APCOA Rejection Letter (Luton Airport))

parawatch

I have copied below a letter I have just received back from APCOA rejecting my recent appeal letter (No Surprise there!!). It is just to give the many 'experts / advisers' on this forum some idea on the response I have received back from APCOA. This rejection was for an appeal I made as the 'Registered Keeper' against a 02-Dropping off / Picking up outside of a designated parking area at Luton Airport (following the examples provided on this forum). I am now of course going to generate my own appeal to POPLA following the templates other people have written on here, but if anyone would like to comment / provide any further advice on my situation then all suggestions are very welcome!!


RE : Ticket Reference
POPLA verification Number:


Thank you for your letter of appeal against the Parking Charge Notice issued by us to you on 14/05/2015. Having carefully considered the evidence provided by you, I must advise your appeal has not been successful on this occasion.


You were issued a notice having received an allegation of contravention at Luton Airport. Having investigated further, we have found that your vehicle was pictured in breach of the above terms set by Luton Airport, dropping off/picking up outside of a designated parking area, having failed to enter the designated pickup and drop off zone or short term car park.


ln response to your comments made in your letter, please note notices only need to be issued within 14 days if the notice issued mentions "under Protection of Freedoms Act". According to British Parking Association (BPA) guidelines, the maximum permitted time to notify the registered keeper is no more than 28 days after receiving keeper data from DVLA which takes no more than 35 days. Once we receive the registered keeper information we issue a notice to the customer, and no more than six months after the unauthorized parking event. lt is our understanding that as we have not referred to this act in our documentation, we are able to work in accordance with the BPA code of practise (June 2013) which states that we have up to 28 days to deliver a postal PCN from the date of contravention.


All enforcements are carried out according to British Parking Association (BPA) guidelines and APCOA being an approved operator of BPA is authorized to manage and enforce the property on behalf of Luton Airport. Any vehicles in contravention of the terms and conditions of Luton Airport are sent out to DVLA for registered owner's information under BPA guidelines.


APCOA is not liable to justify the charge as set out in section 19.5 of the BPA guidelines 'If the parking charge that the driver is being asked to pay is for a breach of contract or act of trespass, this charge must be based on the genuine pre-estimate of loss that you suffer. We would not expect this amount to be more than £80." We are therefore of the belief that this parking charge is fair and reasonable at £80 reduced to £48 if paid within 14 days. The sum, and calculations which have been made in setting it, have been approved and agreed by the landowner.


Therefore, we feel that as our Parking Charge Notice was within the amount stipulated by the BPA guidelines, and as the Court of Appeal has found that charged of this nature are permissible, claiming that the Parking Charge Notice is not a genuine pre-estimate of loss is not a suitable premise on which to base appeals.


HERE IT SHOWS A PHOTOGRAPH OF A ROAD SIGN WITH THE WORDING:


Restricted ZONE


No stopping at any time to drop off or pick up


CCTV and number plate recognition in operation


Warning Enforcement Charge of £80.00


This is a private road


THEN THE LETTER CONTINUES WITH:


As your vehicle was parked in contravention of the terms and conditions of the car park we are satisfied that the notice was correctly issued in accordance with the BPA code of practise and are not able to waiver the charge on this occasion.


Therefore you now have a number of options;


1. Pay the Parking Charge Notice at the discounted price of £48.00 within 14 days. please note that after this time the Parking Charge Notice will increase to f80.00. you can pay by the following methods;

By Post - Send a cheque or postal order crossed and made payable to APCOA parking, PO Box 1010, Uxbridge, U88 9NT.

Web - blah blah blah

By Phone - 0345 301 1151


2. Make an appeal to POPLA within 28 days of this letter - The independent Appeals Service by completing the accompanying form quoting reference number XXXXXXXXXX

Please be advised that if you opt for independent arbitration of your case, the Parking Charge Notice will increase to £80.00

3. lf you choose to do nothing, we will seek to recover the monies owed to us via our debt recovery procedures and may proceed with court action against you.


Yours sincerely
APCOA Appeals Department

Redx

yep, we know , discussed to death and at great length on here over the last few years

conveniently, they only put their side of the argument, whereas your popla appeal will query the actual legal arguments, including the fact its not relevant land so the RK is not liable for this invoice and they should not have obtained the RK details from the DVLA either

ie:- they should pursue the driver, if they knew who it was

so just plagiarise a recent 2015 popla appeal for that airport and apcoa and submit it before the expiry date

bazster

APCOA are utterly toothless. Just ignore them or do your PoPLA appeal. Be sure to stress to PoPLA that APCOA makes a clear admission that there is no registered keeper liability and therefore has no claim against you as the registered keeper.

You can also point out that the signage (as confirmed by APCOA's letter) does not seek to prohibit stopping as such, it seeks to prohibit stopping to drop off or pick up. In other words, the "offence" is not stopping, the "offence" is dropping off/picking up, so it's actually not a parking charge at all.

You can also complain to DVLA on similar grounds: APCOA receives data from DVLA on the understanding that it is seeking to recover unpaid parking charges, but the signs at Luton make clear, as does APCOA's own letter, that at Luton they are not enforcing parking restrictions, they are not even enforcing stopping restrictions, they are actually enforcing picking up/dropping off restrictions and they are not entitled to request vehicle keeper details for such a purpose.

You can further state (to PoPLA) that the signage makes no contractual offer, it is merely an attempt at a prohibition. Furthermore, since APCOA is not mentioned on the signage at all then the signage should be interpreted as creating nothing more than a term of the licence implied by the landowner, not APCOA, for the public to use the airport roads. As such, any breach would constitute a simple trespass, actionable only by the landowner and for nominal damages.

You can also, for PoPLA, analyse the signage in terms of the government regulations as discussed here by the Parking Prankster:

http://parking-prankster.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/vehicle-control-systems-signage-at.html

The signs at Luton may not be as awful as those at Liverpool but they still fail miserably.

The_Deep

APCOA is not liable to justify the charge as set out in section 19.5 of the BPA guidelines 'If the parking charge that the driver is being asked to pay is for a breach of contract or act of trespass, this charge must be based on the genuine pre-estimate of loss that you suffer. We would not expect this amount to be more than £80." We are therefore of the belief that this parking charge is fair and reasonable at £80 reduced to £48 if paid within 14 days. The sum, and calculations which have been made in setting it, have been approved and agreed by the landowner.

Whilst this may satsfy the PPC, it will not stisfy PoPLA, they will have a mountain to climb with this.

Guys_Dad

Simple POPLA appeal .

I was not the driver of the vehicle in question on the day. There are no photograhs provided that refute this statement.

The PPC used a ANPR-type syetem and did not send the NKK within the stipulated time for Keeper Liability to be applicable under POFA 2012 and, in any event, the letter from them dated dd/mm/yy confirms they are not attempting to charge me under that legislation.

I, therefore, submit that I am not liable for this charge.

End of.

parawatch

Thank you all for your comments / suggestions. I will include all these points in my POPLA appeal !!