**smart parking overstay - appeal to popla**

charleeroo

I have received a parking fine from Smart Parking from Firstral Beach Newquay.

I paid for 60 minutes parking via their payment machine 7 minutes after entering the car park and arrived back at my car 60 minutes later when the parking ticket ran out.

Having 2 young children we were unable to just jump straight into the car and drive off, as it was our last day in holiday our car was full to the brim and unintentionally we didn't drive out of the car park for another 13 minutes after trying to re-pack our buggies etc. Our youngest son is under the care of paediatrics and a dietician due to sparadic vomiting so we are unable to rush him and just quickly strap him in his seat like my other son or we run the risk of inducing him into a vomiting fit. Under our personal circumstances I do not think that 13 minutes was an unreasonable time frame.

This though however was demolished when I received the parking fine stating that there were ANPR cameras installed and I had to pay from the moment of entry to the point of leaving. Having not been from the area I have never came across a car park that uses both pay on foot machines and cameras so I wrongly understood it as a normal pay and display car park since the ticket didn't state otherwise.

There were obviously signs up but stupidly didn't stop to read them as people were stood in front of me and we were in a rush as it was dinner time so had only stopped to get some food before our 4 hour drive back home (however smart parking provided me with photographic evidence of the parking machine in question and the full terms and conditions were on the reverse??) .

I have already appealed to Smart Parking under the grounds of unreasonable charges and that was rejected so now only have a couple of days left to appeal to Popla but have no idea how to win.
I have made the appeal as I was the passenger (which is clear in their ANPR photos so they hopefully cannot persue me as the driver) and have not identified the driver. I have read through alot of threads aswell as newbies but am still a bit stuck.

**Any help with this before I fill out the form would be much appreciated**

The_Slithy_Tove

Please use paragraphs. Many (including me) won't want to read such a wall of solid text.

charleeroo

I realised this after posting but don't know how to edit my post. Sorry

Umkomaas

Bottom of the post will have an Edit button, but it's very difficult to use thus forum if you're trying to do so on a phone.

charleeroo

Thank you! I was on my phone which was the issue. I have now managed to edit on my PC -hopefully it is easier to follow now if anyone has any advice.

Fluff15

You need to appeal using the points from the Newbies thread. I understand you can't be at the car park now as it was a holiday destination, can you google maps the location to show lack of signage etc? Unfortunately the reason for the overstay is often irrelevant, keep your appeal to the basis in the other threads.

Did the NTK arrive within 14 days? Does the NTK mention POFA 2012? Post 3 in the newbies thread details many of the points you can appeal on, such as no landowner authority, grace periods, etc. Tailor the appeals in that section to your case and submit to POPLA, as it is up to the operator to prove they have met all the requirements. I particularly find these two most helpful:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1v_W_UseWdI_d_9WWMUfVecx0uDUYOwKs/view

https://www.dropbox.com/s/p7ltb9rcr6zy7kn/Appeal_stage2_POPLA_ECP_draft5.pdf?dl=0

charleeroo

Thank you those documents are very helpful!

I did assume that personal circumstamstances would be ignored which is why I didnt include them in my original appeal but just wanted to check it wasn't worth including them.

Their letter is dated the 31st and the contravention was on the 21st so I don't think I can appeal on the 14 day grounds however it only states 'If you were not the driver of he vehicle and wish to provide he drivers details,lodge a dispute, appeal or query this must be made online or in writing' No where does it state that the registered keeper will become liable if the drivers details are not given, could I use this as a point? or do they just take it as I should give over the details or pay it myself?

Is it worth continuing to include the disproportonate charges or not as that has already been rejected by Smart Parking?

Fluff15

Yes, definitely appeal using non-POFA compliance. Give your NTK a good read, and the POFA act itself, and pick out areas it misses - it will.

Umkomaas

Fistral Beach is a well recognised honey trap on parking forums. And a little while after the holiday season is when we see our Fistral caseload peak - very predictable pattern now.

I don't think the Smart NtK is PoFA compliant, while they might have met the 14-day deadline, please check whether the PoFA warning paragraph is included somewhere in the NtK. It should read something like this:

You are notified under paragraph 9(2)(b) of Schedule 4 ..... '. And a further paragraph which commences ' You are warned that if, after 29 days from the date given ....

Let us know.

Also do some forum searches for recent successful Smart POPLA appeals for Fistral. Use keywords 'Smart Fistral POPLA'.

HOW TO USE THE FORUM SEARCH FUNCTION:

Hit your 'Back' button to get back to the forum thread list. On the bar just above the threads you'll see the 'Search' function. Click on the 'Advanced Search' button and on the following page place your keyword(s) in the 'Search By Keyword(s)' and make sure the 'Show Results As' button (at the foot of the window) is changed from 'Threads' to 'Posts'.

charleeroo

Umkomaas wrote: »

Fistral Beach is a well recognised honey trap on parking forums. And a little while after the holiday season is when we see our Fistral caseload peak - very predictable pattern now.

I don't think the Smart NtK is PoFA compliant, while they might have met the 14-day deadline, please check whether the PoFA warning paragraph is included somewhere in the NtK. It should read something like this:


Let us know.

Also do some forum searches for recent successful Smart POPLA appeals for Fistral. Use keywords 'Smart Fistral POPLA'.

No I cant see that stated anywhere! I am filling out the appeal now so will try research some more into that so I can include it! Thank you! Now just need to work out what wording to use too!

Le_Kirk

Are you searching using the Advanced search and changing Threads to posts? Here and here is a two-part post I found by doing just that.