Premier Park PCN at Fitness First

cornilleou

Summary: The driver was unfortunately swept up in the Premier Park net following attendance at a Fitness First gym. There is a registration ipad in the gym which the driver maintains they used. Thanks to this forum the driver is now determined to go all the way but was unsuccessful at POPLA.

First appeal shown below:



Re PCN number:XXXXXXX

I dispute your 'parking charge', as the keeper of the vehicle and deny any liability.

There will be no admissions as to who was driving and no assumptions can be drawn.

The driver is a member of Fitness First and having to their best endeavours followed the registration process is entitled to park where they parked for free. Should this be taken any further by yourselves, a member of staff has verbally agreed to provide an email confirming attendance at a class over the period in question and a formal complaint will be made to your client landowner.

Formal note:
Should you later pursue this charge by way of litigation, note that service of any legal documents by email is expressly disallowed and you are not entitled to assume that the data in this dispute/appeal remains the current address for service in the future.

Yours faithfully,

Name & Address supplied

cornilleou

Response from Premier Park:


Subject:Parking Charge Notice XXXXXXX

Dear Mx XXXXXX,

Re:Parking Charge Notice XXXXXXX

We write to acknowledge receipt of your recent online appeal, on behalf of the driver, appealing against the issuing of a Parking Charge Notice (PCN) to the vehicle.

We note your comments and must refer you to the Protection of Freedoms Act (PoFA) 2012, Schedule 4 - Recovery of unpaid Parking Charges. This is available to view online at:
link removed

We must therefore request that the details of the driver of the vehicle at the time of the contravention are supplied; this must include their full name and serviceable UK postal address. If you are unwilling or unable to provide these details the registered keeper of this vehicle will remain liable for this PCN. This information should be provided by 17th!June 2019. Please note, Premier Park Limited will not reply to any correspondence until after the above date, if the requested information is not provided.

If we do not receive this information by the date given, the registered keeper of the vehicle at the date of event will be held liable.

If you would like to view our photographic evidence, please visit link removed

Please respond by return or by filling in the Transfer of Liability form on the reverse of the PCN and posting it to Premier Park, PO Box 624, Exeter, EX1 9JG.


Yours Sincerely,
The Appeals Team
Premier Park Ltd

GDPR – to view how we use and process your data and your rights, including how to object or restrict such use, please see our privacy policy available online at link removed

cornilleou

My follow up:

Re Parking Charge Notice XXXXXXX


To whom it may concern, thank you for your response. I am a little confused that you are suggesting 'respond by return' to a noreply@premierpark.co.uk but I repeat there will be no admissions as to who was driving and no assumptions can be drawn.

I dispute your 'parking charge', as the keeper of the vehicle and deny any liability.

The driver is a member of Fitness First and having to their best endeavours followed the registration process is entitled to park where they parked for free. In order to resolve this quickly I attach a copy of the driver's recent gym attendance which includes the date of your charge. Should you check your records you will see this VRN is registered frequently on the terminals at the gym. Terminals which any reasonable person would accept are bound to result in a few handling issues (confirmed to me by gym staff) and therefore one would expect a sensible appeal policy would be in place. If there is no such a policy one would have to conclude that the intention all along was to generate income by penalising genuine mistakes.

I have already raised this with Fitness First and my MP and should this be taken any further by yourselves, will make further formal complaints including to your client landowner.

Formal note:
Should you later pursue this charge by way of litigation, note that service of any legal documents by email is expressly disallowed and you are not entitled to assume that the data in this dispute/appeal remains the current address for service in the future.

Yours faithfully,!

Name & Address supplied

cornilleou

Complaint to Fitness First:


Re: Parking Charge Notice from Premier Park

Dear Sir/Madam, although I don't have a name I have been passed this email address by a member of your staff at the Solihull branch of Fitness First and trust it will be dealt with promptly and a response provided back to me.

