UKPC Metrocentre Staff Parking Ticket

worriedstudent2015

Hello,

I know there are allocated newbie threads for dealing with and winning appeals but I thought I would still post here in the hope that someone could give me some insight into whether I stand any chance of winning my appeal. I do not want to be bullied by UKPC into paying my charge and feel out of my depth.

I was issued the ticket on the 18/12/14 and just received the NTK on 21/01/15 claiming I must now pay the full charge. The reason for my ticket is down to the fact that Metrocentre staff are charged if they are found to be parked anywhere other than the coach park (a car park which would approx. take me 15 mins to get to work from, and as a 20 year old student I don't feel overly confident parking here for lack of security and for the times I may finish at 10pm or later.) I arrived for work late at 8:30am and chose to park in a normal customer car park. As I left the centre, I came back to a ticket issued at 9:45am saying "staff parked in no staff parking area" requesting I pay £30 within 14 days. Obviously I have not and have awaited the NTK as prompted by the newbies thread. The only evidence they have included are pictures taken on their mobile phones (I have witnessed them in action on other victims) of my car and a photo of the sign which does not stand close to the actual car park but more towards the bus shelter. There is no time period stated as to when I left the car park and no photo evidence of myself leaving or arriving back at my car. I buy lunch or clothes during my time at the Metrocentre which makes me a paying customer as anyone else would be and I have a receipt for a £60 withdrawal made on that day. Many of my colleagues have told me not to fuss and to just ignore the charge but from reading the threads I have come to wonder differently if ignoring is the best option. There is no way I am paying the £60 charge for being parked in an advertised FREE car park, so their loss is a matter of fabrication. I also favour mine and my car's safety over wanting to park in the coach park with minimal security and on going vandalism. Again I know that there are specific threads for giving clear instructions into how to win appeals; I have read them over and over but I am still not 100% sure on all the minor details so was just wondering from my brief description, whether I stood any chance in appealing my charge.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, I'm already feeling pretty intimidated from the NTK and would just like this to all stop as I don't believe I have done anything wrong or enough to be charged with.

Fruitcake

Don't panic, you can beat this with a bog-standard two stage appeal. First appeal to the PPC using the template in the NEWBIES thread. If they don't crumble you use the PoPLA code they must provide and use the How to Win at PoPLA section of the NEWBIES thread to win at your PoPLA appeal.


Don't appeal on what happened on the day, it doesn't work. Just use all the appeal points in the NEWBIES thread exactly as they are.


Do not ignore. Do not pay. Do not reveal who was driving. Don't miss the appeal deadline.


The people on this site will guide you through this and you won't have to pay a penny to this bunch of scammers.

fisherjim

How do they know the car was driven on that morning by a staff member?

worriedstudent2015

Thank you Fruitcake! I plan to send both an email and posted letter out to them tomorrow so they can be sure they'll receive the template appeal.

fisherjim: Exactly! They have no photo evidence of me in the car park, just of my car. I'm guessing one of the "wardens" was hiding as they usually do to catch me or just assumed because my car was there so early, I wasn't a customer. They don't have any solid evidence that I've seen to show I was a staff member.

debs1505

We are in exactly the same position. MC staff parked in 'customer' car park. We're awaiting the NTK. If you do a search you'll find my post with all the helpful replies to go alongside the helpful replies you've had above.

worriedstudent2015

Hello debs1505! Just had a quick look through all of your posts there and it seems as if we're being told to follow the same steps. I've just posted the template appeal today and just this minute sent the same appeal online so they should receive it without any excuses! Wishing you all the best in fighting your ticket!

worriedstudent2015

Hello all, an update on my situation...

I have just received the final reminder from UKPC urging me to pay an increased total of £60 for my parking charge. It has been almost two months since I posted my appeal and I am still waiting to hear back on their decision. Is it possible they have not received my appeal or do I just wait it out?

Any help would be greatly appreciated
Thank you

ManxRed

Did you get proof of posting? The postal service at UKPC's office is atrocious.

Or they're 'pretending' they lost your appeal. One of those two. Definitely.

Coupon-mad

Complain to the BPA of course - as per post #6 of the Newbies thread. Steve Clark at the BPA is away most of this week, he replied to a couple of complaints I sent him last night, forwarding them to Dave Metcalf instead.

You can use 'AOS@britishparking.co.uk' as the email and it will get a reply. Presumably you didn't waste your stamp posting a letter to UKPC (hope not unless you kept proof) seeing as they have a fairly decent appeals portal which shows you photos and all - it just defaults to 'driver' which is norty but apart from that it does the job for appeals to them. Hope you did that - maybe kept a screenshot?

worriedstudent2015

I have proof of postage and an automated email to say they received that form of contact too. It has definitely been past the 35 days in which the template letter gives them to reply.

I'm getting a bit worried now as I thought I may have heard from them by now, even if it was a rejection to the appeal. I'm not too sure where to go from here.

worriedstudent2015

What would I say in my complaint Coupon-mad? That I gave them sufficient time to respond and they have not done so.

I'm in the midst of studying for my Uni dissertation so this is just adding so much more stress haha