Parking Eye charge notice- Scotland

kenny85

Hi all,

A couple of weeks ago I received a parking charge notice from Parking Eye for overstaying at the motorway services Welcome Break in Gretna Green (Scotland). I had never heard of the company and wasn't aware of any parking restrictions or charges. They reckoned they were due £100 from me (unless I paid within 14 days for a very kind discounted charge of £60), which I disagreed with. I hadn't seen these Forums and so went about submitting my own appeal. Fortunately, I don't think their is any part of the appeal which identifies the driver:

Good evening,

I am appealing your charge of £100 for overstaying in Welcome Break Gretna Green car park. I am doing so on a number of grounds listed below:

1. Until receiving this notice, I was completely unaware of any charge or the two hour time limit on free parking.
2. As you can see from the photograph you have provided, at the time my car entered the car park, it was dark. How could anyone be expected to even see the signs, or be expected to be made aware with no pay machines on the site.
3. As you can see from the timings, it was late. It is easy to see that the point of parking up at such a time could be due to tiredness. Therefore, not being fully aware of surroundings could be considered a viable excuse for not being aware of signs existing on the sight. Also, maybe the extended stay was to ensure the safe driving of the vehicle was not impaired.
4. With the car park being, presumably, mostly empty during the hours of 0114 and 0614, what exactly were the potential losses or damages, and how does this equate to £100?
5. Assuming the site does contain the signage you claim, do the charges apply 24 hours a day? Every parking restriction sign I have ever seen has stipulated hours (e.g 0800-1800).
6. Your website says that the charges can be paid in the shops inside the services. Without standard ticket machines on site, how would anybody not going into the building know of this? The vast majority of the service stations shops were also closed between the times that the vehicle was on site.
7. The definition of parking is "bring (a vehicle that one is driving) to a halt and leave it temporarily, typically in a car park or by the side of the road." Your charge notice states "those parking may park for 2 hours 0 minutes for free and then must pay the applicable parking tariffs....". If the car was being used for sleeping, then the car was not technically "parked" and therefore no offence had been committed with regards to your own guidelines.

To conclude, I am appealing, in conjunction with the reasons given above, because I do not consider that my vehicle was parked for the time stated on the Parking Charge Notice. I also think it is unjustifiable that the penalty could stand at £100 for a charge for potential losses or damages and would be interested to see how this figure is calculated.

I look forward to receiving your reply and hope that this issue can be resolved swiftly.

Regards

xxxxxx xxxxxxx

Today I have received two letters from Parking Eye; one which is a confirmation my appeal had failed with the addition that I can supply further evidence to appeal again. The second, I assume is supposed to be the response, however, it only answered how they came to the £100 figure and then a reference to some of the FAQ.

I was never going to waste my time re-appealing to them so I thought I'd check the internet for any further advice and found the information on this site. The advice I am looking for is what do I do now? My instinct is to simply ignore them, but I regularly work away and won't be home often over the next few months and want to close this issue off. I've noticed a few threads stating that POPLA doesn't apply to Scotland, which would have probably ended up being my next step.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Redx

notice the top sticky thread ? scotland is mentioned in there, please read it

kenny85

I've read it and it mentions that they would have to be able to identify the driver, as opposed to the registered keeper in order to have any chance at all of winning. I was just trying to confirm that by sending the appeal, I hadn't taken responsibility for the charge. I think Parking Eye are just going to get a good ignoring to from now on.

bazster

kenny85 wrote: »

I think Parking Eye are just going to get a good ignoring to from now on.

Sounds like a plan.