Smart Parking Fine. Help!

gaslightjonny

Hi, I recently overstayed by 1 hour at a local carpark in Reading, the carpark was for a swimming pool, however I wasn't using the swimming pool in question so appealing the ticket via them seems like a no go.

My reason for overstaying is no more than that it was £1 for 2 hours and then £4.80 for 3 hours and I literally only had £4 in change on me.

I have browsed these threads as well as the sticky thread for newbies and have come to the conclusion that i'd be a mug to pay the fine however, I am unsure whether to just ignore the letters completely until they go away or appeal directly to smart parking.

Thanks for any help! Jonny

Coupon-mad

Appeal as per the NEWBIES thread, using the template appeal for BPA members.

Please no 'is it this one?' copying it here...please no.

Not sure what your question is, as you say you have read the sticky thread. Ignore is not advised. We always beat Smart.

fisherjim

gaslightjonny wrote: »

Hi, I recently overstayed by 1 hour at a local carpark in Reading, the carpark was for a swimming pool, however I wasn't using the swimming pool in question so appealing the ticket via them seems like a no go.

My reason for overstaying is no more than that it was £1 for 2 hours and then £4.80 for 3 hours and I literally only had £4 in change on me.

I have browsed these threads as well as the sticky thread for newbies and have come to the conclusion that i'd be a mug to pay the fine however, I am unsure whether to just ignore the letters completely until they go away or appeal directly to smart parking.

Thanks for any help! Jonny

If you had taken in the information on here you would know it's not a fine it's an invoice, you should not ignore but use the tried and tested arguments on here.

But your attitude is the reason why these scammers exist, when you go shopping and the bill comes to say £40 do you give the shop £30 and walk out if that's all you have on you!

The_Deep

You are being a bit harsh FJ. If I understand OP correctly, they want 50p an hour for the first two hours, but £1.60 an hour for more than that. This seems to be a rip off to me.

Which pool OP? I am inclined to take the matter up with RBC, especially if it is a council pool.

fisherjim

The_Deep wrote: »

You are being a bit harsh FJ. If I understand OP correctly, they want 50p an hour for the first two hours, but £1.60 an hour for more than that. This seems to be a rip off to me.

Maybe TD but the landowner for what ever reason may want people to stay under two hours, they must have their reasons, but you can't just decide to ignore that and pay what you think is fair, it's just playing into the hands of the PPC.

What you usually call 'bilking" if I recall correctly.