Fistral Beach POPLA appeal

Umkomaas

12 June Day 15 (2nd working day after NtK posted) [STRIKE]NtK received.[/STRIKE] Date deemed delivered by PoFA - the law of this country.

Looks just the job to me (with amendment above), but give others the opportunity to comment, in case there are other angles to attack, before sending.

Based on the above information, I kindly request that you review the decision of the appeal in question and overturn it.

Nothing 'kindly'. Be assertive. 'I require you to .... as this is a decision in direct conflict with UK law. '

kml

So my complaint was received an assessed by POPLA (not by John Gallagher though) and their decision was upheld. They seem to be interpreting the word "day" to mean "working day" despite it not being defined in the act. Frustrating to say the least!

I'm assuming my next course of action is to ignore all debt collection notices (I have received one already) and action a CCJ if it appears?

Here is what the POPLA complaints person came back with:

Thank you for your email which was passed to me by the lead adjudicator as I am responsible for responding to complaints.


I note from your correspondence that you are unhappy with the decision reached by the assessor in your appeal against Initial Parking Ltd.


POPLA is an impartial and independent appeals service and we do not act either for the parking operator or the appellant.


You believe that a procedural error has occurred during the assessment of this appeal in regard to the assessor’s judgement of the Protection of Freedoms Act (PoFA) 2012.


The assessor reviewed the PCN and reviewed it in order to determine whether it was PoFA 2012 compliant and was satisfied that it met PoFA 2012 requirements under schedule 4 paragraph 9.

Schedule 4 Paragraph 9, 4 states:
“The notice must be given by—
(a)
handing it to the keeper, or leaving it at a current address for service for the keeper, within the relevant period; or
(b)
sending it by post to a current address for service for the keeper so that it is delivered to that address within the relevant period.
(5)
The relevant period for the purposes of sub-paragraph (4) is the period of 14 days beginning with the day after that on which the specified period of parking ended.


The operator has 14 working days from the day after the parking event to issue the PCN. In this instance the weekends are not counted as they are not a working day.


The operator had until 17 June 2019 to issue the PCN. The PCN was issued on 10 June 2019 this was the ninth day. This PCN met PoFA 2012 requirements.


I have reviewed the assessor’s decision and I am satisfied that the outcome reached is correct.


As POPLA is a one-stage process, there is no opportunity for you to appeal the decision.


We have reached the end of our process and my response now concludes our complaints procedure. I trust you will appreciate that there will be no further review of your complaint and it will not be appropriate for us to respond to any further correspondence on this matter. For clarity, if you choose to reply it will be noted, however we will not respond.

Yours sincerely,
Amy Smith
POPLA Complaints Team

Le_Kirk

kml wrote: »

I'm assuming my next course of action is to ignore all debt collection notices (I have received one already) and action a CCJ if it appears?

If a CCJ appears it will be too late. You need to look out for a LBC/LoC/LBA/LBCCC and then formal papers from Northampton CCBC and take action then. But you are right to ignore debt collection notices/letters.

Fruitcake

kml wrote: »

So my complaint was received an assessed by POPLA (not by John Gallagher though) and their decision was upheld. They seem to be interpreting the word "day" to mean "working day" despite it not being defined in the act. Frustrating to say the least!

I'm assuming my next course of action is to ignore all debt collection notices (I have received one already) and action a CCJ if it appears?

Here is what the POPLA complaints person came back with:

Thank you for your email which was passed to me by the lead adjudicator as I am responsible for responding to complaints.


I note from your correspondence that you are unhappy with the decision reached by the assessor in your appeal against Initial Parking Ltd.


POPLA is an impartial and independent appeals service and we do not act either for the parking operator or the appellant.


You believe that a procedural error has occurred during the assessment of this appeal in regard to the assessor’s judgement of the Protection of Freedoms Act (PoFA) 2012.


The assessor reviewed the PCN and reviewed it in order to determine whether it was PoFA 2012 compliant and was satisfied that it met PoFA 2012 requirements under schedule 4 paragraph 9.

Schedule 4 Paragraph 9, 4 states:
“The notice must be given by—
(a)
handing it to the keeper, or leaving it at a current address for service for the keeper, within the relevant period; or
(b)
sending it by post to a current address for service for the keeper so that it is delivered to that address within the relevant period.
(5)
The relevant period for the purposes of sub-paragraph (4) is the period of 14 days beginning with the day after that on which the specified period of parking ended.


The operator has 14 working days from the day after the parking event to issue the PCN. In this instance the weekends are not counted as they are not a working day.


The operator had until 17 June 2019 to issue the PCN. The PCN was issued on 10 June 2019 this was the ninth day. This PCN met PoFA 2012 requirements.


I have reviewed the assessor’s decision and I am satisfied that the outcome reached is correct.


As POPLA is a one-stage process, there is no opportunity for you to appeal the decision.


We have reached the end of our process and my response now concludes our complaints procedure. I trust you will appreciate that there will be no further review of your complaint and it will not be appropriate for us to respond to any further correspondence on this matter. For clarity, if you choose to reply it will be noted, however we will not respond.

Yours sincerely,
Amy Smith
POPLA Complaints Team

Make another complaint to The Lead adjudicator that not only did the original assessor interpret the PoFA incorrectly but so did Amy Smith.

The PoFA is quite clear in that it states 14 days, not working days.
It seems clear from comments on several motoring forums that this mistaken interpretation of the law is being repeated time and again by PoPLA assessors. It is obvious therefore that these assessors need to urgently be retrained before they are allowed to assess any more appeals.

I think complaints to the BPA and DVLA should also be made that PoPLA is not ft for purpose meaning that motorists do not have access to a fair independent appeals process.

Please also complain to your MP about this unregulated.