POPLA Appeal help please - Athena ANPR (Lidl car park) 1 April 2014 at 10:16AM in Parking Tickets, Fines & Parking 83 replies 12.3K views

Shepss

C-m , Many thanks , I'll study the posts and incorporate appropriate bits into the emails I now intend to send to the Lidl CEO and press office as I feel it is about time they know how I feel. I'm angry because there was no intent by me to abuse their parking system ( I appreciate other shoppers have to use it too ) and in this regard I did make a point of leaving the car park and then circling round to pick up my wife. Neither of us are moving too fast at the moment!!

Shepss

Well here we go , along the lines of what I will send bit rough and ready I'm afraid :- Dear Sir , I was very disappointed to receive a £90 parking charge from Athena ANPR for an alleged parking contravention at your Lidl ……… car park on ……..
What saddens me is that both my wife and I are elderly , well into our seventies and awaiting operations and not very mobile because of this. We are currently awaiting operations in this regard.
For the avoidance of any doubt, I suggest an informed person at Lidl reads the Equality Act 2010 ('the Act') definition of disability and takes on board the fact that someone is covered and protected by that law if they have 'protected characteristics'. This includes any long-term condition that affects daily life such as impaired mobility. It is a simple fact that Athena cannot hold 'protected' people (disabled, elderly, and even new mothers nursing babies) to the same maximum parking/shopping time limit as able-bodied shoppers.
Lidl would do a much better job yourselves in your own car parks, with consideration of customers (in particular, your elderly or disabled customers or those with families and other distractions and priorities) being at the forefront of your colleagues' minds, not fake fines, impersonation of authority & profiteering. You would not employ an outside agent to pressure customers at the tills and pretend to fine elderly or disabled people for 'taking too long' or 'littering' if they should drop their receipt - on the contrary, you specifically employ colleagues to help customers - so why on earth do Lidl outsource their car parks?
We are long term and regular customers of Lidl , and on the day concerned my wife took longer than usual in your store. Although we overstayed by twelve minutes , ( yes only twelve minutes ! ) ,I actually left the car park and came back and then circled around waiting for my wife and at no time actually occupied a space during the twelve minutes I was told we had overstayed and the actual parking time in a space was fifty five minutes.
I was not able to complain to the store manager regarding the charge at the time because the store is currently closed for refurbishment. I have appealed against the charge but would now be grateful for your intervention and cancellation of this on our behalf and I thank your in anticipation of this so that we and our family can continue to shop at Lidl and hold it in the high regard we did before this unfortunate occurrence.

Yours faithfully ….

I haven't gone into our disabilities in any detail , I'm not a blue badge holder although the way it's going I might be soon the speed I (we) move at ! I've emphasized the fact that I only occupied an actual parking spot for around 55 minutes , that's a fact . I'll divide it up into appropriate paras etc when I send it to their CEO and press office

Coupon-mad

That's just perfect, nicely written!

Shepss

C-m , Big thanks must go to CC who saw me through with it. Anyway , it's been sent to Mr G now so I'll let you all know when / if I get a response to it.

Shepss

Well , the saga is over , charge cancelled ! An interesting learning curve for me even at my stage in life. Many thanks especially to ColliesCarer and also for kind help too from Coupon-mad and others. I hope this thread helps any other folk who have the same sort of hassle and maybe a few elderly ones as in our case.Mention of the Equality Act 2010 almost certainly helped here. In our case it is most certainly valid given our age and disabilities. And I feel vindicated because at no time as I said in my e-mail did I abuse their parking system , I took care to vacate the actual parking space.Here is Lidl's reply :-

Re: Parking Charge
Thank you for taking the time to contact our Managing Director. Mr Gottschlich has asked that I respond to you on his behalf.
As you are probably aware, Lidl UK GmbH is a national retailer. As such, we have stores in locations with limited parking space and in common with many of our competitors, our store car parks are abused to a significant and detrimental extent. We have therefore judged it necessary to take measures so that our stores parking facilities are available first and foremost to our customers.

In order to ensure that sufficient parking spaces are available at all times to our customers, Lidl employs third party contractors to monitor and control our car parks. So far, this service has proved reliable and effective in reducing car park abuse and in freeing up spaces for our customers.
I can advise that we do have an exemption list for blue badge holders, this allows up to 3 hours parking in our car park. If you or your wife holds one of these I can arrange for you to be added to this list. I would kindly request that a copy of this be sent to me at the below address reference #7592177 or by email, please reply without deleting the subject line;
Lidl Uk GmbH
Tailend Farm
Deans Road
Livingston EH54 8SE

In light of your comments, I have contacted Athena and have arranged for this charge to be cancelled. Athena will confirm this in writing to you in due course.
I hope this email has helped to resolve this matter and that you will remain a valued Lidl customer.

Yours sincerely,
For and on behalf of Lidl UK GmbH


Laura Johnston
Customer Service

Tel – 0870 444 1234
Email - [email protected]

Thank you all on MoneySaving , I've bookmarked this site and will be visiting on a regular basis.Who knows , I may be able to help someone else along the way!

trisontana

I bet there are no notices either in the car park or in store mentioning this option to add a name or vehicles details to that "list".

ColliesCarer

Brilliant news - Congratulations Shepss :T

I'm really pleased you got such a quick and positive response from Lidl.
Don't know if you noticed but you're already helping others - C-m added your POPLA appeal to the How to Win at POPLA templates
Anyway best wishes for the 16th
Regards
CC

Shepss

Thank you again ColliesCarer . I shall keep in touch with things on here and am glad that the appeal will be added to the templates. 10/10 to you there !

prosnap

Congratulations.


I hope you are more happy at your new supermarket

Coupon-mad

:T

Well done Shepss - it had the desired effect very quickly then!

I will also add your complaint to the Successful Complaints about PPCs sticky as well because that info from Lidl is very useful for others.

As others have said, I bet there's nothing at the Store about this 'exempt list' people can add their car reg to if they have a Blue badge. Hopefully the more complaints the retailers get the more they might re-think the whole idea of outsourcing this.