Ceci n'est pas une dropped kerb

A gentleman who lives in the same street as me told me about two stretches of pavement on Preston Road approximately 20 and 30 metres away from where I received a fine for parking adjacent to a dropped kerb. I had not been able to clearly see these stretches of pavement on my expedition to find dropped kerbs disguised as a badly repaired stretch of pavement, as they had cars parked in front of them. Cars that I am  confident did not received tickets for parking adjacent to them because this sad man went up and down Preston Road on Sunday to see if any other tickets had been issued. They hadn't

The first stretch of pavement seems to my untrained eye to be a dropped kerb. Granted it doesn't drop all the way to the road but it does seem to feature a noticeable dropping of the kerb stone.

The second stretch of pavement seems to conclusively be a dropped kerb. On this stretch of pavement the kerb stones have been lowered right down to road level.

So where could a man turn for help in trying to ascertain what is or isn't a dropped kerb and help in avoiding PCNs for parking adjacent to them? Why our good old friends North Tyneside Council's website.

 I looked at the section of their website that gives help and advice to avoid getting a PCN. No mention of dropped kerbs there at all whatsoever let alone any advice on what NTC consider is or isn't a dropped kerb.

So I looked at the section of their website about dropped kerbs. This tells me that "A dropped kerb involves kerb stones being lowered and the pavement being strengthened and made into a ramp. This helps people with pushchairs or in wheelchairs to access the road from the pavement more easily. Dropped kerbs also provide vehicle access to private residences from the road."

So there you have it. NTC's own words about what does and doesn't constitute a dropped kerb. So using this method I should be easily able to identify what is a dropped kerb and what is a badly repaired stretch of pavement disguised as a dropped kerb.

Nope I'm still baffled and will be even more baffled as the concrete in the first photo begins to age. I'm looking forward to having NTC explain to me and a magistrate, the clear differences between these two stretches of badly repaired pavement less than 20 metres apart.

Po-faced council responds

As many predicted the dullard automatons at North Tyneside Council ignored my request for further communication to be made using carrier pigeon and instead sent the following response by Royal Mail. Apologies for the blurred images, just pretend that I have deliberately induced motion blur in an attempt to convey my shaking fury at the bland reply.

NTC kindly include their own photographic proof of my parking offence, but even after taking off my rose-tinted and incredibly biased glasses, I'd say the photos back up my original claim that the dropped kerb looks like a badly repaired pavement.

Dear North Tyneside Council, I will be challenging your fine in the magistrates court but I am baffled why I have to wait 28 days for a needless letter to be sent to the van owner in order to instigate a formal challenge. I would have thought that a council that was willing to issue tickets at 08:38 on a Sunday morning would be interested in a swift resolution to this matter.