Parking fine help please

Amina7k

Hi guys, im new and not sure how to create a new post �� I visited a retail park and parked longer than the allowed time in the Starbucks area of Birtstall retail park. I received a fine, £100 or £60 if I pay within the specified time. I appealed as I do not recall any time restrictions. The appeal has been rejected. The response basically said you admitted to parking there so pay the cost or face further costs. I can appeal to someone else but if that doesnt work then I have to pay the £100. Been reading loads of info on the forums (its 1am and ive been up since 5am the day before) You guys clearly know more than me. Please put my mind at ease...Can this parking fine be enforced? £100 is mega for a coffee stop with a friend. Many thanks A x

MistyZ

Sooty789, just a thought, have you sent a complaint / strong request for cancellation to the landowner?

MistyZ

Amina7K,

you will get support but do need to start your own thread for that.

Go to the list of posts and click on the red 'New Thread' box. There's one at both the top and the bottom of the list.

Fruitcake

Amina7k wrote: »

Hi guys, im new and not sure how to create a new post �� I visited a retail park and parked longer than the allowed time in the Starbucks area of Birtstall retail park. I received a fine, £100 or £60 if I pay within the specified time. I appealed as I do not recall any time restrictions. The appeal has been rejected. The response basically said you admitted to parking there so pay the cost or face further costs. I can appeal to someone else but if that doesnt work then I have to pay the £100. Been reading loads of info on the forums (its 1am and ive been up since 5am the day before) You guys clearly know more than me. Please put my mind at ease...Can this parking fine be enforced? £100 is mega for a coffee stop with a friend. Many thanks A x

Go to the top or bottom right of this page and click on the Forum Jump "GO" button.

Read the sticky thread for NEWBIES then click on the New Thread button if you need further help.

Sooty789

Hi MistyZ no I havent written to landowner yet. Not sure how I would find out who that is? It's just a random bit of land, not affiliated to any shop or anything like that.

KeithP

Sooty789 wrote: »

Hi MistyZ no I havent written to landowner yet. Not sure how I would find out who that is? It's just a random bit of land, not affiliated to any shop or anything like that.

The Land Registry will help - for a small fee.

MistyZ

Sooty789 wrote: »

Hi MistyZ no I havent written to landowner yet. Not sure how I would find out who that is? It's just a random bit of land, not affiliated to any shop or anything like that.

Nearby shops or pubs, anywhere that may well have customers who are likely to use the car park, may know who owns the land. Sometimes managers who should know better are unhelpful, yet at other times even the busiest employees will give accurate information straight away. So get a fair few numbers if possible and phone them all, don't be easily deterred.

Failing that though, it seems like a bit of a faff to go to land registry but I think it really isn't too difficult and costs just a couple of quid or so ... which could be well worth it.

Sooty789

Hi All
Thanks so much for your help. Just wanted to notify you that on Friday I received the decision from POPLA that my parking fine appeal has been accepted due to the grace period rules! Yay! Here is their rationale:


Assessor summary of reasons:
 The appellant has been identified as the driver, as such I will be considering her liability for the PCN.

The operator has provided photographic images of the signage which states:
“Parking Tariff Applies…Up to 2 hours £2.00…Up to 3 hours £3.00…Parking tariff applies 24 hours a day, Monday to Sunday (Duration of stay is calculated by the ANPR cameras from the point of entry to the point of exit).” The signage also states:
“Motorist must enter their full, correct vehicle registration when using the payment machine.” And:
“Failure to comply with the terms and conditions will result in a Parking Charge of £100.”

The operator has provided Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) images showing the vehicle entering the car park at 10:52, and exiting 13:04, totaling a stay of 2 hours and 12 minutes.

The operator has provided machine data which shows the appellant paid for 120 minutes but the vehicle remained on the car park for 132 minutes.

The appellant states that she entered the car park and purchased a ticket in good faith for 2 hours. She says that she returned to her car within the 2 hours ready to leave, however her 2-year-old needed to have her nappy changed before she could leave. The appellant advises that this task took her over the 2 hours.
The appellant argues that it is unreasonable to expect her to pay £60 for being 5 minutes over. The appellant says that the operator has indicated that she was 12 minutes over in total as it had taken 7 minutes to purchase a ticket. The appellant indicates that it took 7 minutes when she entered the car park to find a space, park and get her buggy out the car and then purchase a ticket. She has provided a copy of her parking ticket that she purchased.

In response to the above comments I have reviewed the evidence provided by both parties and I can see that the appellant had initially entered the car park at 10:52 and she purchased a ticket at 10:59. I can see that the appellant has indicated that she had to find a space, park, get her belongings and child out the car and then read the signage and paid. This whole process took 7 minutes which I consider to be reasonable considering the motorist needs to be given opportunity to park, read the signage and then pay. Upon closer inspection I can see that she had paid for 120 minutes which is evident from the machine data provided and the ticket included in the appellant’s evidence. I have reviewed the signage and it clearly states that the motorist is required to make payment for the time spent on the car park, it has indicated on the signage that ANPR is used to calculate the duration of stay from the point of entry to the time the vehicle exits.

In this case the appellant has indicated that she had returned her vehicle within the 2 hours she had purchased but her child had to have her nappy changed before she could leave which took her over the parking time by about 5 minutes. I have looked at the time in which the operator has recorded her as leaving and I can see that her ticket expired at 12:59 and she had exited by 13:04 which is five minutes of returning her vehicle. The appellant has indicated that she was only over by the 5 minutes not the 12 minutes as the operator has claimed. The British Parking Association (BPA) Code of Practice section 13.4 states:
“You should allow the driver a reasonable period to leave the private car park after the parking contract has ended, before you take enforcement action. If the parking is one where parking is normally permitted, the Grace period at the end of the parking period should be a minimum of 10 minutes.”.

Due to the above, I am satisfied the appellant’s time should fall within a reasonable grace period on this occasion.

Therefore, I consider the PCN to have issued incorrectly. Accordingly, I must allow this appeal.

As I have allowed this appeal I will not need to consider any other points raised by the appellant. 
Kind regards

POPLA Team

Redx

excellent , so email a complaint to the BPA AOS team about SMART PARKING and not implementing the BPA CoP clause #13 at the very start , therefore a breach of the BPA CoP , attaching a copy of the popla decision

Coupon-mad

Great!

Can you post a link to this thread in POPLA Decisions, mentioning that you won v Smart Parking? It keeps your win in the right place once this thread drowns among the others in the archives.

Next time, NEVER identify the driver to a private parking firm. You would have had a cancellation without any need for POPLA, had you used the forum template as keeper, as Smart can't hold a keeper liable and they know it.

Glad you rescued it, but this would have been an easier win for a keeper.