken heed of what he had said earlier. Point taken. Agreed!
That's enough of guilty confessions, back to the ride!
We continued down the road to Dent village. It was actually a nicer road than the planned one on the other side of the valley, and the village is also pleasant. I remembered that we had intended to go through Dent on my first Settle ride and up the road that we had come down on this ride. The problem that day was that Dent festival was taking place and the village was crammed with tourists so we had diverted onto the other route instead, the one we had tried to follow on this ride. In fact, we saw signs for this year's festival as we passed through Dent. It appears to take place on the last weekend of July. I think on future editions of the Settle ride we will go via the village if it is not festival weekend, or the other way if it is.
And so to y.a.b.c. (Yet Another B*st*rd Climb), up Deepdale! Yes, it was hard. My right calf muscle was starting to ache. I think I probably tore a few more muscle fibres than I would on a normal ride. I just got straight into my lowest gear and span my way up. That road has 4 gates across it but one advantage of being slowest rider is that someone else got there first and opened the gate for me every time.
Deepdale leads straight over into Kingsdale. It really is a lovely part of the country. We were even starting to get some sunny spells. You wouldn't want to be up there in bad weather, but we had slyly avoided that by our 24 hour ride postponement.
Rusty and Kevin seemed to be running out of steam and walked a couple of steep sections. For the first time on the ride I actually got to the tops of some climbs ahead of them!
There then followed some delightful descending, marred only by one stiff climb that SoV had forgotten to mention, and that I had forgotten from my route plotting. SoV, Bill, Kevin and I got to the top and discovered that Rusty was missing. We could see an awfully long way back down the valley. So far in fact that a pair of binoculars would have been handy for straggler spotting ....
'Where is Rusty?'
We waited. And waited. And eventually, SoV was thinking of going back down the road in search of our missing comrade. The rest of weren't lacking in compassion for Rusty. We just didn't have the legs for any extra distance and climbing!
But then, in the far distance, we spotted a tiny black and blue shape. Could it possibly be ... Rusty? Yay - it was! It took him a few more minutes to reach us. He'd had a puncture and none of us had heard him call out. (There are no phone signals in places like that so you can't just ring each other to find out what is going on.)
'Rusty finally catches up!'
Reunited, we set off again and did another long descent, this time to Ingleton. A quick toilet stop there, and then we were on our way. SoV was soon to leave us and suggested that it was pretty much an easy run back to Settle from there. That was indeed the case. Apart from what felt like a relentless succession of steep little climbs on the way!
The 4 of us were glad to finally limp back into Settle. Bill and I said goodbye to Rusty and Kevin and dived into a Co-op for emergency sugary supplies.
We rode back to the car park and discovered a bloody £50 fixed penalty parking notice stuck to the car. Evidently, valid parking ticket resting on driver's seat does not count as 'prominently displayed'!
That kind of took the shine off the ride. We are going to appeal and try to get the penalty cancelled, but I don't hold out much hope. If not, we will have to pay up within 14 days to get the penalty halved. I gave Bill £5 towards his petrol. £2.20 (parking ticket) + £12.50 (share of fine) + £5 (petrol) + £5.60 (cafe) ... I suppose that just over £25 for a great day out on the bikes isn't bad, but I resent paying a fine for a silly mistake!
------------------------------------------------------
There will be a great ride to Wray from Todmorden/Whalley taking in Cross o' Greet and Bowland Knotts some time in the next month or so - a rerun of THIS RIDE. I am also planning an easier ride in the hope of interesting riders who may find rides like this Settle one too tough - a reun of THIS RIDE. Watch out for news in the next couple of weeks.
Yes, another successful Dales ride ... Extremely tough though! Skip ahead to photos. Ignore the waffle!
THE LONG VERSION:
My pal Bill gave me a lift to Settle. We had already decided not to mess about trying to find somewhere to park and so had opted to use the Greenfoot Pay & DIsplay car park which has over 100 spaces and is only (currently) £2.20 for a full day. I bought the ticket while Bill was getting the bikes out of the back of the car. I tried to find a way of sticking the ticket inside the windscreen, but couldn't. Bill told me to put it on the driver's seat and he would see to it when he'd finished with the bikes. HE FORGOT AND I DID NOT REMIND HIM!
