Parking notice from Parking Charge Limited

pp2015

Hi, I parked near Cambridge University Primary School to attend an open day for admission to the school. The session was from 10-11am on 10 Dec 2018. I parked the car in the marked bay at 9.55. The session finished at 10.50 and took the car before 10.55. Was always watching the time since the parking notice board said parking is free for one hour. Before parking, the school head teacher mentioned that the parking is managed by the north-west Cambridge development and hence I returned to the parking machine to see if the machine is on for a ticket. The machine screen was empty. I got a notice on 20 Dec (attached). I went back to the site to see what's going on and I could see the machine was under repair. I went back yesterday and the machine is still faulty. There are no other parking machines nearby. On the day, I could have logged in to Redde but the page was not loading possibly due to a poor network. I went back to the school assuming that it will be fine if I take the car our within the 1 hour free parking period. My initial appeal was so naive as I didn't know the process. I contacted the management of this development and they provided an automated response along the lines of the need to have either a parking ticket displayed or having the car registered on Redde. This company is a BPA member. Do you think my appeal on the basis of the parking machine not working, parked on site for only less than an hour will be successful? Thank you in advance.

MistyZ

First appeals are almost always unsuccessful. The aim is to get the POPLA code which comes with the refusal as the chances of winning a POPLA appeal are somewhat better as long as a bit of work goes into it. However did you admit who was driving in that first appeal? That would make things harder.

When you say that the machine was under repair, do you mean that someone was there with their screwdriver? Seems likely that quite a few parking charge notices were issued on that day. While the management you contacted have been worse than useless, there may well be a higher or more relevant authority to complain to in order to demand cancellation of the charge, that could be the most effective route. I'd do some digging if I were you, some very determined digging. You know right is on your side but it's only really landowner complaints that can make use of mitigating circumstances.

You also need to read the Newbies' thread, that dispels naivety rather quickly!

Parking Charge Limited have been attracting a certain amount of attention:
https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/cambridge-news/cambridge-university-penalty-parking-fines-15466560

Just posting the link for 'interest', definitely don't follow the advice on how to deal with the PCNs in that article, some of it is misleading.