Barnstaple Retail Park. Parking Eye PCN

northdevondog

Hi

Been reading lots of posts here after receiving an £85 fine. Thank you to everyone who posts good advice here. I thought I should start a thread and document what happens. Any help or advice anyone can give will be gratefully received.

Basically an £85 pound fine for staying 2.5 hours in a 2 hours free zone. Normal circumstances of screaming kids both under three making the 2 hour limit in order to have a meal and do food shopping a joke.

A couple of newbie questions. I notice people recommend a "soft" appeal to the company initially. Why don't you send the same appeal you would send to popla? Can anyone post a link to a soft appeal example. I have searched. Honest.

The car park itself is a known chokepoint and takes ages to get out particularly in the height of Summer. The photos only take into account the time entering and leaving the carpark. I reckon I was parked for about 2 hours. Is this a good appeal criteria.

I took some photos of some of the signs in the carpark which are hidden by trees. Should I send these in the initial appeal.

Hope someone can help. Thanks.

ampersand

CouponMad has this as an excellent signature.

'Ticket in a private car park?... DON'T PAY IT! ''These supposed fines are the new Wild West - cowboys at supermarkets or housing estates - they're often unenforceable...they have no power to fine.'' (Martin Lewis).

CLICK on '>Parking Tickets, Fines & Parking>' end of the small blue 'Home>Forums>' link, top of the page, to see current threads.'

Please don't worry. These bounty hunters are chancers.

EHBA

Can you confirm from your photos if the signs refer to a maximum stay of two hours or a maximum parking of two hours or a combination of both staying and parking in the wording ?

Do you have a receipt for the meal or shopping or do they appear on a bank statement so that you could contact the 'restaurant' and supermarket to complain to the Manager and insist that 'they' contact PE to cancel the ticket ?

Presumably you must be reasonably local to have gone back to take photos and know that the car park is a choke point in high season ?

Coupon-mad

I usually post these links below, about the first challenge - which is best sent after you get the first letter and never in response to a windscreen fake PCN unless the car is a hire or leased/company vehicle.

The first challenge doesn't have to be that 'soft' if you personally would prefer to try to knock this on the head with a strong appeal, and MUST have at least one 'appeal point' (e.g. lack of signs at entrance at driver's height) and is best written in your own words as the keeper (not implying who was driving):

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=82524&st=0&p=871920&#entry871920

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/63428310#Comment_63428310

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/63428735#Comment_63428735

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

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=82727&st=0&gopid=862300

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=84131&st=20&start=20

Best bet as a first action is to complain immediately - this week - to whoever contracted the PPC there. Getting it cancelled by the Retailer - especially with proof of patronage like receipts - is this easy:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/63074693#Comment_63074693

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/62837690#Comment_62837690

You could try the main Store Manager in person, and if they say it's not their agent then ask for the Managing Agents contact details (for the whole Retail Park) or Google the Park to find the contact information on a retail advert or any local newspaper result about the Park, which always says who runs the place. You may have to look at old results talking about when it was built or got planning permission for the car park but you should find the landowner or agent who runs it.

COMPLAIN TO THEM FIRST.



NOTE FOR NEWBIES: IF IN SCOTLAND THEN THE PPC SHOULD BE IGNORED (UNLIKE IN THIS ENGLISH CAR PARK CASE) BUT THE COMPLAINT MUST STILL BE MADE TO THE RETAILER OR LANDOWNER OR MANAGING AGENT! COMPLAINTS WILL BRING THEM DOWN!

HTH

northdevondog

Well thanks for your help and advice and thanks for the links which are really helpful.

I will write to the land management agent and the retail shops in the first instance and see how that goes.

@EHBA annoyingly I don't have any of the receipts. I also never normally pay in cash but on this day I had just sold a bed on e-bay and happened to have a full wallet - which was why I was taking the kids for a treat. Paid cash so no card receipts :mad:

Yes I knew it would take ages to get out of the car park.