As you can see from earlier posts in this thread, we had postponed the ride from Saturday due to a bad forecast for that day (which turned out to be accurate) and a much better forecast for Sunday, which fortunately also turned out to be accurate. There was just the hint of drizzle early on, but we didn't actually get rained on at all. There had been rain (as forecast) further round the route but it had blown over by the time we got to those areas. A few remaining puddles was all there was to show for it. It was windy all day. On our circular route it sometimes helped and sometimes hindered, but it was never a real killer. What it did do was to introduce a significant wind chill factor. Temperatures were only in the mid-teens anyway so it felt pretty nippy when standing around sweaty ...
Bill and I rode down to the start point at Ye Old Naked Man cafe and spotted rusty bearing sat on a bench outside. Sea of vapours turned up soon afterwards. Final rider (non-CycleChatter) Kevin was nowhere to be seen. It turned out that he was early rather than late and was inside the cafe. He eventually emerged and we set off on time.
We made our way round to Little Stainforth and crossed over the infant River Ribble to Stainforth where we started our first big climb of the day. There were 4 hard climbs on the route, and (it turned out) rather a lot of steep little ones which gradually wore us out as the day progressed.
We got that first climb under our belts and crossed over to Littondale, which we descended to Wharfedale, where we turned left and headed north through Kettlewell, Starbotton, and Buckden, after which we turned right up the rather lovely Langstrothdale. That road rises gently until a junction where we turned right to continue north over Fleet Moss to Hawes in Wensleydale. That is a vicious climb/descent in both directions, topping out at about 590 m.
The lads were getting away from me on all of the main climbs. My back had already done its usual wimpy thing of threatening spasms if I pushed too hard and my heart and lungs had walked out in sympathy! It limits my climbing speed on the steep stuff to not much more than walking pace. The trouble is, that means that everybody gets to exposed, windy hilltops several minutes ahead of me and have to stand around getting cold.
Bill had pneumonia in his 20s and is worried about getting too chilled now and ending up like that again. He is scrawny, with very little insulating body fat. So, he usually clears off rather than waiting for me on cold summits. In this case, he went straight over the top of Fleet Moss and headed down to the shelter of Hawes.
I grovelled my way to the top and found RB, SoV, and Kevin waiting for me. I took the customary summit photo of them ...
... and I asked Rusty to take one of me. I am looking for a replacement for my 10 year old avatar, a flattering picture which shows me as a 'more mature' 60 year old!
Hmm ... maybe not - the hunt continues!
We set off down the descent. as promised, I warned everybody about it and told them to be careful. and then ignored my own advice ... So there I was, descending at 65 kph (41 mph), getting blown from side to side by gusting crosswinds, when a tosser in a black car decided that it was perfectly safe to overtake me! It is a narrow road and I was close to the centre of it to allow for lateral movements due to the wind. I couldn't hear anything except for wind noise blasting my ears so it was a complete shock to suddenly find a car a few inches from my right elbow!!!
This might not be the exact spot, but it is close. Imagine riding your bike down there at that speed, close to the centre of the road. Just how can it be safe to overtake?
You will have to ask @rusty bearing for his verdict. He was behind me some way back up the hill and witnessed it.
I found Bill waiting on the outskirts of Hawes and we were joined a few minutes later by the others.
As usual on a dry weekend day in Summer, Hawes was heaving with bikers and other tourists. We managed to find a cafe that wasn't too busy and had a refuelling stop there.
From Hawes there is a fairly long stretch of quite busy A-road to Garsdale Head. The actual road is quite nice but I am always nervous sharing the road with fast-moving motorbikes and cars.
We turned on to the climb of the 'Coal Road' and it was immediately obvious that it is a tough one. I stopped to take my rain jacket/windtop off. I had a gilet underneath and the combination was becoming very 'boil-in-the-bag' on the steep climbs. Everybody else was spread out up the hillside ahead of me, no chance of me catching up with them until the summit. Only streams of motorbikers for company. They were pretty good at holding back when they had to, and only overtaking when it was safe, but it still meant that I was forced to hold my position on the left of the road rather than zigzagging in places, or steering round debris or potholes.
But then I only had to go and mess about with my trusty old GPS! It was doing my head in not knowing how much further the climb went on so I zoomed the GPS out to fit the whole climb/summit/descent onto its screen. I normally have the thing set to 80 m scale, but I zoomed it to 800 m scale. I forgot to reset it before the descent ...
That descent is a bit tricky. The road surface is very poor. We generally had fair/good surfaces in North Yorkshire but we had crossed the border into Cumbria on the road between Hawes and Garsdale Head. It looks like the Cumbrian road maintenance budget is lower!
