Anthena ANPR Parking fine at Lidl Edgware

Sean001

My wife shopped at Lidl Edgware last week spending £67.27 in store. She obviously didnt know the parking restrictions of 90 minutes when she entered the car park as she had never shopped at Lidl before. However when trying to leave the car park, she had seen a sign saying 90 minutes free parking in large print and small writing below at which point she realised she had been in store for around 2 hours.

The car park had only been about 1/3rd utilized during her stay which suggests that she was not preventing other customers from using the car park.

I received a Civil Parking Charge Notice on Saturday as the car is registered in my name with photographic evidence showing the car entered the car park at 13.03.02 and leaving the park at 15.03.22 and demanding the driver to pay a parking charge of £ 90 or a discounted charge of £ 45 if paid within 14 days.

I feel this is ridiculous after having spent £67.27 to shop in store and been asked to pay a fine for being in their car park for 2 hours. Lidl usually have 1 or 2 tellers serving and the wait just to pay the bill can take a good while let alone shopping in an unknown surrounding.

How can anyone charge a parking charge of £90 or £45 for parking for 2 hours 20 seconds when a person had spent £67.27 instore?

I would appreciate your advice and guidance please as I have another 10 days or so to respond.

Many thanks in advance.

bazster

Read the Newbies sticky, follow the standard path.

wiogs

"Anthena ANPR Parking [STRIKE]fine[/STRIKE] invoice at Lidl Edgware

Sorted that for you.

As advised read the NEWBIES sticky and proceed from there

Guys_Dad

Have you proof of the spend? If so, in addition to, and in parallel with, the advice in the NEWBIES thread, contact Lidl manager and get him to cancel charge with the PPC.

boxer-man

Had something similar recently and trying to get my head around the best option. From a pr!cis of other posts, it seems that one company, parking eye, has taken some cases to court & won some and lost others depending on the county court judge's view on the day. Don't know if this is the same with Athena, from googling it I can't find any cases quoted of them taking people to court at all. from the "read this first" part of the forum, I'm still not clear if the the "do nothing" policy still valid or is it now ALWAYS recommended to go down appeals route?

boxer-man

I'm more than happy to argue the "excessively large invoice disproportionate to costs" scenario if it goes to court, by the way!!!

wiogs

boxer-man wrote: »

Had something similar recently and trying to get my head around the best option. From a pr!cis of other posts, it seems that one company, parking eye, has taken some cases to court & won some and lost others depending on the county court judge's view on the day. Don't know if this is the same with Athena, from googling it I can't find any cases quoted of them taking people to court at all. from the "read this first" part of the forum, I'm still not clear if the the "do nothing" policy still valid or is it now ALWAYS recommended to go down appeals route?

It should be perfectly clear that the "do nothing" option changed some considerable time ago, when the legislation changed.

In fact it could not be any clearer as it is in the very first post on the newbies thread

"UNLESS YOU ARE AT 'IGNORE THE DEBT COLLECTORS' STAGE (see post #4) 'IGNORE' IS NOT THE RIGHT ADVICE IN ENGLAND/WALES!"

boxer-man

Thanks for that, I did read this but then started reading other threads where this appeared still to be the case....much appreciated!

BenefitMaster

PLEASE read the newbies thread, as you have been asked...

boxer-man

Like I said, I did read it through but then found other conflicting comments.....thanks to you all for the correct direction though:)

Folkiedave

If you are finding it complex then there is a firm which will do all the work for you and you can forget about it. Costs £16.00

Try Parking Appeals in Google.

The one you want is PTAS.

And I have no financial connection with them.