Help needed with EuroCarParks ticket

WhoIsBob

I'm hoping some people on this very helpful forum can help me. Here is my situation with as many details as possible:

Back in December I parked in a private car park (run by EuroCarParks - ECP) for which I received a ticket. The car park shares its land with another car park which is run by the local council, and the land is effectively split in half. There is some low level fencing between them, but nothing significant. As you drive in, you go left to access the spaces for one, and right to access the spaces for the other. The per hour charges for both car parks are the same.

The reason for my ticket is that I parked in a EuroCarParks space, but I paid for a council run space (which is the same price). How did I make this mistake you ask? - well, on the way in (before you turn left of right to access either car parks parking spaces ) there is a ticket machine with a big sign on the side which gives you a code to pay via a mobile app. On the side of the machine, there are no other stickers other than the name of the app to pay through and the code. So as we drove in, I asked my wife to memorise the code and I then input it into the App once we parked. I have the receipt for this purchase. we thought nothing more of it and left to walk around town only to come back to a ticket.

We have been through the POPLA appeal and failed, but they have failed it in false information given buy the car park which I was not allowed to comment against. There were a couple of false statements/pieces of evidence the car park submitted to popla:

1) That part of the (extortionate) fine fee is made up of "Loss of purchase revenue to Retail Outlets within the car park". However - there are ZERO retail outlets within the car park grounds. They are all in the town center, so this seemed unjustified to form the extortionate fee

2) They sent photos of various signage from around the car park. However, the dates on the photos are not from the day I parked there. They were either undated, or dates 6 months prior to the date I parked there. I do not recall seeing some of the signs there that were submitted as photos and they were not in any kind of obvious eye-shot from where I parked

In addition to the above I pointed out a couple more things to Popla:

- The ticket machines for each car park are back to back with each other and not spread out to avoid confusion

- There are signs for each car park pretty much next to each other, with one sign inset by about a metre to appear on the other side of a short fence. Both are next to each other in the same field of view and therefore confusing.

All of the above was only brought to my attention once ECP had submitted their evidence. However, POPLA said they weren't willing to take any of my above comments into consideration as the motorist comments section (where I can comment on their submitted evidence) "is to be used to expand upon the original appeal points raised with POPLA and not to be used to raise new issues that the operator has not had the opportunity to address".

My point to POPLA was how can I appeal against a) something that is a flat-out lie (the retail loss of income) and b) flaky evidence I had never seen before.

Once I pointed this out, POPLA stopped responding to all of my emails and communication and I haven't heard back from them on the matter since. I have sent 6 emails chasing further information but all have been ignored by POPLA.

I have since received a letter from the debt collection agency and I feel like I will let this one run to court. I'm keen to hear feedback, thoughts and any action points for those on here.

Many thanks

Ralph-y

hi, and welcome to the forum .......

to get an idea what this murky world is like .....
please watch ...


https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2018-02-02/debates/CC84AF5E-AC6E-4E14-81B1-066E6A892807/Parking(CodeOfPractice)Bill

''Rip-offs from car park Cowboys must stop''; unfair treatment; signage deliberately confusing to ensure a PCN is issued; ''years of abuse by rogue parking companies''; bloodsuckers; ''the current system of regulation is hopeless, like putting Dracula in charge of the blood-bank''; extortionate fines; rogue operators; ''sense of injustice''; unfair charges and notices; wilfully misleading; signage is a deliberate act to deceive or mislead; ''confusing signs are often deliberate, to trap innocent drivers''; unreasonable; a curse; harassing; operating in a disgusting way; appeals service is no guarantee of a fair hearing; loathed; outrageous scam; dodgy practice; outrageous abuse; unscrupulous practices; ''the British Parking Association is as much use as a multi-storey car park in the Gobi desert''; and finally, by way of unanimous conclusion: ''we need to crack down on these rogue companies. They are an absolute disgrace to this country. Ordinary motorists and ordinary residents should not have to put up with this''.

These are the exact words used, so you should quote them to your MP in a complaint and ask him/her to contact Sir Greg Knight MP if he wants further information about this scam.


have you had a read through the newbies thread ?

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4816822

further advice will follow as to the worth of any further communication with POPLA .....

but get your MP on side .... while waiting

good luck

Ralph:cool:

Fruitcake

As above, this is an unregulated cam, and you really should complain to your MP and Sir Greg Knight MP.

The PoPLA decision is not binding on the motorist.

Debt collectors can be ignored. The reason why it is safe to do so is explained in post 4 of the NEWBIES

Coupon-mad

It's only ECP, ignore them. No worries.

I have since received a letter from the debt collection agency

Good, load of trash. Ignore.

and I feel like I will let this one run to court.

You will know from the NEWBIES thread post #2, the Google search to do in order to see how often a PPC tries court.

Not going to happen!

WhoIsBob

Thanks for the info guys. This is all very helpful indeed