Tower Road Newquay POPLA appeal

RowliePhil

Hi There,

My girlfriend and I were on holiday in Cornwall and got completely lost after a 5 hour drive. We pulled into this car park (No signs at the entrance before the camera's snap you) to check the price and, after deciding it was to pricey for being so far away from where we wanted to be, we set the sat nav and headed off. We were in the car park for around 15 minutes

Low and behold, a parking charge in the post. We appealed and now are at the POPLA stage. However, with the new POPLA website and us having little legal knowledge, we could use some help with building a template of what to say.

The basic points are as follows:

We were in the car park for 15 minutes.
We never properly parked, just stopped to check the price and map.
The signs at the gate say nothing about price, only 'Welcome to Tower Road Car Park'. The only sign that says anything about price at the entrance is on the wrong side of the road with small writing AFTER the cameras have taken your picture.
The charge of £60 - £100 for 15 minutes is totally excessive.

Essentially, there was no way for us to know about the grace period time or even that we already being charged unless until we were already in the space and then its too late!

We would really appreciate some help as we are both (very) poor students.

Thank you!

ManxRed

No contract was entered into. You perused the terms and conditions (the offer), decided not to take them up on it (as is your right), so no acceptance by performance took place, as you decided to leave.

End of story.

There ought to be a grace period (as part of the parking company's adherence to the BPA AOS Code of Practice) to enable you to read the signs and make a decision on parking, however they won't tell you what that is.

Also mention that the charge does not represent the landowner's loss, and is 'extravagant and unconscionable' - the reasonable test for which would be to compare it with a local council ticket for the same 'offence' which I'm guessing isn't £100 (it would help your appeal if you could find out what it is, to confirm).

You also do not believe that the parking company has sufficient clauses in their contract with the landowner to offer parking and levy charges in their own name, and you want them to provide proof.

The_Deep

You were technically guilty of bilking, but the disproportionate amount they want negates this.


They have probably lost no more than 25p due to your criminal behaviour and will now have to suffer the consequences of their greed, all that paperwork and the cost of that red ink, not to mmention the cost of the appeal, when will they ever learn?

Redx

find a recent PE popla appeal and also use that as the basis for yours, especially any for Newquay car parks, but any pay and display type car park will do

Ivor_Pecheque

Avoid Newquay like the plague, if you feel you need to park, let me know, I'll direct you to either free / or Council Parks.

RowliePhil

At the POPLA 'Operator information and evidence'. It says 'The operator will send the evidence independently' and then 'The operator didn't provide a case summary'. Should we chase them up for their evidence? We only have 7 days to respond...

Coupon-mad

If the operator didn't provide a case summary then they haven't contested it yet, so I would not chase it! Why encourage them to hurry up?

What exactly did POPLA's email to you say or have they not emailed you yet? Normally they will email you when the evidence pack arrives with them, and you would then get PE's version in the snail mail post days after that... (nice of them seeing as you ony get 7 days to comment...).

Wait for POPLA's email or show us what the email said if POPLA have emailed you.

RowliePhil

The POPLA email is as follows"

"Dear xxxxx

Your parking charge Appeal against Parking Eye Ltd.

We have now received the case file from Parking Eye Ltd and this is available for you to review on the portal.

You have seven days from the date of this correspondence to provide comments on this file. This can be done directly on the portal. Any comments that you make after this time may not be considered as part of the Appeal process.

Once this time has passed we will progress the Appeal for assessment. We will let you know when this happens.

Thank you for using POPLA.

Yours sincerely

POPLA Team"

RowliePhil

A lovely 37 page summary arrived in the post today. Nice that I only get 2000 character text boxes to work with... I will email all that needs to be said as recommended by the parking prankster. We only have until tomorrow to respond so urgent help would be lovely!! The main points of contention are:

- There is a lack of specificity to the case. Just typical regurgitated information that doesn't contain the details. it says things like 'the grace periods are sufficient for this purpose [of entering, parking, and considering if one wishes to be bound be the terms and conditions]. We do not find it credible that this time was overstayed and that the appellant was not parked.' It doesn't say how long the grace period is, how long we overstayed it for, etc. I outlined in my appeal that we believed the grace period to be 20 minutes and that we would require proof otherwise. We haven't got that.

- They quote a sign but don't include that particular sign in their evidence ('By parking, waiting, or otherwise remaining within this car park, you agree to comply with this parking contract'). Similarly, none of the signs upon entering the car park include this information, the length of the grace period, any terms and conditions, and by the time you can find a sign that says any of these things, it is too late!

- They haven't provided the contract between the land owner and ParkingEye stating that it contains commercially sensitive information and that 'POPLA have previously confirmed that a signed witness statement is satisfactory evidence to demonstrate that a contract is in place between ParkingEye and the landowner. Indeed, draft witness statements are provided on POPLA's website to be used in this scenario.' I can find no evidence of these witness statements and since we specifically asked for this proof, this seems like a weak link to me (but then I know very little about this stuff).

Obviously, as one of our points was that the parking charge was not a genuine pre-estimate of loss, we requested a stay until the outcome of the Beavis case. So if nothing else that may buy us time...

We cannot really afford to pay £100 for driving into a carpark, around it, and out again, nor can we really afford to go to court. Help would be greatly appreciated....

Coupon-mad

You need to email a very quick reply to POPLA and tell them you only got the evidence on 22nd so can they please extend your time to comment to run for another seven days. POPLA will reply; I've done exactly this several times.

Don't try to respond in the 2000 character box. Email POPLA your comments but NOT YET. Ask for an extension only, first, then take your time and prepare a full rebuttal of the evidence with our help here. Then you can email that as a PDF attachment to POPLA as your comments and then finally make sure you comply with POPLA procedures and pop back to the POPLA portal and refer them to your email (tell them the time/date of it and explain that the attachment on that email is your response).

But get opinions here first and keep writing as the KEEPER not driver, if that's what you've done so far (hope so).

Your above points are good - they've not said what the Grace Period is even now then?! Who has signed the witness statement?

I would include stuff about breach of the UTCCRs as discussed at 35 in Beavis at the Court of Appeal hearing:

' Openness requires that the terms should be expressed fully, clearly and legibly, containing no concealed pitfalls or traps. Appropriate prominence should be given to terms which might operate disadvantageously to the customer. Fair dealing requires that a supplier should not, whether deliberately or unconsciously, take advantage of the consumer's necessity, indigence, lack of experience, unfamiliarity with the subject matter of the contract, weak bargaining position or any other factor listed in or analogous to those listed in Schedule 2 to the Regulations. '

Parkrage

Ref, 'Who has signed the 'Witness Statement'.

It'll probably be the same as described on my own thread, the Manager of Newquay Golf Club:

... ‘Witness Statement’ from the Manager of Newquay Golf Club saying that he was authorised by the Trustees of Newquay Golf Club to state that the operator (Parking Eye) have written authority to issue PCNs...