Our group reassembled in Dentdale and we set off in the direction of Dent. Sea of vapours called out that we were going the wrong way. My GPS appeared to be telling me that we were going the right way. I was confused! SoV lives in that area and rides round there a lot. Clearly, if he said we were wrong, we were wrong! The problem was that I couldn't see how that was possible. I had double-checked the route the night before and my GPS has been totally reliable for over 10 years. I am used to being the navigator on forum rides, just going into auto-pilot following the trail on my GPS screen, representing the route that I have plotted. I wanted to stick to doing that. So we continued the wrong way ...
We got separated and my confusion increased. SoV, Bill and Kevin were ahead of us, I knew that, but I convinced myself that (a) there must have been a turn back up the road and (b) everybody must have gone that way without waiting for us (not very likely!). So Rusty and I turned and went back up the valley the way we had come. Things were getting silly. I couldn't understand how I had made this cock-up. And then I spotted the scale on my GPS screen. It was still set to 800 m! That meant than any errors in navigation only looked 1/10th as bad as they actually were. I switched to my usual scale and could suddenly see what SoV had said earlier, that we were on the wrong side of the valley. Oh, crap!
We turned again and headed back down the same length of road for the 3rd time. We passed a couple of elderly ramblers for the 3rd time and they gave me a look which translated as "You're lost, aren't you!"
I knew that the others would be wondering what the hell had happened to us. They would be getting cold waiting for us. They would probably assume that we'd had mechanical problems. It flitted through my mind to beg Rusty to lie for me and say that I'd had a puncture, but I decided to be honest and confess to my idiocy. I didn't have to wait long for the opportunity ... SoV came whizzing back up the road towards us!
He made it fairly clear that this whole problem was unnecessary, if only I had taken heed of what he had said earlier. Point taken. Agreed!
That's enough of guilty confessions, back to the ride!
We continued down the road to Dent village. It was actually a nicer road than the planned one on the other side of the valley, and the village is also pleasant. I remembered that we had intended to go through Dent on my first Settle ride and up the road that we had come down on this ride. The problem that day was that Dent festival was taking place and the village was crammed with tourists so we had diverted onto the other route instead, the one we had tried to follow on this ride. In fact, we saw signs for this year's festival as we passed through Dent. It appears to take place on the last weekend of July. I think on future editions of the Settle ride we will go via the village if it is not festival weekend, or the other way if it is.
And so to y.a.b.c. (Yet Another B*st*rd Climb), up Deepdale! Yes, it was hard. My right calf muscle was starting to ache. I think I probably tore a few more muscle fibres than I would on a normal ride. I just got straight into my lowest gear and span my way up. That road has 4 gates across it but one advantage of being slowest rider is that someone else got there first and opened the gate for me every time.
Deepdale leads straight over into Kingsdale. It really is a lovely part of the country. We were even starting to get some sunny spells. You wouldn't want to be up there in bad weather, but we had slyly avoided that by our 24 hour ride postponement.
Rusty and Kevin seemed to be running out of steam and walked a couple of steep sections. For the first time on the ride I actually got to the tops of some climbs ahead of them!
There then followed some delightful descending, marred only by one stiff climb that SoV had forgotten to mention, and that I had forgotten from my route plotting. SoV, Bill, Kevin and I got to the top and discovered that Rusty was missing. We could see an awfully long way back down the valley. So far in fact that a pair of binoculars would have been handy for straggler spotting ....
'Where is Rusty?'
We waited. And waited. And eventually, SoV was thinking of going back down the road in search of our missing comrade. The rest of weren't lacking in compassion for Rusty. We just didn't have the legs for any extra distance and climbing!
But then, in the far distance, we spotted a tiny black and blue shape. Could it possibly be ... Rusty? Yay - it was! It took him a few more minutes to reach us. He'd had a puncture and none of us had heard him call out. (There are no phone signals in places like that so you can't just ring each other to find out what is going on.)
'Rusty finally catches up!'
Reunited, we set off again and did another long descent, this time to Ingleton. A quick toilet stop there, and then we were on our way. SoV was soon to leave us and suggested that it was pretty much an easy run back to Settle from there. That was indeed the case. Apart from what felt like a relentless succession of steep little climbs on the way!
The 4 of us were glad to finally limp back into Settle. Bill and I said goodbye to Rusty and Kevin and dived into a Co-op for emergency sugary supplies.
We rode back to the car park and discovered a bloody £50 fixed penalty parking notice stuck to the car. Evidently, valid parking ticket resting on driver's seat does not count as 'prominently displayed'!
