NGPM PCN on visitors spot. Action or no action required?

Harrison75

Hi,
After reading through the newbies thread, I'm still confused as to the correct course of action.

We got a PCN from New Generation Parking Management for 'parking without displaying a visitors permit' while in a visitors spot in a private car park in Cardiff, claiming a £100 'fine'.
I apologize if this topic has already been covered a lot, but the more I read the more confusing it becomes.

A previous thread on this site advises to simply ignore NGPM and their letters indefinitely. However the thread is from 2008.
Is this still a valid course of action? Will under no circumstance pay their scam, and am happy to fight them.

Seeing that NGPM is now part of AOSM (looked them up on theIPC)
Do I need to use a template in the Newbies thread and appeal?
I'm also uncertain if they broke the data protection act to get keepers details from DVLA.

Details:
While visiting a friend living on the premises with a private fenced off car park, my friend let the vehicle through the gate with his fob, and the onsite concierge pointed to a visitor spot for the vehicle to be parked over night. It was late at night and dark so we did not notice any signs. (However my friend has provided photos of signs stating that a 'permit must be displayed' after the fact. )The PCN is labeled 6AM the following morning.

The concierge did not provide us with a permit, but instead told us we had to register the visit with the flat number and then renew the visit after 8 hrs via their office terminal, which we did. No 'Notice to Driver” (NTD) ticket was attached to the vehicle.
As we have been travelling, we only noticed the letter PCN from NGPM in the mail yesterday, dated ~15 days ago and have not taken any action yet.

I have found extremely similar stories of concierge and visitors parking spots online, and am happy to provide the links (but as new user cannot post them here)

Advise much appreciated! :beer:

Coupon-mad

This sums NGPM up:

http://parking-prankster.blogspot.com/2017/06/new-generation-parking-management-found.html

New Generation Parking Management found guilty of consumer offences

and

https://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2018-02-02b.1149.0

Kevin Brennan Shadow Minister (Digital, Culture, Media and Sport) (Arts and Heritage)
''I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for giving way. We usually co-operate musically, rather than politically, but in this case I am happy to co-sponsor his Bill. Does he agree that the statutory code of practice he proposes ought to take into account the poor response by parking companies to inquiries from our constituents and from us as MPs? I wrote to New Generation Parking Management in September last year about my constituent Ann Martin-Jones and had no reply. I wrote again in January this year and had no reply whatsoever from that company. Does that not show that some of the companies in this industry are cowboy companies?''

The concierge did not provide us with a permit, but instead told us we had to register the visit with the flat number and then renew the visit after 8 hrs via their office terminal, which we did. No 'Notice to Driver” (NTD) ticket was attached to the vehicle.
As we have been travelling, we only noticed the letter PCN from NGPM in the mail yesterday, dated ~15 days ago and have not taken any action yet.

Take it to discuss with the Concierge and ask how the system failed and why, and what he or the landowner can do about this (and DON'T be fobbed off and told to appeal, as NGPM turn them all down AFAIK, then the second stage of IAS is a biased kangaroo court where drivers' doomed appeals go to lose).

If the landowner will not step in and investigate what went wrong with the permission system the Concierge offered, then this case is winnable in court...except that Cardiff is where Defences v PPCs go to die...

Any chance of you using a non-Cardiff postal addy from the get-go?

A friend or relative's house, someone close and permanent, who can be trusted to show you all letters for 6 years, and where if the case goes to a court claim, you could attend for a fairer hearing than the shameful Judges at Cardiff offer?