Excel Parking Ticket Help

Barney2703

I received a PCN from Excel parking for the 22/12/17 , for parking at Ashton Retail Park - detected by the ANPR cameras.

Wasn't expecting this as I a member of pure gym which offer 2 hours of free parking, if you type your registration plate into their tablet inside the gym. This is something I did, and I am sure can be proved by CCTV cameras that I was at the tablet, entering my registration plate.

I appealed the PCN, attaching evidence that pure gym had sent me, proving that I was inside the gym during the time the PCN had been given for. 2 days ago, I received a reply from Excel's appeal team, stating that my appeal had been rejected on the grounds that "As a member of Pure Gym, you are entitled to a maximum of 2 hours free parking at Ashton Retail Park provided that
you correctly enter your full and accurate vehicle registration number into the touch screen terminal located within the
premises/entrance to the gym.
The data we collect from the touch screens is compared to images of vehicles entering and exiting the car park
recorded by Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras. Vehicles which have been correctly registered
on the touch screen system are allowed to park for up to 2 hours without the requirement to purchase a ticket.
We must stress that responsibility for ensuring that you are aware of this requirement rests with Pure Gym and
responsibility for entering the correct details into the touch screen rests with you as a gym member. The touch screen
system requires users to enter their vehicle details twice in order to mitigate the chances of incorrect details being
input.
We have no record of any entry being made on the system, which either matched or closely resembled your vehicle
registration number on the date in question, hence a Charge Notice was later issued."

This something I am confused about as I did enter my registration plate into the tablet/touch screen system, as I have done before on countless occasions - and as mentioned before, I am sure will be seen on any CCTV proof available.

Pure Gym have since said that their validator was working on the day/time, which is rubbish as I entered by registration plate correctly, and can offer no further help to me.

I am not sure know whether just to pay the £60, which in my opinion is unfair as I did everything correctly , or to appeal now to the IAS, or to just ignore the PCN completely - however this brings the risk of a court case happening.

If anyone has any ideas or advice about what to do then I'm all ears!

Quentin

Read up on appealing to the IAS in the Newbies FAQ thread near the top of the forum

You will see it is futile.

Keep on at the gym to get it cancelled.

Ignore all correspondence from now on except court correspondence or a letter before court action.

Should it come to that come back at that time for advice on how to deal with it

Barney2703

Thank you for your reply - really appreciate the advice

Apologises for these next questions...

Do you think I should bother appealing to the IAS if it is futile?

The gym are separate to Excel parking, but do you still think they should be able to get it cancelled?

I will ignore everything now (robbing gits): how likely is it that this could go to court, and would I stand any chance?

Thank you again for your help

Umkomaas

Do you think I should bother appealing to the IAS if it is futile?

Definition of ‘futile’

futile
ADJECTIVE
Incapable of producing any useful result; pointless.

The gym are separate to Excel parking, but do you still think they should be able to get it cancelled?

If the gym contracted Excel, then there’s every chance they can get it cancelled.

Why don’t you cancel your membership there if they can’t/won’t help? PureGym is often raised here as being an organisation who is in bed with parking scammers and don’t give a fig for their membership.

I will ignore everything now (robbing gits): how likely is it that this could go to court, and would I stand any chance?

There’s a chance it could go to court, but no one can second guess what parking companies will do. One thing’s for sure, they issue hundreds of thousands of tickets every year, and they can’t take every one of those to court.

Will you stand a chance? Yes, of course, provided you put in the leg work (with help from the forum) to build a solid defence and the paperwork you need to produce for any court hearing.

fostany99

Hi Barney

I had a similar issue, same car park, same gym but 5 tickets.

Went to court and won.

As above no point in appealing to excel, IF they decide to go to court your case is defendable with some research on here and putting together a decent defence