HighView Parking Appeal Rejected - Guidance to Appealing to POPLA

SamP92

Okay, so I need some helping appealing a penalty charge from HighView Parking as my direct appeal was rejected, so here's some detail.

I am a named driver on my partners car and used a car park close to her work to meet her and pick her up. I never actually left the car at any point or was parked in a bay.

My partner has received a letter as they are the keeper with a charge notice, however I was driving at the time. On the notice from HighView Parking the car is pictured from an ANPR camera entering and leaving the car park with the recorded duration of my stay (19 minutes) stated.

Appeal to HighView
Now I was not aware of appealing threads before contacting HIghView and my appeal was as followed

"To Whom it regards, I am writing to you on 13th November 2017 and I want to appeal a fine I received at Marsh Street Car Park in Stoke-on-Trent on 20/10/2017. My name is *** ********and I was the driver of the Volkswagen Polo (**** ***) during this time, the owner of this vehicle is my partner (****** *******). I have recently been using my partner’s car to pick her up from work at 5pm and have been using the car park as a meeting point, hence why I left the car park at 4:58pm on this incident. I have been out of work for a few months and have had to use my partner’s car to travel to and from job interviews, which is the reason for me using her car to pick her up from work. When on the car park I never left the car and my sole purpose of the visit was to be somewhere where I could pick my partner up from work, which is a completely honest mistake on my part. As I have only just received the notice for the first time that this would have occurred (20/10/2017) I expect that I will receive a few more letters where this has occurred at a similar time, which has again been an honest mistake. I appeal to your better nature to understand that all the incidents were all a complete honest mistake and understanding the consequences of my actions I would never act this way again. Yours faithfully"

To which I got this reply today....


"Dear Sir/Madam,

Thank you for your correspondence concerning your Parking Charge Notice.

The PCN was issued and the signage is displayed in compliance with The British Parking Association’s Approved Operator Scheme Code of Practice and all relevant laws and regulations.

Clear signs at the entrance of this site and throughout inform drivers of the terms and conditions that apply there, and it is not possible to access any part of the premises without passing multiple signs. The fact that you were unaware of the restrictions that are in place is not considered a mitigating circumstance for appeal.

In light of this, on this occasion, your representations have been carefully considered and rejected.

We can confirm that we will hold the charge at the current rate of £50.00 for a further 14 days from the date of this correspondence.

---

You have now reached the end of our internal appeals procedure.

Although we have now rejected your appeal, you may still have recourse to appeal to Parking On Private Land Appeals (POPLA), an independent appeals service. An appeal to POPLA must be made within 28 days of the date of this letter. POPLA will only consider cases on the grounds that the Parking Charge exceeded the appropriate amount, that the vehicle was not improperly parked or had been stolen, or that you were otherwise not liable for the Parking Charge. To appeal to POPLA, please go to their website and follow the instructions. If you would rather deal with this matter by post, please contact our Appeals Office and we will send you the necessary paperwork. Your POPLA reference number is: .

Please note that if your appeal does not relate to the above criteria or is rejected by POPLA for any reason, you will no longer qualify for payment at the reduced rate.

By law we are also required to inform you that Ombudsman Services provides an alternative dispute resolution service that would be competent to deal with your appeal. However, we have not chosen to participate in their alternative dispute resolution service. As such should you wish to appeal then you must do so to POPLA, as explained above.

Yours faithfully,

Highview Parking LTD.

Now I understand that my internal appeal was quite soft but I do feel that the charge is unfair due to the car never actually being parked up, for which they have no evidence, as well as the signs not being as clear as stated in their reply to my appeal.

I have had a read through some of the stuff mentioned in the NEWBIE area but as I have not done something like this before a lot of it is quite hard to understand and I feel that I could do with some assistance personal to my case. Could anyone assist me with regards to whether I have a case to appeal to POPLA or where I should go from here?

Any help would be much appreciated!!

Redx

appeals to POPLA are based on the usual legal arguments , not your "case"

draft a popla appeal based on the ones in post #3 of the NEWBIES sticky thread and post it here for critique

then , and only then , if anything that was relevant from the day needs to be included, it will be brought up in any replies

ofeten people come here for help thinking that what happened on the day matters to an appeal, it rarely does !!!

post your draft and people will help

ps:- your definition of "parking" wont hold up , the driver was there , on a private site , for a time period, without authorisation, nobody cares if the driver was in or out of the car, or the engine running or not, its not relevant and never will be

Guys_Dad

An appeal that (a) names the driver and (b) admits the contravention severely restricts the options for a successful appeal.

Unless you can nail them on signage, you seem to be condemned by your own very amateurish appeal and are probably best to take the reduced offer. Remember at POPLA, the PPC can submit your previous appeal as evidence.

I suggest that as this is a moneysaving site and sometimes taking the lesser of two evils is the pragmatic course.

KeithP

SamP92, if you are planning to use your PoPLA appeal, you would be wise to remove your PoPLA code from your original post before some malicious person 'appeals' on your behalf admitting everything.

Coupon-mad

I appeal to your better nature

OMG, this is the PRIVATE PARKING INDUSTRY - THEY DON'T HAVE ONE!

So sorry to see this, what an utterly depressing wasted appeal.

We have a forum contest to see who gets Highview to cancel the quickest (the 2 hour challenge), which means we almost never see them try POPLA against posters here because they'd lose.

You've shot your toes off by admitting who was driving and acting as if you need to beg to be 'let off', as if it's some sort of offence and they are some sort of 'authority'.

Anyway, at least read the NEWBIES thread now, post #3 of it, and use proper POPLA templates not an appeal like that one, and you might just catch them out on landowner authority.

Even of you lose at POPLA, don't PAY Highview! So wish you had come here and joined the fun of the 2 hour challenge rather than subject yourself to this needless POPLA struggle with your toes shot off already.

SamP92

I understand I have been very naive and from when I entered the car park (in dark) it was not obvious that the car park was enforced by ANPR cameras.

What do you mean "Even if you lose at POPLA, don't PAY Highview!"

I have not had experience with a private firm before

Umkomaas

What do you mean "Even if you lose at POPLA, don't PAY Highview!"

Because a POPLA decision is not binding on the motorist.

I have not had experience with a private firm before

Evidently so, that’s why you need to do lots of reading so you understand this stuff, not deal with things in a way that you assume to be the ‘way to do it’.

dave.w_2

I have exactly the same circumstances as the original poster, so would be very interested if you could post up your inital appeal to POPLA

thanks

KeithP

dave.w wrote: »

I have exactly the same circumstances as the original poster, so would be very interested if you could post up your inital appeal to POPLA

thanks

The OP hasn't appealed to PoPLA yet.

Umkomaas

@dave.w, you need to settle down and do some reading of the NEWBIES FAQ sticky, rather than posting on other people’s thread that looks like a clutching at any remotely connected straw floating by.

dave.w_2

Umkomaas wrote: »

@dave.w, you need to settle down and do some reading of the NEWBIES FAQ sticky, rather than posting on other people’s thread that looks like a clutching at any remotely connected straw floating by.

I think you need to wind your neck in a bit. I've only asked him to post up his inital appeal to POPLA.

and before you starting banging on about reading the newbie thread, I have.