OK.

Just been to visit a friend of the misses... Parked up outside of her house, and saw one of her neighbours looking over the fence at us... Looked like one of those real nosey neighbours, and made me wonder why he was looking over at us like that...

Anyway, went in to friends, was chatting, etc etc. Went to leave about 45-50 minutes later, and there was a penalty charge noticed on the car... Friend said that it is an area where a permit to park is needed, but since it's a bank holiday, thought that it would count like a Sunday, so never mentioned anything to us. Said that we wondered why neighbour had looked funny at us, and so checked, and couldn't see any signs or anything, so didn't think anything wrong. Friend had said that there's just a sign as you drive in to the road... Here's a mini map of the area:

Screen Shot 2013-05-06 at 16.19.49.png

As you come off the B5350 on to Kingfisher Way, there's a little sign at the top saying that it's a permit required zone. But, there's nothing on any of the streets to say you can't park without a permit... It does state on the sign Monday - Saturday, 7am - 6pm (or something to that effect). So, I assume there's possibly no way of getting out of it, but surely they should state right by the roads that you can't park there. Heading back up the B5350 in the opposite direction where it states Forest Road), there are signs all along there where people can park stating something like 1 hour, permit parking and hours or something like that...

But, is this something I can challenge? Looking on council website, here:

Code:
http://www.charnwood.gov.uk/pages/preferentialparking
It states:

PLEASE NOTE: Parking restrictions remain in force 365 days a year, including Bank Holidays, unless the adjacent parking signage states otherwise. Please always check the parking signage and road markings at the location where you wish to park before parking there.
So, because it was a bank holiday, and there was nothing stating bank holidays not included, we're stuck I guess. But, then again, there was no adjacent parking status saying we couldn't park there, never mind saying we could...

So, anyone got any background in this? Anyone with some legal backing who could help?

Feel totally peeved that this has happened, and thing the git who was watch us, was the one who called it in... He could've at least told us!!! lol

Thanks in advance anyone who can help