Middlesbrough Leisure Park - Excel

michaelalou

Please help me I'm so upset, in my three years of driving I've never received a parking ticket and never intended to. Today, some jumped up jobs worth decided to issue me with a £60 parking charge notice, £100 if not paid within 14 days. I've been reading a couple of threads about this but I'm very frightened this may look bad at work for me.

I was actually working at the time, I work for a homeless charity. My colleague and I took our homeless client, who'd spent the night in a bush, to mcdonalds for a breakfast. I parked in the blue free spaces as these are for leisure park customers only. We then took him to the job centre to support him with claiming his benefits and trying to secure him a place to sleep for tonight. We came back and I was horrified by this charge on my window. They state that I "left the leisure park" but it doesn't state that you are not allowed to leave the leisure park. I have the receipt from mcdonalds. My company will not pay for this charge under their expenses policy.

This charge seems highly excessive to me. I would like to appeal but I'm worried it's a waste of time as they are money grabbing evil people who would gladly take the food out my homeless clients mouth!

Do they actually have any authority to issue these parking charges?!

Would be very grateful for any help and advice, on appeals letters and so forth...:(

Guys_Dad

michaelalou wrote: »

They state that I "left the leisure park" but it doesn't state that you are not allowed to leave the leisure park. I have the receipt from mcdonalds. My company will not pay for this charge under their expenses policy.

We can help you with an appeal, so don't worry.

I want you to back into the car park and look again at the signs, both at the entrance and elsewhere and double check your assertion above. If you have it wrong, no problem, we can still help. But we need to see what is on the signs. You can post up a picture vis Dropbox or tinypics, and you can write on here what the sign says.

Don't contact the PPC yet. You have plenty of time. Oh, your circumstances re why you were there or left site won't get you anywhere with the PPC. PPCs don't do mitigation.

Coupon-mad

michaelalou wrote: »

Please help me I'm so upset, in my three years of driving I've never received a parking ticket and never intended to. Today, some jumped up jobs worth decided to issue me with a £60 parking charge notice, £100 if not paid within 14 days. I've been reading a couple of threads about this but I'm very frightened this may look bad at work for me.

I was actually working at the time, I work for a homeless charity. My colleague and I took our homeless client, who'd spent the night in a bush, to mcdonalds for a breakfast. I parked in the blue free spaces as these are for leisure park customers only. We then took him to the job centre to support him with claiming his benefits and trying to secure him a place to sleep for tonight. We came back and I was horrified by this charge on my window. They state that I "left the leisure park" but it doesn't state that you are not allowed to leave the leisure park. I have the receipt from mcdonalds. My company will not pay for this charge under their expenses policy.

This charge seems highly excessive to me. I would like to appeal but I'm worried it's a waste of time as they are money grabbing evil people who would gladly take the food out my homeless clients mouth!

Do they actually have any authority to issue these parking charges?!

Would be very grateful for any help and advice, on appeals letters and so forth...:(

No they have no real 'authority', no you won't get into any trouble at all (this is a scam industry and the letters are like phishing emails or PPI reclaim offers!) and yes it is worth appealing if this was in England/Wales. But, as Guys Dad says, you appeal only when you get the first letter (as long as the DVLA have you down as the registered keeper!):

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/62827554#Comment_62827554

So you have lots of time now to find out more about this scam and to take some photos of the signs ready to win your appeal in the end at POPLA. You only need to search the single keyword 'Excel' or 'POPLA' into 'search this forum' (using the heading of that name, on the right above the forum threads on page one of the parking board) and change the default search to 'show posts'.

Happy reading - and let us know if you have any queries about what to do after that Notice to Keeper (or whatever they call it) letter arrives.

Do not just decide you know how to appeal and send off a normal appeal when it gets to POPLA stage. You really do need to read other Excel (and other) threads for guidance. There is no 'quick fix' but it shouldn't take long to learn about what to write and when, and about POPLA appeal wording, now you know about the search facility.

michaelalou

Ok, thank you guys so much. So I should just ignore the "ticket" until a letter arrives in the post and then appeal?

