ParkWatch PCN

ShowerGel

Hi, I received a PCN on the 4th of February from the company ParkWatch for the reason: No Permit. At the time of receiving the notice I appealed quickly because I believed that the fine was unjustified because of the circumstances attaining to why I had stopped in the car park.

These circumstances being the following: Came to Birmingham for the night to see a mate and university, another one of my friends came down from Sheffield as well and we went on a night out. We wake up the next day to find my friend from Sheffield was still not back (around 7:30am), so we rang him and he said he was at a McDonald's and he would be coming back shortly. It gets to 10am and still nothing, so we decided to go looking for him. We spend the day driving round Birmingham looking everywhere for him, with him no longer answering the phone. It got to the point where my friend had to file a missing person report, because of the lack of contact and the fact that he was in a completely new place. As we where driving round to find him, I was dropping my mates of at different places, while they went in to see if he was in there. I would quickly stop somewhere safe (engine running, brake lights on, I stay in the car) while they quickly check for him and then get back in the car and we carry on looking. At one of these stops, i pulled into this ParkWatch car park, and was stopped for around 1m 30s. In this time I tried to ring my missing friend again, but to no avail. My friends then got in the car and we left. This was when I got the parking fine.

With this information, and the fact that I was just stopping for a minute while my friends looked, I though the appeal would be successful, so I sent it off, this being the appeal message:

Hi, today I received a letter informing me of a parking ticket from a location in Birmingham city center. I am appealing this ticket because I was only temporarily stopped in the location because I was letting my friends out while they went to a nearby McDonald's to look for a friend that had gone missing. This friend in question had stated their last location was the McDonald's and i didn't want to block any roads by parking on them nearby. My friend who filed the missing person report with the police has since lost this reference number, so I am unsure how I can prove this, however His name is FRIEND1, and the missing persons name was FRIEND2, if you are able to find the number, I apologise for briefly stopping in the car park, I was just trying to find my friend

They denied the appeal for the following reason:

After reviewing the information provided within your appeal letter and the photographic evidence that was taken in support of the issued PCN, and although we have taken into consideration the mitigation that you have provided we have decided that the parking charge was correctly issued for failing to comply with the parking conditions at this location. This area has clear signs in place to indicate no parking without an authorised permit and are situated close to where your vehicle is actually positioned.This vehicle was not displaying a valid permit on the date of inspection. We are following instructions by the landowner to manage this car parking area.

At the time I didn't read the signs so wasn't aware what I was doing would result in a fine. I was roughly 3 meters away from the nearest sign. I have a picture of the sign off of google maps, but it isn't very clear, and i'm unable to upload it to this thread.
I appears the say in large text:
PRIVATE LAND
NO UNAUTHORISED PARKING
Permit Holder Only
and the rest is ineligible.

I understand now, after reviewing this forum that appealing immediately was not a wise decision and I should have read up a bit more. However, as I have done that, I am now left with 2 options, pay the £60-100 fine, or file an appeal with POPLA.

I don't know if I should just pay the fine or do I have a chance with the POPLA appeal. I would love your guys advice, Thanks in advance.

Extra Information:
Carpark: Kings Parade, Date End, Birmingham, B47LN
Incident Time/Date: 16:20 27/01/2019
Issue Date: 4th Feb 2019

twhitehousescat

your mistake was that appeal

you should have just said the DRIVER stopped and spent 1 min and 30 secs reading the signage , and then after realizing it was permit only they left the site

Coupon-mad

Never mind, see the NEWBIES thread post #3, for POPLA wording templates.

And search the forum for POPLA Grace periods to find one talking about that issue; you need to add it.