Parking Eye parking fine - Radisson Blu Durham

Ralph-y

OK thanks ....

the reason I asked is that the forum elders will build up a knowledge of which popla assessors are up to speed and which are not.....

Ralph:cool:

vwass07

ok - received a response from POPLA:

'Thank you for contacting POPLA

Upon review of your appeal I am satisfied that the assessor has made the correct decision.

I note you have raised several points of concern regarding grace periods. With regards to the 15 minutes grace period I can confirm after reviewing the operator's evidence of the signage at the site, this is a 15 minutes free period at the start of the stay.

I also note you state that according to the British Parking Association (BPA) Code of Practice (COP) under section 13.4 "You should allow the driver a reasonable period to leave the private car park after the parking contract has ended, before you take enforcement action. If the location is one where parking is normally permitted, the Grace Period at the end of the parking period should be a minimum of 11* minutes".

In reference to this, the BPA COP version 6 October 2015 states under section 13.4 "You should allow the driver a reasonable period to leave the private car park after the parking contract has ended, before you take enforcement action. If the location is one where parking is normally permitted, the Grace Period at the end of the parking period should be a minimum of 10 minutes.".

As such, there was an overstay of 14 minutes in total therefore you have not met the terms and conditions of the site.

While we note you are unhappy with our decision. We have now reached the end of our process and there is no opportunity to appeal.

For confidential and impartial advice, you may wish to contact Citizens Advice: https://www.adviceguide.org.uk or call 0345 404 0506 (English) or 0345 404 0505 (Welsh).

Yours sincerely,
Safoora Sagheer
POPLA Assessor'

I more or less thought that they would defend their decision even though I can't comprehend their decision/rationale about the '14 minute overstay'. Would appreciate some advice as to where I go from here?

Thanks in advance...

Coupon-mad

That makes no sense whatsoever and was not reviewed by the Lead Adjudicator. The 14 minutes POPLA conclusion makes no sense and under contract law, the interpretation which most favours a consumer MUST prevail where a term like a 15 minute grace period is ambiguous (which clearly it is, because even the Hotel weren't sure what it meant/how it could be applied!).

POPLA appear to be blinded by PE, almost as if they have such a backlog that some of these decisions have been farmed out to a third party - I have no idea by the way but who knows?! These decisions are so very bad now (some almost like an IAS decision) and POPLA are just ignoring rebuttal comments even though appellants surely have the right to comment on the Beavis case and how it does NOT apply.

You can only attack the Hotel for the unfair actions of their agents and ask that they insist the PCN is now cancelled (which they can, they are the principal) or can the Hotel settle the matter. I've seen Hotels agree to pay PE £50 to get them off a customer's back before, so rattle the Hotel's cage again and again. Make yourself a bit of a pain in a polite but assertive way asking them to find out from their overly-aggressive and litigious parking 'agent' how much to settle the matter and can the management settle this at their discretion - or even meet you half way on an offer of say £25 each - to retain your family's future custom?

And put a complaint in to ISPA (Nicola Mullany) as per the Parking Prankster's blogs. That's a complaint about the way POPLA have handled this from start to finish, badly in your opinion and still without properly addressing the issues in the complaint you made.

If you get a court claim in the end then the points made in the POPLA appeal are still very valid IMHO. Worst case scenario is a battle over say £190 or so, at a hearing with a real Judge. If you lost, no CCJ as long as you then paid. You could resolve that you will only pay if a Judge tells you to or you could write to the Hotel again (do not phone) and talk about them settling/an offer to resolve the dispute now, once and for all.

josingh20

Coupon-mad wrote: »

And put a complaint in to ISPA (Nicola Mullany) as per the Parking Prankster's blogs. That's a complaint about the way POPLA have handled this from start to finish, badly in your opinion and still without properly addressing the issues in the complaint you made.

If you get a court claim in the end then the points made in the POPLA appeal are still very valid IMHO. Worst case scenario is a battle over say £190 or so, at a hearing with a real Judge. If you lost, no CCJ as long as you then paid. You could resolve that you will only pay if a Judge tells you to or you could write to the Hotel again (do not phone) and talk about them settling/an offer to resolve the dispute now, once and for all.

I'm making notes and will use in my own case, thank you.