Parking Charge

Stationbucket

This morning I received a parking charge at the Stevenage Leisure Centre. I was early for an appointment and thought I'd pop into town for half an hour. When I got back there was a parking charge for "leaving the site" taped to my windscreen. I feel like this is unfair as I was only in town for half an hour and I used the facilities at the Leisure Park. The car park was almost empty so it's not as if anyone was missing out on a parking space because of me. If I made an appeal then, having read your appeal guide, it would have to be under mitigating circumstances. Do you think it's worth making an appeal or, as according to other advice found on MSE, just ignoring it?

Coupon-mad

You found some old advice saying to ignore it? Well in a way that's right but nowadays, you don't ignore the charge completely, only the actual ticket on the windscreen. As long as this is your car (not hired or leased) then just wait for the Notice to Keeper to arrive in the post. Then you challenge it. NOT NOW. In the meantime please read other threads on page one every day that you can, to learn about appealing this scam. POPLA is the second stage and you will need help to word that as a winning appeal (we can help).

See this thread about that car park:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4481197

You might want to send a pm to rdwarr who knows this car park, but even if he doesn't reply with specific info the advice is the same.

UKPC? LOL!!!!!!!!:rotfl:

The so-called 'Appeal Guide', even more LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!:rotfl:

Stay on the forum not reading OLD generic 'Guides' not written by the posters on this board!

Umkomaas

Stationbucket wrote: »

This morning I received a parking charge at the Stevenage Leisure Centre. I was early for an appointment and thought I'd pop into town for half an hour. When I got back there was a parking charge for "leaving the site" taped to my windscreen. I feel like this is unfair as I was only in town for half an hour and I used the facilities at the Leisure Park. The car park was almost empty so it's not as if anyone was missing out on a parking space because of me. If I made an appeal then, having read your appeal guide, it would have to be under mitigating circumstances. Do you think it's worth making an appeal or, as according to other advice found on MSE, just ignoring it?

Glad you've started your own thread, now you can get specific advice relating to your own specific circumstances.

If all you've received so far is the windscreen ticket you need to await the Notice to Keeper (NtK) in the post. So first rule - NO contact with the PPC at this stage (unless your car is a company or hire car). Second rule - never reveal in correspondence who the driver might, or might not have been.

The fact that a parking attendant seems to have seen you leaving the site places a responsibility on him/her to mitigate any potential losses by approaching you and warning of the risk of a ticket should you so leave (did signs warn of this?).

In the meantime you need to do a bit of reading about putting together an initial soft appeal ( I can help at the appropriate time - drop me a PM when the NtK arrives), and also start getting your head around POPLA appeals (see sticky at top of forum index).

Here's a very specific bit of reading for you - a similar case of a motorist leaving the site and a parking attendant seeing him do so, then slapping a ticket on his car.

http://notomob.co.uk/discussions/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=2793.0;attach=2873

Happy reading, get back when the NtK arrives

HTH

Stationbucket

Thank you so much for your help and advice so far! You have all been so helpful. I received my dreaded Notice to Keeper letter last week and now need some more advice as to how to proceed. These are the details:

Parking Company: UK Parking Control (UKPC)

Date of parking incident: 25 July 2013

Date on NtK: 30 August 2013

Date NtK received: 04 September 2013


How should I go about making an appeal? Should I write to them, email them, or make an appeal on their website? I also have a receipt from the services I used at the leisure park, should I use this as evidence that I used the services on site?

Any and all help will be gratefully received!

zzzLazyDaisy

Stationbucket wrote: »

How should I go about making an appeal? Should I write to them, email them, or make an appeal on their website? I also have a receipt from the services I used at the leisure park, should I use this as evidence that I used the services on site?

Any and all help will be gratefully received!

Have you been back to the leisure centre with your receipt and asked them to cancel the charge? If not, go and speak to the manager and explain that you were a genuine customer and ask him to cancel the charge. Also check the signs to see if they state CLEARLY that you mustn't leave the site.

Also do a search for 'soft appeal' on this forum, so that you understand what the next step is.

Then I suggest that you drop Umkomaas a PM as he has kindly agreed to help you with your 'soft' appeal to the PPC (he is a regular poster on this forum and can be trusted).

But don't take your eye off the time limit for appealing.

Re how to send the appeal - there will be instructions on the back of the NtK about how to appeal. If you do it by e-mail, make sure you get an acknowledgment/receipt. If in any doubt also send it by first class post from a post office and get a (free) certificate of posting.

Daisy

Umkomaas

Daisy, stationbucket did PM me and I gave him some pointers in my reply, but I also asked him to re-open his original thread with some more details to allow others to contribute, ensuring he has full and balanced advice.

He's done that so just a case of waiting for a few regulars to chip in and add to yours.

The trouble is that there are so many threads being opened/commented on that older ones can very quickly slide down the slippery pole to oblivion.

I hadn't forgotten about this and would have brought it back to the top if there were no comments by the end of today, so thanks for comments, thread now duly back on page 1

Stationbucket

Thank you so much for your advice. I went back to the Leisure Park today with my receipt and the NtK letter. I went to the management suite and was informed that there was nothing that they could do and was simply given an appeal form to fill in. I then went to the facilities that I used and asked if there was anything they could do to help. The owner of the salon signed a headed letter to say that I had used the facilities and asked that the charge be dropped. I have posted it to the UKPC and included a copy of the receipt. I have kept copies of everything and posted it as you suggested. Is there anything else I can do in the mean time?

Umkomaas

Stationbucket wrote: »

Thank you so much for your advice. I went back to the Leisure Park today with my receipt and the NtK letter. I went to the management suite and was informed that there was nothing that they could do and was simply given an appeal form to fill in. I then went to the facilities that I used and asked if there was anything they could do to help. The owner of the salon signed a headed letter to say that I had used the facilities and asked that the charge be dropped. I have posted it to the UKPC and included a copy of the receipt. I have kept copies of everything and posted it as you suggested. Is there anything else I can do in the mean time?

I'm pleased that you've got some movement, but I suspect (but hope I'm wrong) that unless the PPC contract is with the salon it might have been an empty gesture. I hope not.

I'm not sure whether you've lodged this letter as your formal appeal and asked for a POPLA code should it be rejected, or just sent the salon letter with a short covering note. In order to cover all bases, I'm assuming the latter.

So, you need to carry on preparing your formal soft appeal to the PPC as well as ongoing reading of current threads and POPLA Decisions sticky. The one little dilemma you now have is how long do you wait to hear from the PPC after you've submitted your salon letter, set in the context of the time the PPC has given you to lodge your formal appeal with them.

Let's give it a little time, and if you've heard nothing from the PPC by a few days before their deadline, come back on this thread and we'll advise from that point.

HTH

Stationbucket

Since I last wrote on this thread my parking charge has been cancelled! We ended up writing a complaint on the Facebook page for the leisure park and were contacted by them for details. They were apologetic and said they would cancel the charge. We were a little sceptical but yesterday received a letter from UKPC to say that the parking charge had been cancelled.

Thank you so much for all your help and advice, it has been greatly appreciated.

Umkomaas

Stationbucket wrote: »

Since I last wrote on this thread my parking charge has been cancelled! We ended up writing a complaint on the Facebook page for the leisure park and were contacted by them for details. They were apologetic and said they would cancel the charge. We were a little sceptical but yesterday received a letter from UKPC to say that the parking charge had been cancelled.

Thank you so much for all your help and advice, it has been greatly appreciated.

Well done Stationbucket. Did you get any response to your letter with the note from the salon attached?

android26

Nice one!