Bought pay and display ticket, but turned out to be for a different car park

cranmerd

This incident occurred close to the MEN Arena in Manchester, in an area of waste ground which has been converted into car parks.
We parked in one of these recently, bought a ticket from a pay and display machine and put it in the windscreen. Some 8 days later we received a notification from Euro Car Parks with a PCN claiming £100 as we had not paid. Now, on the evening in question, as well as being dark, it was raining heavily. It was not easy to see ticket machines and there were certainly none by the entrance/exit. By returning to the car park today, I could establish the following, and took some photographs:
- there are, in effect, 3 separate car parks next to each other on this waste land, with all the entrances no more than 25 yards apart. Euro Car Parks ("ECP") operate only one of them.
- the ticket machines in the ECP park are nowhere near the entrance/exit but, in fact, in one of the furthest corners from the entrance, and in a place where you would not pass it as you left the car park.
- the ticket machines are not illuminated, and there is no "Pay Here" sign above them.
- there is only one, tiny, sign, anywhere in the car park pointing towards the machines.

I had parked at the opposite end of the park to the machines, so was some 50 metres away from them. You could not see them, not only because it was dark and raining, but also because they were obscured by other parked cars.

The nearest ticket machine to where we parked, had a large "Pay Here" sign some 15 feet above it, was where we bought our ticket. This was at one of the other entrances but, as I mentioned earlier, it turns out this was operated by a different car park operator (who would know that?). I have the evidence of this payment.

Now ECP are a member of BPA, and clause 18.3 of the BPA Code of Practice states "Signs must be conspicuous and legible,....., so that they are easy to see....". Clearly this did not apply in this car park, so I am going to appeal against the charge, using the template letter, on the grounds there was insufficient signage. However, I have the following queries:
1) I couldn't see anything in the Code of Practice about the siting of ticket machines. Neither is there any reference to signage directing you to ticket machines. Does this still give grounds for appeal? The fact the adjacent car parks had large "Pay Here" signs would appear to indicate ECP were deficient in this respect.
2) How much of this detail should I include in my letter of appeal?

Thanks
CDC

Carthesis

In these circumstances, I wouldn't bother putting too much detail in the letter of appeal. Make the point that you've made a valid and genuine attempt to pay, but that due to the poor layout of the site and poor signage, you've inadvertently used the wrong machine.

I'd be tempted to add in an offer to pay the appropriate amount for parking there - the amount you'd have paid if you *HAD* seen the right machine - so as to mitigate the loss they have suffered. Add in that the case is distinguished from Beavis because it is a pay-and-display car park.