councils are bastards for this. They will reject most informal appeals out of principle regardless of the facts. Even after you get the NTO they will often reject the appeal.
An example, i parked on a street and got a ticket for parking in a residential bay. The restriction signs had been removed from the entire street by pikeys some time in the previous few days so therefore under the traffic regulations, none of the the restrictions could be enforced.
Also common sense says you cannot penalise someone for parking somewhere where there are no signs or markings indicating a restriction......
however stoke council morons rejected the informal appeal. They also claimed that the sign was present, despite the fact i had CCTV footage showing the sign being missing. They rejected the footage saying it was too grainy (despite it being D1 standard) and the sign being clearly visible a few days previously which i sent them as a comparison.: ie heres the sign present, heres it not present.
They also refused to send me the original uncropped/unedited photos taken by the attendant. Took a solicitors letter to get the full photos. The full photos taken by the womble mong clearly showed the post with no sign on it. So the idiot had dropped himself in it.
The mongs refused to accept that, then claiming that as I live not far away i should have "known" it was a residential area!!! Clearly thats rediculous as the law is absolute, not "he should have known" or "he might have not known so we will give benefit of doubt".
funnily enough i won the appeal when i took it national.
Although the council have ignored the fact i won the appeal and are still trying to pursue me for the money LOL. the random debt collectors are trying to get me to pay up £470 for a £35 ticket and are claiming they will take me to court and clamp my car and all sorts. bring it on, they dont know who they are f_cking with!!