POPLA Appeal - Maternity Discrimination?

Rosebud24

I received a parking charge from Premier Park for parking for 1 hr 29 minutes in a retail park car park with a 1 hr 15 minute limit. They have rejected my appeal. I declined to name the driver, and appealed using the MSE template giving the following grounds: (copied from my appeal and edited for brevity):

1. There was insufficient signage
The car park in question has no clear signage between the parking space used and the first shop visited to explain what the time limit is. The driver was therefore unaware of the time limit. This means no contract could be formed with the landowner.

• The charge is disproportionate and not commercially justifiable. The £100 charge you are asking for far exceeds the cost to the landowner of the driver parking for 14 minutes too long, particularly as there were few other cars in the car park at the time.

• Mitigating circumstances
There are mitigating circumstances to explain why the vehicle was parked for the length of time it was. The driver shopped in several stores... She viewed and purchased a number of items. One item was found to be faulty at checkout and had to be replaced. 75 minutes would be insufficient time for most people to do all of these things. In the case of the driver she was shopping whilst seven months pregnant and accompanied by a two year old. This made her shoping experience much slower than usual.

I attached evidence including screenshots of photos taken in two furniture stores (showing date, time and location of photo), and the receipt from B&M.

The evidence they provided was from entrance and exit cameras. Unfortunately I cannot provide photos of the signs as I moved house shortly after and now live 200 miles away!

I have read the FAQs on the POPLA site and they say they are unable to take into account mitigating circumstances. However, I noted on the pinned thread here that Maternity Discrimination is a thing, but am struggling to find out more info about it. Pregnancy was definitely a reason for me being much slower than normal, as I was struggling to contain my 'spirited' toddler whilst being exhausted and in discomfort. I also was genuinely unaware of the time limit (1hr 15 is ridiculous) and, not having seen the signs, assumed it would be 3 hrs like the neighbouring retail parks).

Can anyone advise if I have realistic grounds for appeal, and whether it's worth pursuing the Maternity Discrimination route? I will be really appreciative of any advice - baby brain has fully kicked in and I admit I am struggling to understand everything I've read!

Redx

I assume you now have a popla code ?

if yes, you need to start drafting a popla appeal based on legal arguments, such as

GRACE PERIODS (clause #13 of the BPA CoP)
no landholder contract
poor and inadequate signage
not the same as the BEAVIS case
any POFA2012 failures
any NTK errors
any other BPA CoP failures

etc

you are likely to be covered by the EA2010 and coupon-mad has written extensively about this in previous posts , but POPLA wont rule on that and will say you must issue an LBC and MCOL of your own to the landholder + ppc if you wish to do so

meanwhile , this popla appeal needs doing as I said, and post #3 of the NEWBIES sticky thread will help you with it

post it on here for critique (redacted of course)

the extortionate charge idea wont wash post-BEAVIS, so 2 years down the line dont put that in your popla appeal, not at all , despite what you may think , judges dont agree with you (or us for that matter)

mitigation wont wash either , sorry to say

Coupon-mad

Make a complaint to all the retail Store Managers an Head offices, and on Twitter and the national retailers' facebook pages - NOW, first, before POPLA.

Your POPLA code will last for 30 days, so complain FIRST. Easier to get it cancelled that way.

Re the discrimination, this took me a minute to Google 'Equality Act maternity':

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/section/17

17 (2) A person discriminates against a woman if treats her unfavourably because of a pregnancy of hers.

Treating someone the same as people who aren't slowed by pregnancy and fatigue, and holding them all to the same time limit, is certainly treating the lady less favourably. It is a fact that you reasonably needed more time to go about your daily life/shopping chores, at the material time. Sometimes to be fair, a service provider must take proactive steps to level the playing field for people who have 'protected characteristics' under the Act.

Whilst maternity provision doesn't go as far as disability provision in the Act, and pregnant women are not actually offered 'reasonable adjustment' rights like disabled people are, the service provider and their agents, where the public are using the site, MUST NOT treat you unfavourably.

Use that in your complaints, urgently, reminding the Retailers/site Managers that THEY are liable if they are the ones who contracted this agent. They are liable for the agent's conduct.

Can anyone advise if I have realistic grounds for appeal, and whether it's worth pursuing the Maternity Discrimination route?

Yes in a public 'Social Media rant' to embarrass the retailers and in a written/email complaint, and in person to the Store Managers, brandishing the offending PCN and (maybe also) crying on front of other customers!

Not at POPLA, those are worded differently and you should only have POPLA as plan B.