Parking Eye Fine - fistral Beach

kenziekoo

Hi there

We received a letter form parking eye for a recent visit to Fistral Beach. The letter states that we owed a fine £100 reduced to £60 if we paid within 14 days.

We had paid for 3 hours but were unable to purchase the ticket immediately due to having problems getting through to their phone number and keep getting cut off, we eventually got through and paid for 3 hours (£5.10) from memory, i paid 10p extra to have a text receipt.

We are showing as overstaying by about 23 mins, I appealed stating the truth about what had happenned as it had been no fault of our own and the fine was totally disproportionate. They have written back asking for more info, stating the fine is on hold, we have told them everything and have attached a copy of the parking reciept for the hours paid for.

What should we do??

Thanks, Kenziekoo

EHBA

Others will be along with up to date info.

The fact that your 'appeal' is on hold instead of receiving a standard rejection might be positive news

This link gives the actual ownership of the car park at Fistral, Britannic Industries and refers to a 20 minute grace period.

http://www.newquayvoice.co.uk/news/5/article/3428/


PS It is not a fine.

Coupon-mad

Reply again saying you have shown them all your evidence you are prepared to discuss at this stage but reminding them that the BPA Code of Practice says:

http://www.britishparking.co.uk/writ...ce_2013_v1.pdf

I quote:-

13.4 You should allow the driver a reasonable period to leave
the private car park after the parking contract has ended,
before you take enforcement action.

13.3 You should be prepared to tell us the specific grace
period at a site if our compliance team or our agents ask
what it is.

You should also point out that their camera captures you when you enter the car park and again when you leave which is simply not compatible with this pay and display system. This system of payment firstly relies on reading a sign and then getting through on a phone, all that being after you've actually parked up, all of which takes time which MUST be allowed as a grace period at this car park.

Also there has been no loss because you paid in full and have proved the payment and have the ticket.

Tell them that you will be appealing via POPLA if they do not rescind the ticket. So finish by demanding the send the POPLA form or online verification code.

Then come back here and read some threads about how to word a strong POPLA appeal that WILL WIN.

EHBA wrote: »

Others will be along with up to date info.

The fact that your 'appeal' is on hold instead of receiving a standard rejection might be positive news

This link gives the actual ownership of the car park at Fistral, Britannic Industries and refers to a 20 minute grace period.

http://www.newquayvoice.co.uk/news/5/article/3428/

Now that is a GREAT find! Add that link in as well, kenziekoo, because that grace period plus 3 or 4 minutes to get through on the phone, and then time to leave when you got back in the car and stopped 'being parked', covers your '23 minutes' easily!

:T


If PE refuse you'll win at POPLA at their expense, with our help.

kenziekoo

thanks for all your help, will get onto what you suggest and let you know the outcome x

The_Slithy_Tove

EHBA wrote: »

This link gives the actual ownership of the car park at Fistral, Britannic Industries and refers to a 20 minute grace period.

http://www.newquayvoice.co.uk/news/5/article/3428/

That article also has a lot of comments from disgruntled "customers". Another fantiastic win for PE and the struggling tourist industry - NOT.

Coupon-mad

The_Slithy_Tove wrote: »

That article also has a lot of comments from disgruntled "customers". Another fantiastic win for PE and the struggling tourist industry - NOT.

If this has to go to POPLA it would also be worth including a link to that article to point out that the terrible customer comments span TWO YEARS!

The OP could tell POPLA that clearly there is an established pattern of Parking Eye ripping off visitors at this car park with no notices ever telling anyone what the grace period might be, nor making the maximum stay clear, especially as people are buying tickets in good faith and thinking they have complied.

A P&D system is simply incompatible with a separate camera entry/exit timer.

kenziekoo

is this response ok?

Dear Parking Eye Team
Thank you for your letter dated xxth May 2013 in which you respond to my appeal against the above parking charge notice. In your letter you state that the Parking Charge Notice has been placed on hold for a period of 14 days allowing me to respond with evidence.

I have already provided you with a copy of the ticket purchased on xxth April at Fistral Beach car park, which cost £5.10, and shows parking paid between xxx and xxx. Your original letter states that we oarked for a total time of xx hours and xx minute, arriving at xxxpm and leaving at xxxpm.

As stated in my original response to your parking charge, this was not an intentional overstay and much trouble was had trying to pay for the parking via your telephone number provided, in fact after several unsuccessful attempts and numerous times of being cut off, we also attempted to download your iphone app, this was also unsuccessful. This was only resolved when my wife walked completely away from fistral beach to obtain better reception and the parking ticket purchased.

It is completely unreasonable to now be charging a further £60 as every effort was made to comply with payment, as evidenced by the ticket purchased. If it had been our intention not to pay then we simply would not have purchased the ticket in the first place. As you can see from the parking receipt times, which backs up my explanation.

I have taken the opportunity to make further enquiries and am aware that Brittannic Industries who owns Fistral Beach Car Park allow a 20 minute grace period to decide whether or not you stay at the site. This along with the time taken to get out of the car attempt to purchase a ticket from your machine and be unsuccessful more than covers the time that you are disputing. As a car park operator under the BPA’s code of practice you must allow reasonable time to obtain parking tickets and allow the customer to leave, it also needs to be pointed out that the parking eye system of camera’s does not appear compatible with a pay and display system that relies on a large percentage of customers purchasing tickets by telephone when local reception is poor.
I believe that I have set out an honest and genuine response to your parking notice charge and respectfully ask that you rescind the parking charge notice. If you decide not to do this I will have no option but to refer the matter to POPLA for their consideration and would ask that you forward the relevant forms and online verification codes.

Stroma

You are not asking for popla code you are demanding, for example

If you refuse this challenge, I require that you forward me a popla verification code within 35 days of the original challenge to you, per Version 2 of the BPA Code of Practice.

kenziekoo

thanks, will do, will let you know when I get a response!

kenziekoo

Appeal has been unsuccessful!!
Cannot believe it to be honest!!
reason is:-
'Due to the fact that the car park is a 'pay and display/paid parking' car park only. Our records show that you did not purchase a valid pay and display ticket or the appropriate parking time on the date of the parking event'

Cannot believe this response after the letter I sent posted above, my question is now do I just ignore future letters and not pay, or do I appeal to POPLA?
If I appeal to POPLA and am unsuccessful are they more likely to come after me through the courts as they will have more evidence????
Help??

Stroma

What do you expect they're scammers? Now you will go to popla with this, they haven't given enough grace period for you to enter the car park, find a parking space, read the terms of parking, accept those terms , purchase a ticket, and leave after the contract ended.

Now you need to read up on popla, what is needed, and basically take apart their entire parking scam from top to bottom. You can either go to https://www.pepipoo.com and ask for help there, or we can help on here.

Basically it's your decision on what happens next. You will win at popla there won't be a next step