Help- PCN at Fistral Beach due to Accident with Toddler

motown3141

There seems to be some really great advice on this forum for fighting PCNs. Would really appreiciate some here.

I parked at Fistral Beach car park last week so that my 3 year old daughter and I could spend some time together playing in the sand. I paid for one hour via the Smart Parking call-in and made sure we were back within one hour. While we were loading into the car my daughter had an accident- peed in her pants. Bless her she is only 3 and has only been potty trained for six months. No big deal, this happens all the time and I'm well drilled- get out the travel potty in the back of the car, let her finish up, change pants and trousers and we're off. Got back home to her grandparents and didn't think anything of it.

Yesterday I received in the post a PCN for £100 (£60 if paid early) saying that we have breached the advertised terms and conditions for the parking park. It shows two photos with my car entering and exiting the car park with 1 hour, 16 minutes and 20 second between them. Though they do not mention specifically what was in breach in the PCN, I can only assume that I must have overstayed the grace period that they allow for people to get in/out of their cars, due to the extra time it took for my daughter to use the potty. Really frustrating as I would have just put more time on if I had known this was their policy!

So my first question is- is this worth an appeal? Technically I was in the bay for more than one hour, though I would classify loading/unloading (including handling toddler issues) as not time spent parking. I feel like any reasonable person would see it the same way- even a parking warden wouldn't give a ticket if a dad was dealing with his toddler needing a wee, would they? Part of me thinks that I should just pay up early to forget the whole headache- but I feel it's so unfair and on principle I want to fight it.

Would love to hear what people think. I've read the newbie forum and I will post my plans as a reply in this thread- but first most interested in hearing if people think this is worth the appeal.

Many thanks!

Fruitcake

Yes it is worth appealing. MSE has a very good success rate with appeals, and Not-so-Smart are, well, not so smart.

Please read the Sticky thread for NEWBIES then send the BPA template in blue you will find there. Copy and paste and send. Do not edit.

That's phase 1 done. You then need to start reading up on how to beat this a PoPLA, the second stage appeal.

Don't tell a story about what happened on the day; it won't work with the scammers. Just follow the script. Initial appeal, then PoPLA appeal when it gets rejected.

Don't reveal who was driving, ever, so you should edit your initial post and just refer to The Driver. Parking companies read these fora.

Redx

just use the BPA blue text appeal from the NEWBIES sticky thread

you are allowed between say 5 and 10 minutes to find a spot, park up , read the signs and get a ticket (which you did)

you are then allowed more than 10 minutes to leave the car park at the end of the session

so you are within the "grace time" as allowed by the BPA CoP

do not reveal who was driving , appeal as keeper with the template

these companies just want your money, they dont care about any "stories" , no compassion , nothing at all , so toddler or not , its the legal arguments that will win this

if they dont cancel, grace time will be one of many arguments put before popla

Myriddin

Smart Parking are the scaredy-cats of the Parking World. Show them a forum inspired POPLA appeal and they run home to Mummy with their tail between their legs!

Umkomaas

If you really want to go on the attack with Smart, here is a very apposite link.

http://parking-prankster.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/smart-parking-settle-out-of-court-for.html

The_Deep

Funnily enough, while mitigation rarely works at PoPLA, it often works at court. If this had been a Local Authority cat park I am sure than the penalty would have been cancelled, even if not, it would probably have been a lot less than these shysters want.


You have the moral high ground, stick to your principals, and fight them all the way.

Half_way

This car park has become notorious on here, and other parking forums, if its the same one as I think it is, it was previously infested with Parking eye however they were thrown out after a deluge of complaints.

follow the advice above and also complain to the car park owners.

Whatever happened to the car parks with retired man in a white jacket/overcoat collecting payment at the entrance to car parks? there's only one car park i know of where that still happens

Umkomaas

@OP. Have a look at this thread and its YouTube vids of Fistral Beach car park.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5349269

In the context of the 'grace period' argument you will eventually be making, you should detail the difficulty in finding a parking space (circling around) before the commencement of parking and the difficulty in exiting the car park (notorious traffic congestion on leaving, especially at peak times).

Coupon-mad

Echoing all of the above.

Smart Parking are 100% beatable at POPLA if you do not say who was driving, because Smart do not word their NTK in a way that can hold a keeper appellant liable. It is that simple, and often Smart cancel before POPLA when they see the template appeal from the NEWBIES thread.

motown3141

Thanks to everybody for the help! I'm happy to report a good result.

I copied and pasted the BPA template in blue from the NEWBIES thread (as Fruitcake suggested) into the Smart Parking 'contesting the charge' section of their website. Within about two weeks I got an email saying that they would cancel the PCN. What a result!

Thanks for the encouragement and I am now a bit evangelical about making sure that people know how to beat them at Fistral beach. Is there any place I can log that the blue template worked?

Umkomaas

Thanks for the encouragement and I am now a bit evangelical about making sure that people know how to beat them at Fistral beach. Is there any place I can log that the blue template worked?

https://www.facebook.com/groups/NewerNewquay/