Indigo parking fine at station car park

LC1980

I have an annual parking permit for my station car park. Yesterday on arrival at the car park (at 7.55am, may I add), there were no 'normal' spaces available. Of course not, it's been empty throughout August, and yesterday was the first day back for the whole world it would appear.

Anyway, I parked in a 'premier' bay. Honestly if you saw the state of this tiny car park, you would realise there is nothing 'premier' about them! Obviously, premier bays guarantee a space as you pay extra for you own bay. I parked in bay 1, which I know is not currently rented out, but you can only pay for an annual premier bay, you can't extend your normal ticket for the day or a week.

Now, I know I've done wrong. However, I pay £496 a year to park in the car park and a premier bay is £620 a year. This works out at £1.36 a day for a normal bay and £1.70 a day for a premier bay, so, in fact, Indigo have lost 34p on that day. This makes the £100 fine excessive.

About 18 moths ago I had a similar incident, went to appeal, lost, but won the appeal through POPLA. I have a new car and this was with the previous car parking company.

Can an expert out there recommend wording I can send to Indigo to, hopefully, win the appeal without having to go through the POPLA palaver too?

I know in a couple of weeks, this will all die down, the car park won't be as busy and there'll be no issues. And bring on the next school holidays!!

Many thanks.

Umkomaas

The initial appeal template is shown in the newbies FAQ sticky (blue text version for a BPA operator). Send that off around day 26 if online appeals are accepted (definitely use this method if available), day 23 if by post (get free proof of posting from PO counter). The initial appeal template should produce a POPLA code for you.

You are highly unlikely to get this cancelled without the 'palaver', although POPLA are placing all railway (and the like) byelaws on hold as its a complex area in which they are unsure of their position to adjudicate. But you must still submit your POPLA appeal by the deadline nonetheless.

Does your windscreen ticket mention 'penalty' and/or 'byelaws'? Next time you're at the car park take photos of signage (need the wording legible) and a shot of the entrance whether that is showing a compliant entry sign, or not.