PCN: Pay up or wait for POPLA appeal decision?

stuart.pinfold

Hi,

Last Thursday I received a private PCN for a car park at my local train station - somewhere I've parked a number of times before and paid the same way without any issue. I normally park in a council-owned car park next door (£5 per day, all day) but the station car park, after 10am, is cheaper - even in the "premium" spaces (£4.20 per day when arriving after 10am) which are next to the station entrance (the train I get on leaves at 10:04, so by parking in premium I both save myself money compared to the council car park and still manage to jump on the train). However, outside of school holidays, the premium spaces are usually all taken by 8:30 so it's very rarely I actually do park there.

Last week I did exactly what I've done on a number of occasions before - I parked at 9:59, by the time the engine had been switched off it had just ticked over to 10:00, paid on the Park Indigo app, leisurely walked to the train and got into work on time, with an email confirming my parking payment. Job done... until I return to a PCN on the windscreen.

As by then it's 10pm, there is no-one around, or available on the phone, to call - so the next morning I get on the phone and Indigo cannot tell me why the ticket has been issued. Indeed they initially say they cannot find the payment reference number which is clearly displayed in my email conversation. I put in my internal appeal showing a screenshot of the confirmation email and credit card statement showing the outgoing payment.

Again I go to work, park in a premium space, but this time go to the ticket machine and get a proper paper ticket. There I notice that there are TWO separate apps being advertised to pay for parking - the Park Indigo app, AND Connect Cashless Parking. I look again on the Indigo app (the one I'd used the day before) and notice there is no mention of a premium section, and I only paid £3.50 (the cost of the standard section in the same car park). Looking all over the app, I realise there is no way to pay the premium supplement on it.

A few days later my Indigo appeal was rejected with no other information other than "failure to display a valid ticket".

And yet, look at these photos. They show a Park Indigo app poster ON THE SIDE OF THE PREMIUM PAYMENT MACHINE. They also show signage, admittedly not specifically plugging the Indigo app, with the parkindigo.co.uk website address and Indigo logo NEXT TO the Connect Cashless Parking sign. The parking ticket was issued by Indigo, the appeal website is parkindigoappeals.co.uk, the PCN payment website is parkindigopayments.co.uk, the appeal rejection letter came from a @parkindigo.co.uk email address and had Indigo branding... NO mention at all of Connect Cashless Parking in the entire PCN/appeal process.


^^ Showing an advert for the Park Indigo app on the side of the PREMIUM payment machine. It's impossible to pay the premium supplement using this app.


^^ Showing signs for Connect Cashless Parking next to signs for Indigo and "www.parkindigo.co.uk" (where the website has no mention of Connect)


^^ Taken from the rough position I parked in. The ONLY visible sign is for the Park Indigo app. Only when you go to the payment meter (which you shouldn't need to do when using the app) do you see the Connect Cashless Parking signs. When driving in and around the car park you don't need to drive past the meter and the only sign you drive past (at the entrance) displays the prices with an Indigo logo on it!

Since then, I have had a phone conversation with Indigo customer services (which I recorded) where they confirm that it's impossible to pay for the premium parking on the Indigo app, and also have had the same confirmed via their official Twitter account.

I've now submitted an appeal to POPLA with the photos, Twitter screenshot, and phone recording. The "download the Park Indigo app" sign is still on the side of the payment machine for the premium section despite mentioning this confusing signage in the internal appeal.

To this day, I *still* don't know the specific reason the ticket was issued. I am only assuming that it's because I paid 70p less than I should have done because the option I needed wasn't available in the app, which itself was advertised in the section I parked in as being a valid payment method.

What do you think? Is it likely that POPLA will accept the confusing signage and tell Indigo to cancel the ticket, or should I pay the £60 now before it goes up to £100 this Thursday?

(I know the normal advice on here is to ignore it, but with a baby expected in November I can't afford to risk court action, and even the additional £40 when it goes up to full price would pay for extra baby supplies!)

Redx

the "normal practice on here is "NOT TO IGNORE IT" and "IGNORE IT" hasnt been the advice since oct 2012

railway land is not relevant land under POFA2012 so normal advice is to APPEAL as KEEPER , not name the driver and take it to popla using legal arguments that protect the KEEPER , plus poor signage etc, because parking laws do not apply on railway land , BYELAWS apply, so they have 6 months for the TOC to take you to a Magistrates Court

I am not sure what you have been reading but I suggest you study say 10 or more INDIGO railway land threads from this year only, not older ones , use the search word INDIGO in the forum search box

then draft your popla appeal and use the code INDIGO supplied to get it thrown out at popla on legal technicalities

I hope you did not reveal the drivers details if you did this limits your legal arguments to signage , no locus standii etc

if you have already submitted appeals to INDIGO and to POPLA without our help then its pointless advising you now, you could have put your appeal in jeopardy due to acting without good advice

popla is a lottery and we have seen appeals that failed despite them having good legal arguments, nobody on here or anywhere else can tell you if your appeal will win at popla, there are no guarantees at all , no absolute winner

compare your popla appeal to others drafted on here , to see if its strong or weak

like this one for example

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5466801

and this one with recent links

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5513681

Coupon-mad

What do you think? Is it likely that POPLA will accept the confusing signage and tell Indigo to cancel the ticket, or should I pay the £60 now before it goes up to £100 this Thursday?

IMHO, you should have used one of our POPLA appeals because we always beat Indigo at POPLA stage. Let's hope you still win on the basis you have argued, or POPLA find anyway, that they cannot be sure you are the individual who can be held liable (the owner, under the byelaws) due to no evidence of the owner of the car.

Do not try to pay. Even if you lose at POPLA these 'PCNs' (being alleged 'penalties) time out after six months and cannot be pursued after that so even people who do not try POPLA, or lose, do not have to pay.

Relax - have you had the 'evidence pack' from Indigo yet? does the POPLA Portal show the 'evidence' has been received by them or have you had an email saying so? I would seize the chance at POPLA evidence stage to point out that they've called it a penalty allegedly issued 'under byelaws' whereby only the owner can be held liable - yet there is no evidence as to the identity of that party which could be another person or even a company - and cannot be presumed to be a single driver.