That kind of took the shine off the ride. We are going to appeal and try to get the penalty cancelled, but I don't hold out much hope. If not, we will have to pay up within 14 days to get the penalty halved. I gave Bill £5 towards his petrol. £2.20 (parking ticket) + £12.50 (share of fine) + £5 (petrol) + £5.60 (cafe) ... I suppose that just over £25 for a great day out on the bikes isn't bad, but I resent paying a fine for a silly mistake!
------------------------------------------------------
There will be a great ride to Wray from Todmorden/Whalley taking in Cross o' Greet and Bowland Knotts some time in the next month or so - a rerun of THIS RIDE. I am also planning an easier ride in the hope of interesting riders who may find rides like this Settle one too tough - a reun of THIS RIDE. Watch out for news in the next couple of weeks.
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Sea of vapours
Guru
- Location
- Clapham, Yorkshire Dales
Great write-up, Colin :-)
Entirely good humoured and amused point of order re the Dentdale backtracking thing though: going the wrong/unplanned way, through Dent, rather than cutting the corner off was fine as it's a nicer/better route anyway and only about 3km further. Given that I'd already said 'going through Dent is fine; probably better in fact', the only real mistake was the bit where you backtracked! And you're doing yourself a disservice there by failing to point out that that is your very first navigational error in many years of organising forum rides, so a very small blot on an otherwise unblemished navigational record
Of course, you do, in some manner, owe me the 8km extra from the 'find Colin' mission back up the dale.
Sorry to hear about the fixed penalty notice. I've heard of people doing the same and successfully appealing the penalty, so it's certainly worth a go and you do, after all, have the ticket.
As for the relentless series of steep little climbs, that's par for the course around here. You either get one big climb and a big descent or lots of small ones. At that point in the day, I'm sure the latter was more welcome than another Coal Road or Deepdale?
Entirely good humoured and amused point of order re the Dentdale backtracking thing though: going the wrong/unplanned way, through Dent, rather than cutting the corner off was fine as it's a nicer/better route anyway and only about 3km further. Given that I'd already said 'going through Dent is fine; probably better in fact', the only real mistake was the bit where you backtracked! And you're doing yourself a disservice there by failing to point out that that is your very first navigational error in many years of organising forum rides, so a very small blot on an otherwise unblemished navigational record
Of course, you do, in some manner, owe me the 8km extra from the 'find Colin' mission back up the dale. Sorry to hear about the fixed penalty notice. I've heard of people doing the same and successfully appealing the penalty, so it's certainly worth a go and you do, after all, have the ticket.
As for the relentless series of steep little climbs, that's par for the course around here. You either get one big climb and a big descent or lots of small ones. At that point in the day, I'm sure the latter was more welcome than another Coal Road or Deepdale?
OP
OP
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
Yes - that was the only seriously bad navigational error that I have made in 10 years. Even then, I wasn't actually lost - I knew where Dent was and how to proceed from there. The problem was that I started worrying where you lot were. Given that you had set off ahead of us down the same road, you had to be ahead, but it was taking so long to catch up with you that I began to think that I had made another mistake. In fact I hadn't until we did that first u-turn!
Ah, I forgot to mention my ride stats ... I clocked 125 km (78 miles) for the day. I did about 2,400 m (8,000 ft) of climbing.
Ah, I forgot to mention my ride stats ... I clocked 125 km (78 miles) for the day. I did about 2,400 m (8,000 ft) of climbing.
OP
OP
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
Book yourself Sunday 8th October away from the sailing club and join us on the Season of Mists audax from Mytholmroyd. That has slightly more climbing crammed in to only 105 km! Be warned though - the event seems to have a 50-50 ratio of good weather to bad weather. I have done it in sweltering sunshine, and abandoned in horrendous rain!
Sea of vapours has already come up with an interesting new route for next year's Settle ride, heading over to Reeth rather than Dent, and featuring a much easier finish than the route we tackled this time. Details of that next June.
Sea of vapours
Guru
- Location
- Clapham, Yorkshire Dales
I've since come up with an optional finish to that circuit too, whereby the 'much easier finish' could become the bail-out option ...
EDIT: Ah - re the optional finish: it comes in at nearly 150km with 3,200m of ascent - maybe not then! Scratch that; as you were; etc.
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OP
OP
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
I think the original Reeth version looks long and hard enough, ta very much! 
Just been round to Bill's to photograph the parking ticket for our appeal against the £50 penalty charge.
