Indigo Car Park - parked in an unauthorised space Penalty Notice

MaggieMay61

Hello All,

I've taken a look at the Newbies thread and wanted to ask some questions that I can't see answered there...

RMT and ASLEF strikes on Southern Rail forced me to go to a different station this week, and I ended up getting a penalty notice for parking in a 'Staff' space at one of Indigo's carparks. There was nowhere else to park as all available space in the car park had been taken, including people parking on double yellow lines, areas off the road (on the grass under trees!) and generally any space they could get into.

When I arrived after dropping off my children and travelling an extra 30 mins to get to this station, the only spaces available were 'Staff' or Disabled. Obviously wasn't going to take up the latter but as there were around 10 Staff spaces and only around 5 cars parked there I thought it was worth risking. I bought a ticket using the Indigo App, left a grovelling note on the dashboard and at the end of the day, came back to the Penalty Notice for 'Breach Code 3 Parked in an Unauthorised Area'. Some other cars parked in the Staff spaces did have Penalty Notices like me - cars parked in other unauthorised areas like the ones described above seemed to get away with it and had not received a Penalty Notice.

My questions are - I knew I had parked in a Staff space but given that there were pretty extreme circumstances (worst rail strikes for 20 years), other people were parking in 'unauthorised areas' and seem not to have been given a PN, do I have good odds if I appeal?

We have had two penalty notices from Indigo in the past (one in the last 3 months) so will they be able to look me or my wife up on their system which will compromise the strategy of not letting them know who the driver is?

Any views or advice would be really appreciated.

pappa_golf

they cannot ude your info from a previous ticket

read the newbies thread , then type Indigo bylaws in the search box , railway land comes under bylaws and as such its the railways job to get you , not indigo , all popla cases are on hold ,

newbies thread: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4816822 you want the BLUE bpa template , and remember , https://popla.co.uk/

Umkomaas

The rail strike must have been heaven for the private parking industry as people scrabble for any space to park in order to catch any train available, and in their panic, with little regard to the consequences.

Reminds me of the crocs awaiting the wildebeest migration across their river!

Coupon-mad

do I have good odds if I appeal?

Yes if you step away from the story of what happened, and just use the template appeal in the NEWBIES thread for BPA members, then be ready with a nice long and strong POPLA appeal. Indigo are not contesting them at the moment it seems.

discat11

Just a minor point I know -but 'staff' parking in railway car parks is usually for drivers IME.

If you park there you may well find yourself having your own train cancelled due to having no driver.

Not that I'm advocating parking in a disabled space in preference of course.

System

Reminds me of the crocs awaiting the wildebeest migration across their river!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0t-dMhDRw4c

You can see the vultures on the side

Umkomaas

IamEmanresu wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0t-dMhDRw4c

You can see the vultures on the side

The widows of doom!

The_Deep

I would say that mitigation would be a very strong card to play in court.

When Southern cancelled trains in Bracknell, some years ago everyone drove to one of the GWR stations nearby, causing overflowing car parks.