The wording on the sign: Two hours max stay. Customer Only Car Park

Coupon-mad

Just don't spend so long trying to complain that you miss the 28 day deadline to appeal to the PPC about this fake PCN.

northdevondog

An update - couldn't find the land management despite an hour of internet searching and phone inquires at the retail sites. The only lead I got was an e-mail address from 2009 that didn't exist.

Of the retailers only the PC World manager got back to me and although sympathetic, said basically there was nothing he could do. He did say he would contact to the company asking for the charge to waived.

That was last week and since then the only contact I have had is a duplicate money demand from Parking Eye.

So tomorrow I will appeal to them. Based on the advice on this forum I will send them an e-mail about their inadequate signage. I have photos that can back this up but I am not going to use them, I was just going to sent a short appeal and a request for a code.

I will send this off tomorrow unless someone advises me differently, and i'll keep updating this thread.

Umkomaas

northdevondog wrote: »

An update - couldn't find the land management despite an hour of internet searching and phone inquires at the retail sites. The only lead I got was an e-mail address from 2009 that didn't exist.

Of the retailers only the PC World manager got back to me and although sympathetic, said basically there was nothing he could do. He did say he would contact to the company asking for the charge to waived.

That was last week and since then the only contact I have had is a duplicate money demand from Parking Eye.

So tomorrow I will appeal to them. Based on the advice on this forum I will send them an e-mail about their inadequate signage. I have photos that can back this up but I am not going to use them, I was just going to sent a short appeal and a request for a code.

I will send this off tomorrow unless someone advises me differently, and i'll keep updating this thread.

I'd make sure you mark this up as 'APPEAL' in large font so there are no grounds for any doubt, PPCs have been using prevarication to stall the appeals process. And make sure you are clear in your appeal letter that this is your one and only appeal to be sent to them and they should either accept your representations and cancel the charge, or, failing this, provide you with a POPLA verification code, to which you are entitled.

HTH

Coupon-mad

Yep don't make it so short that it doesn't contain appeal points such as:

'the driver did not see any signs so as the registered keeper I conclude that your signs are inadequate since I am aware that Parking Eye signage is notoriously inconspicuous and often far too high to be seen. The amount of the charge is also clearly a disproportionate penalty as you have made no loss and nor have the retailers. The driver was a legitimate customer but paid cash and had no idea they might have to keep their receipts from a PC World purchase and a meal, to fend off a later spurious charge from a third party like yourselves. I intend to appeal to POPLA on the basis that the vehicle was not improperly parked and that I am not liable for the parking charge because it's a penalty unrelated to any loss, plus other points I will add into the POPLA appeal. I can also tell you that the Manager of PC World has received a complaint from me because the driver did shop there on the day (no receipt kept, unfortunately) and the Manager has confirmed that he requires this charge to be cancelled.'

Do not say who was driving, reference to the car and the driver should be in the third person.

northdevondog

Well this was unexpected...

Filled in a "soft" appeal on the PE web-site using the last post by coupon-mad as a template. I emphasized that I would be appealing about incorrect signage but didn't mention I had photos etc. I also said I am a business customer at PC World, which I didn't mention here although I can't see why that would make a difference. Other than that pretty much as the post above.

Yesterday evening I received this e-mail...

Dear Sir / Madam,

We refer to the Parking Charge incurred on 24 August 2013 at 16:18:48, at Barnstaple Retail Park car park.

We can confirm that this Charge has been cancelled and there is no outstanding payment due on this account.

Kind Regards,

ParkingEye Team

Not really sure why this got cancelled at this stage as its seems most on here go on to POPLA. I can only imagine that the PC World manager tipped the balance (although he said there was nothing he could do)

Weird- but in a good way

Thanks to all who give advice on these forums. Jolly Splendid Stuff

Umkomaas

We'll done northdevondog. Sometimes ParkingEye work in mysterious ways, but, whatever, RESULT :beer: