I got zero tolerance for my O for 0 typo at the car park
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I proved I had paid on the app, but Ealing council insists I pay a fine or go to court. I installed the PayByPhone app to pay for a full day’s parking during a family outing in Ealing, and was surprised to find a parking ticket when I returned hours before the expiry time.
![[Anna Tims]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/uploads/2018/01/08/Anna_Tims,_L.png?width=75&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
I wrote to Ealing council with proof of payment and was even more surprised when it insisted I pay the fine, or go to court. It claimed there was a mistake in my purchase but gave no details. I checked the app and discovered that, when I had entered my car registration, I had confused an O with a 0.
This feels like such unfair treatment for a small error. I don’t know whether to go to court for a fairer outcome, or just pay the fine to avoid the inconvenience. RD, London. It’s been years since I’ve seen this vexed issue. I thought councils and parking companies had learned.
Your mistake is easy to make because Os and 0s are indistinguishable on number plates. The only way of telling them apart is to mug up on how current registrations are formulated, so you know which order letters and numbers appear. You might wonder why the DVLA doesn’t amend number plates to avoid confusion. Because, it once told me, the font has been used since 1935 and hasn’t caused problems. The fact that ticket machine keypads and Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras were not around for most of the last century seems to have passed it by.
Like you, I assumed Ealing council would back off when I questioned its decision, since you had evidently paid in good faith. It did not. “The driver’s ‘mitigating’ circumstances appears to be driver error,” it says. “Cancelling a PCN for driver error is inappropriate as fair consideration must be given to motorists who comply with all the parking regulations.”.
