POPLA help please

CIMad

Soft reject from BPA member following an appeal template to them adapted from here.

I have looked through the guidelines and they seem to be quite tight on most of them. The driver WAS using the facility, but did not know they had to enter their details in the computer. Please see my draft POPLA appeal letter below and see if you can help me.

Dear Popla,

I was issued a Parking Charge Notice by xxxxx on xxxxx. PCN Number xxxxxx. The alleged incident date was xxxxx

I believe that the parking charges are punitive and not a genuine pre-estimate of any damages or loss. The driver on this day was using the facility and did not overstay the maximum 3 hours free parking limit. Due to the proximity of the facility to both retail facilities and a railway station, one would imagine that the purpose of the “enforcement” is to stop users of the retail and railway facilities using the car park of the sports facility. However, given the issue time and date of the alleged ANPR event, it should be apparent that the driver was not using the railway (the driver would be hard pushed to walk to the station, travel and then return within an hour), nor the retail facilities. Therefore, although the driver is unable to prove that they were using the sports facilities, there is a good weight of evidence to suggest that they were. And so it follows that as the driver was using the sports facilities, then £100 is a punitive penalty as their client would not have suffered ANY LOSS.

The Enforcement company have been unable to justify why they feel that £100 reflects the damages caused to them or their client.

The PCN issued by xxxx does not make it clear what offence is supposed to have taken place. It states the from and to times (less than 3 hours) then states “Maximum 3 hours free parking for authorised users only.”
I have appealed to xxxxx but they have not clarified what the driver has or has not done which has broken their terms and conditions. (21.8 of the BPA Code of Practice states that the letter to keeper should point out the details of the unauthorised parking event.) As stated above it does not show this detail.
The driver did not see any signage on the day, so we have returned to examine it.

The BPA Code of Practice makes several references to signage. Although there are a number of blue and white signs on site, there are inconsistencies within the signs, with one sign claiming a penalty of £100 reduced to £60 and another claiming a penalty of £100 reduced to £75. (This breaches code 19.7 where the discounted rate must be at least 40% of the full amount)

18.3 also states that the signage should be at least 450 x 450mm (going to check this as does not look 450 wide in photos)

Dee140157

Which PPC is it?
there are several excellent templates to use if you click on Newbie thread post 3 blue words. How to win at POPLA. I would suggest your appeal is too brief.

Redx

not being "funny" but that looks nothing like a popla appeal to me

check the appeals linked in post #3 of the NEWBIES sticky thread, compare them to yours and then tell me which ones look better and more detailed in refuting the pcn (and not the circumstances)

CIMad

Ok, thanks for the suggestions. I had previously looked at the templates but was overwhelmed by the amount of detail in them and not knowing if the arguments were valid in my case. For example, I think that the PPC involved. (Happy to name them and attach any photos if you believe it won't affect my case), have taken a lot of steps to address areas mentioned in appeals against them, (but I might be wrong)

I was under no illusions that my letter was the finished article, but was pointing out the arguments / discrepancies that I had noticed after reading advice on here and after looking at BPA guidelines.

Dee140157

Please do name the PPC, it is much easier to help you if we know who you are dealing with.

And if you have photos, you can upload to tinypic.com and post the Link here with a gap between the http:// and the rest of it. Someone else will sort it then. Make sure you cover any identifying information.

CIMad

Ok, we are dealing with Civel Enforcement Ltd.

Obviously I have redacted my name, car, PCN number etc. Is it ok to leave the location and dates and times in, or shall I scrub those too.

Dee140157

Scrub those too.

Dee140157

There is one here that you can copy and paste
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/64803331#Comment_64803331 . It was linked to from the Newbies thread. Written by Coupon-Mad use as much of it as is relevant to you.

CIMad

Ok, sorry if this is fragmented:


Key point to add for the notice above is that there is little more than an hour between the 2 times which I have redacted.



I also have the response from CE Ltd when I asppealed, but wasn't sure if I should post that as they MAY have tailored it to match my appeal so may be identifiable.

I did see Coupon Mad's example in that post, but wasnt sure if some of the paragraphs were applicable.

Redx

CIMad wrote: »

Ok, thanks for the suggestions. I had previously looked at the templates but was overwhelmed by the amount of detail in them and not knowing if the arguments were valid in my case. For example, I think that the PPC involved. (Happy to name them and attach any photos if you believe it won't affect my case), have taken a lot of steps to address areas mentioned in appeals against them, (but I might be wrong)

I was under no illusions that my letter was the finished article, but was pointing out the arguments / discrepancies that I had noticed after reading advice on here and after looking at BPA guidelines.

"what happened" or "your case" are rarely relevant for a popla appeal

generally speaking ALL of the salient appeal points are relevant and should be included , you make the PPC prove all their claims are valid and comply with the BPA CoP and any laws that apply too

its not your job to destroy your own defence, you put the appeal points in and let popla decide once the PPC have sent in an evidence pack. you also rebut any points from that pack if you need to do so

the only problem with not including appeal points is that popla wont consider anything not included, ie:- you shoot yourself in the foot for not including them , even if the assessor knows one of the non-inclusions would win, he wont rule in your favour if you did not include it

as mentioned above, there are CEL popla links to good appeals (as there are to almost all of them) so you need to use one and adjust it as needed, but not redacting half of the points out !

the main points would be not a gpeol , no contract , incorrect signage , anpr in an anpr car park , ticket machine errors etc

good luck

Coupon-mad

Yes the paragraphs are applicable, all of them, to any CEL case because they still issue non-compliant NTK letters and they still use ANPR cameras, and they still cannot show land ownership (anywhere) nor a GPEOL.