Parking Eye Charge Notice

puddlechucker

I have just received a parking charge from Parking Eye for £85.00 discounted to £50 if paid within 14 days for parking in a local retail park. There is a sign in the car park that states there is 45 mins free parking but there is a ticket machine for longer parking. I parked in the car park, input a £1 for an hour's parking, thinking that the first 45 minutes would be free (thereby in effect allowing 1hr 45 minutes). I returned to the car just after the hour and have now been issued with this parking charge. I have not kept the ticket I purchased so cannot prove I input any money so have called the local retail store. They have informed me that I should have parked for 45 minutes then purchased a ticket for the next hour's parking, but nowhere in the signage does it state this. Do I have to pay this inflated charge for 7 minutes overstay parking?

Umkomaas

No you don't have to pay the charge, but you need to go through a few hoops to get rid of it.

The first thing you MUST do is to start to understand what all this stuff is about. The only way to do this is to spend a day or so reading this forum - the most recent threads, say from the past month. If you see the advice 'IGNORE' you MUST ignore it. Ignoring a ParkingEye ticket will bring you months of fun and games that I can assure you, you don't want to be dealing with.

In a nutshell this is the process you will need to follow.

1. Read recent threads
2. Go back to the store the Parking Charge Notice relates to and see THE manager and ask that they cancel the ticket. Show him/her any receipts for the day in question.
3. If you have receipts for the day (or bank/credit card statements) proving purchases, send (redacted) copies of them to PE with covering letter stating you were a customer on the day, and also the bit about your confusion over the free 45 minutes.
4. If 2 and 3 above don't work, then you're into the more formal stuff
5. Soft appeal to PE (you'll understand this when you start reading the threads)
6. Likely rejection, so in your soft appeal you ask that a POPLA code be given to you if rejection
7. Lots more reading about POPLA Appeals
8. Draft POPLA Appeal and let us see it for further advice before submission
9. Send to POPLA
10. Await POPLA (positive) result with PCN cancelled
11. Get on with the rest of your life.

Please confirm a couple of things

a. Was the incident, and do you live, in England or Wales
b. Is the car a lease/hire or company vehicle
c. Are you under 18

That will do for starters.