I checked the signage. It says for "leisure park customers only" for up to four hours, which I was, but then it does also say "not for town centre parking". But it doesn't say where the leisure park begins and finishes and it doesn't say that you are not allowed to leave the leisure park. It's actually a bit confusing to be honest.

Umkomaas

michaelalou wrote: »

Ok, thank you guys so much. So I should just ignore the "ticket" until a letter arrives in the post and then appeal?

I checked the signage. It says for "leisure park customers only" for up to four hours, which I was, but then it does also say "not for town centre parking". But it doesn't say where the leisure park begins and finishes and it doesn't say that you are not allowed to leave the leisure park. It's actually a bit confusing to be honest.

As c-m says there is no quick-fix for you and POPLA is the easiest and most decisive way of getting rid of this for good (other than paying the scammers, and no one on here would recommend that at this early stage).

The PPC has a duty to mitigate its losses. As clearly your ticket could only have been issued by someone spotting you leaving, then why didn't the [STRIKE]parking chimp[/STRIKE] warden come over and say, 'Excuse me, if you're going to leave this car park do you realise you will get a parking ticket', then you have the option of moving the car or taking the risk.

Here's a very similar case to yours, and is, in my view, essential reading in the circumstances (and quite amusing).

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

Guys_Dad

Unless it states specifically that leaving the site incurs a charge then as long as you shopped I the centre at some point during your stay you have fulfilled the conditions.

However I still believe you will need photos to major on this point either with the PPC first or POPLA. And the wording is crucial.

Are you able to photograph the signing post it up on Dropbox or tinypics for us to read. If it is as simple wording as you write it should be able to be cancelled on the PPC appeal and you might avoid POPLA altogether.

But for POPLA we don't need to rely on just one appeal point as you can see from other threads.

michaelalou

I've just read that case and laughed through it several times. Thank you so much for your reassurance. I'm ready to take these horrid money grabbing scam artists on!

michaelalou

I've got photos of the signs but don't know how to upload them here? Sorry for being a pain can somebody tell me how?

There are a couple of things I'd like to bring up. On the sign it says if you pay within 7 days the charge will be £60, but on the ticket it says if you pay within 14 days? Conflicting and confusing information no? Also, to read this sign I had to go right up to it and crane my neck upwards to read the tiny print. Also, the other sign says "no football or town centre parking leisure park customers only" but on the visit Middlesbrough website, if you click on Middlesbrough Leisure Park it states, Location:Town Centre...!! So where does the town centre begin and end?!

Umkomaas

michaelalou wrote: »

I've got photos of the signs but don't know how to upload them here? Sorry for being a pain can somebody tell me how?

There are a couple of things I'd like to bring up. On the sign it says if you pay within 7 days the charge will be £60, but on the ticket it says if you pay within 14 days? Conflicting and confusing information no? Also, to read this sign I had to go right up to it and crane my neck upwards to read the tiny print. Also, the other sign says "no football or town centre parking leisure park customers only" but on the visit Middlesbrough website, if you click on Middlesbrough Leisure Park it states, Location:Town Centre...!! So where does the town centre begin and end?!

Here are the 'How to Upload Images' instructions

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/1690399

In terms of the confusing nature of the signs, keep your powder dry for POPLA on that one. But by all means let us have a look at the photos to see if there are other compliance issues with them.

Guys_Dad

Have a little read here on Signage , section 18 and Appendix B
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2012/9/schedule/4/enacted

Now, do the signs comply?

Angryparker

Hi this has just happened to my son today. Parked to go to the cinema but walked towards the town centre to meet a friend. His ticket is timed at 2.25 and the film started at 3.20 so obviously wasnt gone long, unfortunately he threw his cinema ticket in the bin so can't prove he went. What should we do?