I checked the wording on the notice and it said that no parket ticket had been 'clearly displayed'. We couldn't see anywhere on the ticket that said it had to be on the windscreen or dashboard, though those are the obvious places to look. However, the ticket had been clearly visible on the driver's seat and was readable from that position. I took some photos and we have forwarded them with the appeal.
I think this is 'clear'!
What it looked like, with magnified inset picture of ticket.
The ticket, close-up.
We both feel quite strongly about this. We didn't just dump the car in some backstreet, we chose a proper car park and paid for our ticket. We can prove that we have the ticket. The penalty charge was issued 6 hours after we bought the ticket. The only possible grounds for demanding the payment is that we didn't display it clearly enough. If so, then the council are using parking fines as a way of raising revenue rather than controlling parking! We will go to adjudication if the appeal is denied ...
Just been round to Bill's to photograph the parking ticket for our appeal against the £50 penalty charge.
I checked the wording on the notice and it said that no parket ticket had been 'clearly displayed'. We couldn't see anywhere on the ticket that said it had to be on the windscreen or dashboard, though those are the obvious places to look. However, the ticket had been clearly visible on the driver's seat and was readable from that position. I took some photos and we have forwarded them with the appeal.
I think this is 'clear'!
What it looked like, with magnified inset picture of ticket.
The ticket, close-up.
We both feel quite strongly about this. We didn't just dump the car in some backstreet, we chose a proper car park and paid for our ticket. We can prove that we have the ticket. The penalty charge was issued 6 hours after we bought the ticket. The only possible grounds for demanding the payment is that we didn't display it clearly enough. If so, then the council are using parking fines as a way of raising revenue rather than controlling parking! We will go to adjudication if the appeal is denied ...
Sea of vapours
Guru
- Location
- Clapham, Yorkshire Dales
Good luck with it. I entirely agree that that should constitute 'clearly displayed'. It's even oriented correctly to be easily read from the driver's side through the window, so a completely unreasonable penalty.
lpretro1
Guest
Best of luck with the appeal. Me and Rusty got a ticket in Keswick a few years back at 8.50am in an empty car park - we had paid our fee and just popped into a shop to pick up an item so we were 15-20mins tops. Our 'offence' was that one of the wheels of the van encroached over the white line into another space (this on a wedge shaped parking spot I might add so narrower at back than front. Our appeal failed as it said it 'clearly' said on the notice by the pay machine that you had to park within the lines. However, I'd parked the van while Rusty went and got the ticket. It was so 'clearly displayed' that he didn't see it and I didn't cos I didn't see the notice as I went nowhere near it!! If it had been a packed car park and we'd prevented anyone taking that space I might have understood but an EMPTY car park at that time on a Sunday morning? Like you say revenue generators only...
Friend of mine got a parking ticket for parking in a residents' parking zone.
He is a resident and had the permit for the zone clearly displayed.
On the permit there was a zero where on his registration plate there was a letter O (or vice versa, I can't remember).
It had been like that for months.
His appeal was successful...
He is a resident and had the permit for the zone clearly displayed.
On the permit there was a zero where on his registration plate there was a letter O (or vice versa, I can't remember).
It had been like that for months.
His appeal was successful...
OP
OP
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
Rotters!
The car park we used had 100+ spaces but there were only about 3 or 4 other vehicles in it when we left the car. There were probably a few more later, but it was 3/4 mile from the town centre up a side road so I reckon it wouldn't get much use unless the town was crawling with visitors. It wasn't as if the parking warden would have been too busy to have a look inside. Either they couldn't be bothered, or they did spot the ticket but decided to ignore it and take photographs of the windcreen and side window to show that no ticket was attached.
Sea of vapours
Guru
- Location
- Clapham, Yorkshire Dales
You're correct there, Colin. I've not often see more than 15 cars in there. It's probably busy on market day, but I bet that's about it.
rusty bearing
Guru
- Location
- Chorley, lancashire
Crackin' write up to end a very fine day, nice photo's as well.
My GPS gave me 78.06 miles and 7772' of climbing. It also tells me that the climb out of Ingleton is a cat 4 climb so that gives us five categorised climbs for the day! That comes under 'one of the hardest days on a bike' ever(for me anyway).
Good luck with the ticket......................
My GPS gave me 78.06 miles and 7772' of climbing. It also tells me that the climb out of Ingleton is a cat 4 climb so that gives us five categorised climbs for the day! That comes under 'one of the hardest days on a bike' ever(for me anyway).
Good luck with the ticket......................
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