POPLA Appeal- REBUTTAL DRAFT - PCN from Premier Park - 7 minutes!

Oh crap. I've just realised I didn't upload it as a pdf. I've uploaded as a word doc. I hope that won't affect my chances.

I phoned them and he said it would be fine. Got him to check he could open it and he could so now its just a waiting game!

Operator Case Summary

The Appellants vehicle entered the site at 11:52 and exited at 11:59.

We are unable to trace that the Appellants vehicle was registered within the practice or has ever been registered.

The Appellant has been unable to provide any evidence that the driver was a customer at Vets 4 Pets.

When entering onto a managed private car park, a motorist might enter into a contract by remaining on the land for a reasonable period. The signage at the site sets out the terms and conditions of this contract. Therefore, upon entry to the car park, the driver should have reviewed the terms and conditions before deciding to park.

13 Grace periods – according to the British Parking Association Code of Practice
13.1 Your approach to parking management must allow a driver who enters your car park but decides not to park, to leave the car park within a reasonable period without having their vehicle issued with a parking charge notice.
13.2 You should allow the driver a reasonable ‘grace period’ in which to decide if they are going to stay or go. If the driver is on your land without permission you should still allow them a grace period to read your signs and leave before you take enforcement action.

If the motorist remains in the car park for a period longer than is “reasonable” for the purposes of Section 13.2, we would consider this parking also.

This location has been assessed in view of the size of the car park, the number of spaces and the vicinity of the business it is attached to. All of this can be seen in the picture evidence provided within the pack. The signage does state that the parking period commences on entry however, we do allow a 5 minute grace period. The grace period has therefore been assessed on these points. 5 minutes is a more than reasonable grace period for a vehicle to enter, the vehicle to be parked and the motorist to enter the vet practice or to read the signage and decide whether to remain or leave.

As the appellant remained on site for 7 minutes, we would consider this more than reasonable and class it as parking.

Ultimately, it is the motorist’s responsibility to ensure that they comply with the terms and conditions of the car park.

An unauthorised entry / parking occurred and a Parking Charge Notice was issued.

It is the responsibility of the motorist to ensure that they have read and parked in compliance with the terms and conditions. On this occasion, the Appellant did not.

We request that the Appellant's appeal be refused.

With regards to the appellant’s remarks that the parking charge notice is punitive and unreasonable and not a genuine pre-estimate of loss, we refer you to the recent Supreme Court decision dated 4th November 2015, Parking Eye Ltd-v-Mr Barry Beavis. Details on the case be found at https://www.supremecourt.uk/cases/uksc-2015-0116.html. This case was seen as an important ‘test case’ due to the complex legal arguments used by both sides. The ruling sets a legally binding precedent on all similar cases for the whole of the United Kingdom.