Parking Fine Battle- Advice needed!

Umkomaas

I resent my appeal to them on 17th September. In their appeal rejection they mention my appeal of 27th September. Can I argue at all that they are not responding to my appeal and therefore their rejection is invalidated?

Straw-clutching. Nothing is won at POPLA on admin gaffes.

2) All their photos of the signs in the car park are dated from 2016. Can I argue that this doesn’t present an accurate picture of the current situation?

You can try, but PPCs don't change their signs every five minutes, and two years old won't likely be judged as out of date. Are they sins from 'your' car park, or just stock copies - that would be a far better argument if you can prove it.

I've not read back over the thread, but if your 'contravention' occurred at night, are the photos being shown from the same lighting conditions at the time? That could be an angle to pursue if so.

3) I stated in my argument they have been unable to prove loss of income.

They haven’t commented on this in their response, is it a valid argument and should I reiterate it?

Steer clear, you're drifting into Beavis territory and POPLA can reject on that basis alone! Absolutely nothing in it for you there.

4) One of my arguments was that the entire area in which I parked is unmarked as it is a gravel surface and therefore it is impossible to know which areas are legal “bays” and which aren’t. They haven’t responded to this point. Is it valid and worth reiterating?

Any appeal point which they have not argued against, should be put to POPLA that APCOA have accepted the validity of it.

If so the only sign where I parked was up a bank that was a health and safety hazard to climb and couldn’t be read from the car. Is this valid?

If you've argued insufficient signage, have APCOA provided a signage map to POPLA - if not put that into your rebuttal. POPLA won't get involved in either agreeing or disagreeing whether it was a H&S hazard (that's just your asssessment). You just need to state that the nearest sign was high up a bank and could not be read.

Remember you only have 2,000 characters (not words) to play with and you cannot introduce any new evidence, not already alluded to in the initial POPLA appeal.

Peevedpeugeot

Thank you for the advice. Really helpful!

With Regards a couple of the points APCOA have included a map of their signage but yes the bestest sign was high up the bank and you cannot read it from stood on ground level. Other signage in the carpark is quite extensive so if there is any legal precedent set about signs having to be visible from where you park that would be useful.

I will steer clear of reiterating the loss of income element.

I will definitely reiterate the point about the lack of markings in the entire area. One thing I failed to mention in my last post is that Following my parking indiscretion they have since added cones along the bank that I parked by. I said in my original appeal that this amounts to an admission that the markings aren’t clear enough so I will keep pushing on that element.

Fingers crossed I can get this thrown out.