Britannia POPLA Appeal - Please help!

Ridiculous

I have received a postal PCN for exceeding the maximum time limit from Britannia Parking which I appealed on the grounds that I was the registered keeper not the driver, poor signage, no mention that ANPR was being used and no time and date stamp on the photos supplied. Britannia have rejected my appeal on the grounds that I exceeded the grace period.

Would somebody be kind enough to have a look through my POPLA appeal and give me any pointers. I have read through all the newbie threads and confess to be very confused about the whole NTK/Keeper liability issue, so I am not sure I have this right.


Date of Notice: 20th December 2016
Date of contravention: 15th December 2016

I received a postal Parking Charge Notice as the registered keeper of the above vehicle for an alleged contravention for parking longer than the maximum time permitted.

I challenge this on the following basis.

I informed Britannia that I was the registered keeper of the vehicle. Section 9 of PoFA 2012 states that that the Notice to Keeper must

(f) warn the keeper that if, after the period of 28 days beginning with the day after that on which the notice is given—
(i) the amount of the unpaid parking charges specified under paragraph (d) has not been paid in full, and
(ii) the creditor does not know both the name of the driver and a current address for service for the driver, the creditor will (if all the applicable conditions under this Schedule are met) have the right to recover from the keeper so much of that amount as remains unpaid;

As this is prescribed, mandatory wording under statute, it is clear that Britannia has decided not to exercise its rights under the PoFA and can only pursue the driver. As such, the Notice to Keeper is not compliant with PoFA 2012.

Secondly, I believe that Britannia’s signs do not comply with The BPA Code of Practice which states that

18.3 Specific parking terms signage… Signs must be conspicuous and legible, and written in intelligible language, so that they are easy to see, read and understand.

Since receiving this PCN I have been to the car park in question. There are a number of very small signs around the edge of the car park which are very difficult to read, especially the terms and conditions. It is indisputable that placing letters too close together in order to fit more information into a smaller space can drastically reduce the legibility of a sign, especially one which must be read BEFORE the action of parking and leaving the car. A photo of one of these signs is attached which clearly shows this.

Thirdly, there is a very small logo at the bottom of the sign to show this is an ANPR monitored car park, but no explanation of what that means. I had to google it to find out. This is in contravention to The BPA Code of Practice which states that

21 Automatic number plate recognition (ANPR)
General principles

21.1 ''You may use ANPR camera technology to manage, control and enforce parking in private car parks, as long as you do this in a reasonable, consistent and transparent manner. Your signs at the car park must tell drivers that you are using this technology and what you will use the data captured by ANPR cameras for.

The signage in the car park states that the car parks are monitored by mobile parking enforcement teams, who may issue a ticket if you exceed the maximum stay period. The Code of Practice states that users MUST be made aware that automatic number plate recognition is being used, yet Britannia have failed to make this clear. They clearly understand that this point is mandatory, as in their rejection letter to my appeal they have included the sentence

“Please be aware that this is an ANPR (Automatic number plate recognition) controlled car park. A camera photographs your entry and exit and times this against the 2hr maximum stay allocated to this car park.”

Only making people aware of the fact it is an automatic number plate recognition car park in the rejection letter does not comply with the Code of Practice.

Finally, the photographs do not have a legible time and date stamp on them. Again this contravenes the The BPA Code of Practice.

20.5 You may use photographs as evidence that a vehicle was parked in an unauthorised way.The photographs must refer to and concern the incident which you claim was unauthorised. A date and time stamp should be included on the photograph. All photographs used for evidence should be clear and legible and must not be retouched or digitally altered.

As a result of these four reasons I am appealing this notice.

Many thanks in advance for your help

Ridiculous

It would be really helpful if someone could have a look through my letter that I plan to send to POPLA and give me any pointers on how to improve it. Thank you very much.

Umkomaas

Ridiculous wrote: »

It would be really helpful if someone could have a look through my letter that I plan to send to POPLA and give me any pointers on how to improve it. Thank you very much.

You really need photos of the signs if you're going to argue on signage.

There are model appeal paragraphs available for you to copy and paste from the NEWBIES FAQ sticky, post #3 which are proven to be successful. Use them.

You need to include in your appeal

No landowner contract
Driver not identified by the PPC
BPA CoP errors
PoFA deficiencies

Much of this already available to you in the sticky. Using the templates will improve and strengthen your current draft.

Coupon-mad

You would probably beat Britannia with that (due to their non-POFA NTK) but I recommend a longer version.

Ridiculous

Thank you for your feedback both of you.

I did send Britannia a copy of the sign when I appealed and am planning to send it to POPLA too. I can't quite work out how to upload a photo here as it seems to only give the option of having a url not a file on my laptop. Can you help?

Umkomaas

Ridiculous wrote: »

Thank you for your feedback both of you.

I did send Britannia a copy of the sign when I appealed and am planning to send it to POPLA too. I can't quite work out how to upload a photo here as it seems to only give the option of having a url not a file on my laptop. Can you help?

To upload a photo/scan link, you first need to host it on a free photo hosting site (Photobucket or Tinypic), copy the URL, paste it here, but change the http to hxxp and we'll do the conversion. Newbies can't directly upload links to photos/scans until they've got a few posts under their belt.

Ridiculous

Thanks everyone for your help, it was really much appreciated. I heard today from POPLA that Britannia are not contesting the appeal and so it has been dropped!

I logged on to the POPLA website and Britannia had responded saying "Goodwill gesture, first offence".

Coupon-mad

Great news!

Myriddin

Ridiculous wrote: »

I logged on to the POPLA website and Britannia had responded saying "Goodwill gesture, first offence".

Translated that response for you: 'We're not contesting this appeal because we know we'll lose and then have to pay POPLA for the privilege but so we look like good guys instead of the greedy, grabbing money suckers we are we'll dress it up as a goodwill gesture!'

Well done! :beer:

SPIDER-WEBB

Hello, I know this thread is old... but I have found it a bit too late... i would have used the register keeper argument if I had known...


I tried to be reasonable and told Britannia that I was having a coffee in Costa with a friend on boxing day evening and attached my receipt for overstaying for 40 minutes, a si was using the facilities (I didnt see the signs and arrived in the dark) and said about how they were not clear/it/was dark, how the charge was excessive... they have come back and said I still need to pay.


Also, they say they sent the letter on the 8th Jan (which would have been the 14 days - but I didnt get it till the 11 January) would this help my case, or now I have said it is me have I lost the battle?


I have the same issues with the signs as the previous case, says it is regularly patrolled by mobile enforcers but they catch you on the ATPS camera (no date stamp on the pictures too) with a tiny logo at the bottom of the sign.


Any help would be great, Many thanks

Coupon-mad

No-one loses any battle against Britannia, LOL!

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/73568019#Comment_73568019

Please read the NEWBIES PLEASE READ THESE FAQS FIRST thread (please don't ask where it is! See my signature below).

So what if you lose at POPLA, you won't be PAYING MONEY to Britannia!

No reply here, this is not your thread. Wrong place to post.