Appeal after final demand

theengine

Hi All,

I have a NtK from Athena ANPR issued for exceeding the new 10min limit in Lidl by 20mins. Having found the wrong advice to start with I ignored this and am now in receipt of a reminder and final demand.

Having read the posts on here I tried to reset the timeline by naming the driver and received the following response.

We are contracted by the owner of the land, to manage the site at which the parking event
occurred and the charge was accrued.
All written appeals and driver details should be submitted within 28 days of delivery of the parking
charge notice.
The driver is responsible for payment. However, under the law we have the right to recover unpaid
parking charges from the registered keeper of the vehicle if they do not inform us who the driver
was within 28 days of delivery of the notice. The period of 28 days begins the day after which the
“Notice to Keeper” was served.
The 28 day period has been exhausted and at this stage the registered keeper is now liable for the
charge.

Given that I have named the driver and the 'contract' as I understand it is with them should I now ignore or should I appeal using the standard template and request POPLA code and ignore the timeline?

Any advice gratefully received.

Coupon-mad

Ignore it now. You've done the right thing - they are wrong but so what, nothing will happen. Just keep your records of naming the driver, just in case. But you won't need them because Athena are not ParkingEye; they are not ones who sue. Why not complain to Lidl Head Office by email?

theengine

Thanks for that. I'll do as suggested and post any follow up for others.

Redx

why do people never complain to the retailers or managing agents?

they seem to get tunnel vision about dealing with just a parking company, but never those who employ the parking company

it just beggars belief ! (and really p***** me off ! lol)

good luck anyway, hopefully you will get something sorted out

theengine

Fair point.

theengine

Just to close this off here is a response from Lidl after a few weeks of silence.

Re: Parking Charge
Thank you for contacting us regarding the parking charge which you received whilst parked within our store car park.
As you are probably aware, Lidl UK GmbH is a national retailer. As such, we have stores in locations with limited parking space and in common with many of our competitors, our store car parks are abused to a significant and detrimental extent. We have therefore judged it necessary to take measures so that our stores parking facilities are available first and foremost to our customers.
In order to ensure that sufficient parking spaces are available at all times to our customers, Lidl employs third party contractors to monitor and control our car parks. So far, this service has proved reliable and effective in reducing car park abuse and in freeing up spaces for our customers.
In light of your comments, on this one occasion, I have contacted Athena and have requested that this charge be cancelled. Athena will confirm this in writing to you in due course. Please note, your comments regarding our parking restrictions have been noted and passed to the relevant department.
Thank you again for contacting us.
Yours sincerely,
For and on behalf of Lidl UK GmbH

The_Slithy_Tove

What a load of mealy-mouthed claptrap! Basically saying "we are arrogant and right, you are wrong, but we'll give you some scraps off our table in the hope you won't hate us too much." And what's this "I have contacted Athena and have requested that this charge be cancelled"? They shouldn't need to request, they should demand it is cancelled.

Marktheshark

Take a stopwatch and when time is up, leave the trolley and walk out.