Tower Road car park, Newquay (ParkingEye)

skvsn

Hi all,

we went to Cornwall over the Christmas break and received a PCN from ParkingEye for staying in the Tower Road, Newquay car park. Based on the photographic evidence provided we stayed for 3 hours 17 minutes (entry time 8:37, exit time 11:55). I paid £1.00 (up to 3 hour stay) 22 minutes after the entry time stated in PCN using the payment machine and got a ticket with 11:59 printed in large font and assumed that we can stay until this time. We left 4 minutes earlier at 11:55 (based on PCN). I did not realise that we have to pay for the total time spent in the carpark, not the time from the moment of payment. Now looking at the parking ticket I can see that it doesn't say that 11:59 is the expiration time. Instead it is labelled as "Purchase time date" with the actual payment date and time printed in smaller font at the bottom of the ticket and labelled as "Issued:"

The reason why I paid 22 minutes after the actual entry was that I could not find any coins at first and tried to install pay by phone app which did not work in the end because of some issues with my phone.

Obviously this sort of parking ticket is misleading on its own as most of people would expect the date and time printed in large font to be the expiration date, not just abstract date/time 3 hours after the Issued date. Also I don't remember the parking sign to have any obvious explanation that we had to pay exactly from the time of entry. However unfortunately I don't have any photos of the sign in the car park.

Based on this I'd like to appeal to ParkingEye. My question is - shall I use the appeal text exactly as it is worded in the newbies thread or shall I amend it to include the wording about the misleading expiration date/time printed in the parking ticket?

Thanks for any help/advise on this.

skvsn

Just to add to this - as I remember all the parking signs are located in the car park itself after the ANPR cameras. So it is not possible to read them before actually entering the car park

Redx

just use the appeal as stated in the NEWBIES thread

also the BPA CoP clause #13 allows for up to say 10 minutes to find a space , park , read the signs and pay , plus over 10 minutes to leave

the cameras clock in and out times , not parking time that is paid for

so I think you are on a winner with grace periods in your subsequent popla appeal, although other legal arguments like no landowner contract and signage will also feature as well

just get a popla code , as keeper to start with (not as driver)

read this about how these sc@mmers operate

http://parking-prankster.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/parkingeye-employee-reveals-their-rape.html

yours is on the list and features on here almost daily in the summer

skvsn

I guess there is no need to attach any receipts to the initial appeal, right?

Redx

no harm in attaching a copy of your receipt or ticket with the appeal , mentioning clause #13 of the BPA CoP, shows you know what you are talking about and they may fold at this early stage when faced with it

skvsn

Can they treat attaching the receipt as disclosing the driver?

Coupon-mad

Receipt for what? Tower Road isn't a shoppers car park as such, or is it a receipt for a beach shop within the site? I would always attach a receipt uploaded to PE with the appeal online, if the receipt is relevant.

Just say the occupants of the car were genuine patrons and a receipt is attached. In addition there was an issue with the app not working (don't blame YOUR phone!) and it took some time to find a parking space, which is why it took the driver 22 minutes to then get change to comply with the terms and pay the tariff by machine instead of phone, following several fruitless attempts after reading the very wordy sign.

In any case the driver left before the P&D ticket expired so PE have failed to allow a reasonable grace period/observation period on arrival, as described by the BPA's Kelvin Reynolds which he confirmed is not a time set in stone and depends upon the facts of the car park and other factors. The app failing would be just such a factor and in any case, any driver wold reasonably rely upon the time shown on the P&D ticket as the contract indicating the time the hour ran from. Having left early, there are no grounds for a PCN.



Do not reword this to include 'I' or 'my phone' or 'my receipt' or 'I returned early'!

skvsn

I meant the receipt from the car park payment machine (which shows in large font the time 3 hours after the payment time)

Coupon-mad

Yes, include it but no 'me, myself, I'!

Go on about Kelvin Reynolds' words about the initial 'observation period' upon arrival on site (search the forum for it).

skvsn

Just wanted to post a quick update on this - I received a confirmation from POPLA that my appeal was successful and the parking charge is now cancelled. Parking Eye also sent an email with similar confirmation.

I appealed to POPLA using their online form, in my own words. I did not use the "very long template" from here but instead focused on grace periods (BPA CoP 13.1-13.4), misleading and confusing format of parking ticket and non transparent use of ANPR (BPA CoP 21.1).

Thanks a lot everyone for your help!

Coupon-mad

Well done!

Sounds like your 'grace periods' argument was enough to convince PE to drop it (did they never contest it to POPLA?). After all, what you described would have taken some 20 mins which makes it reasonable, especially as you then left early:

The reason why I paid 22 minutes after the actual entry was that I could not find any coins at first and tried to install pay by phone app which did not work in the end because of some issues with my phone.