Parked in Staff Bay in error

bobbuild

I recently parked in Chester Station Car Park and inadvertently parked in a Staff Parking bay. The car park was almost full and I admit I didn't notice the road marking "Staff Parking". I paid for 1 weeks parking £23.30 (I was actually parked from Thursday to Sunday) via Ringo. On my return there was a Parking Contravention Charge Notice for contravention "Parked in a staff only bay without displaying a staff permit" demanding £35 if paid in 14 days otherwise £60.
As I had paid to park and it was a genuine error I appealed and offered (probably stupidly reading this forum) to pay the difference between the fine and what I had already paid ie. £11.70.
Naturally my "appeal" was denied and NCP are still demanding £35 or £60.
Do I just ignore this now or make my offer again? I am adamant that I shouldn't have to pay £35 on top of the £23.30 and I can't see that NCP have lost out in anyway. Also there were loads of empty staff parking bays elsewhere that I had noticed so NCP can't say that I stopped staff from parking either.
Advise would be appreciated as I am supposed to pay this "fine" by the 26th.....

SodG24

Does the ticket mention any Railway Bylaws ? If not you're safe to ignore NCP.

bobbuild

SodG24 wrote: »

Does the ticket mention any Railway Bylaws ? If not you're safe to ignore NCP.

Nope, no mention of railway byelaws. What it does say is that "This notice is issued to you for breach of the contractual terms and donditions displayed in this car park which was accepted by you when entering and using this facility. NCP reserves the right...." etc etc

So I just ignore any future correspondence then??

Stroma

You paid, there is no loss to ncp at all, you even tried to mitigate the supposed charge by offering the difference between what you paid and the charge. Unless its a bylaw ticket this will never go to court, just ignore them and dont communicate further.

SodG24

bobbuild wrote: »

Nope, no mention of railway byelaws. What it does say is that "This notice is issued to you for breach of the contractual terms and donditions displayed in this car park which was accepted by you when entering and using this facility. NCP reserves the right...." etc etc

So I just ignore any future correspondence then??

As Storma has said, ignore it - NCP don't have a leg to stand on as there was no loss.

Mistral001

You were fined for parking in a staff bay. If it says in the conditions that you get your parking fees refunded when a fine is incurred then you will get it your parking fee refunded. But is that really likely to be in the conditions?

Stroma

Mistral001 wrote: »

You were fined for parking in a staff bay. If it says in the conditions that you get your parking fees refunded when a fine is incurred then you will get it your parking fee refunded. But is that really likely to be in the conditions?

The OP hasn't been fined, the reason I know this is that only the courts can issue fines , not some 2 bit parking company! FYI councils can issue penalty charge notices, and the police fixed penalty notices. But even they cannot fine anyone!

bobbuild

Thanks guys, I'm just going to ignore this as advised!

Mistral001

Stroma wrote: »

The OP hasn't been fined, the reason I know this is that only the courts can issue fines , not some 2 bit parking company! FYI councils can issue penalty charge notices, and the police fixed penalty notices. But even they cannot fine anyone!

Yes you are right. It is not a fine. It is actually a charge. Does not change the situation as far as the OP is concerned. It is a straight forward case of breach of contract, so the OP has to find out what the contract IS and not what he thinks it should be in his opinion.

BASFORDLAD

Mistral001 wrote: »

Yes you are right. It is not a fine. It is actually a charge. But It could possibly be enforced by the company taking action through the courts if the the terms and conditions were displayed in the car park.

Hmmmm please don't give incorrect advice

Stroma

Mistral001 wrote: »

Yes you are right. It is not a fine. It is actually a charge. But It could possibly be enforced by the company taking action through the courts if the the terms and conditions were displayed in the car park.

Oh yes it could be taken to court, but lets take a look at the statistics for that.

In 2011

1.8m fake tickets issued - Source Home Office

Out of all those

845 claims to the court - Source FOI request to the courts
49 went before a judge
25 went for the motorists
24 went for the parking companies

So their enforcement as the whole industry amounted to 24 successful claims out of 1.8m fake tickets issued. And that is the reality of issuing tickets for them.