Following attendance at a class at your gym I have since received a Parking Charge Notice demanding £100 for using a car park free to members. Whilst every endeavour has been taken to register the vehicle to the best of our abilities on each attendance I in no way accept mishaps using the registration keypad renders liability to any penalty. I have attempted to explain this to Premier Park but they continue to harass for payment when a cursory glance through their records would show the registration number is regularly recorded at this gym and this kind of demand is unreasonable.

I do not accept as credible the claim that it is nothing to do with your company as you must have negotiated with someone to take over management of the car park and allow deployment of the terminals in your premises. Terminals which any reasonable person would accept are bound to result in a few handling issues (confirmed to me by your staff) and therefore one would expect a sensible appeal policy would be part of the negotiation. If there is no such a policy one would have to conclude that the intention all along was to generate income by penalising mistakes.

I will not be paying it. To save all concerned the wasted time, acrimony and negative reputational impact, I urgently request that you contact Premier Park or whomever you negotiated the new parking arrangements with and insist this parking charge is cancelled.

Details of my PCN are:-

Parking Charge Notice Number: XXXXXXX
Vehicle Registration: XXXXXXX
Notice Issue Date: XX/XX/2019


I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Name & Address supplied

cornilleou

Response from Fitness First:

Dear XXXXXXX
Thank you for contacting us.
Firstly, I would like to apologise for any frustrations caused and that you have needed to make a complaint of this kind.
To confirm, I have contacted the Solihull management team for more information in regards to your complaint, they have looked through their inbox, spam and junk folder and have unfortunately not been able to locate your email.
With regards to the parking fine, it is a members responsibility to input there correct registration details, if entered in wrong or the car park has been used for more than 5 hours, or if the registration has not been entered in at all, a parking fine will be issued, this is the same process for all members and staff.
To confirm, the car park is not owned by DW Fitness First, it was the landlord’s decision to implement Premier Park. Therefore, as the parking process and fines are dealt through a separate company, we would not be able to clear the fine.
I would like to apologise for any inconveniences caused.
If I can help with any other queries, please feel free to contact me at!membershipservices@dwfitnessfirst.com!!!where either I or a member of the team will be happy to get back to you as soon as we can. Alternatively, you can also call the Member Support Team at 0208 618 3100.
Kind regards, !!!
XXXXX XXXXXXXX
Member Services
DW Fitness First

cornilleou

My follow up to Fitness First:


Dear XXXXXX,
Thank you for responding.
However, as stated in my earlier mail as far as we are concerned all reasonable endeavours were made to enter the correct registration and as no receipts are provided by the terminal this leaves drivers at an unfair disadvantage of checking correct entry and even challenging terminal issues. This is particularly frustrating given it would be a trivial matter for Premier Park to first check if the registration number has been previously registered at the gym! The process appears designed to catch out the unwary!

I repeat I will not be paying it and have now involved my MP. To save all concerned further wasted time, acrimony and negative reputational impact, I urgently request that you contact the landowner or whomever you negotiated the new parking arrangements with and insist this parking charge is cancelled.

Details of my PCN are:-

Parking Charge Notice Number: XXXXXXX
Vehicle Registration: XXXXXXX
Notice Issue Date: XX/XX/2019

At the very least please supply the landowners contact details so I can additionally complain to them.

I look forward to hearing from you soon.


I was subsequently given the contact details of the landowners Blue Ice Plaza

Redx

well done , excellent up to now , partly because they did not supply the landowner details even though they knew the landowner or landlord had contracted PP

your contract is with the gym , under the CRA 2015 , they are responsible for the contractors and you are correct that the system should given confirmation and checks and balances should be implemented, ask them who is going to attend court and what dates they are not available to attend court to act as a witness to this saga , that might concentrate their minds


also educate them into the fact it is a mere invoice , not a penalty and not a fine either , those are 2 legal words that do not cover private parking charge INVOICES

cornilleou

Complaint to Blue Ice:


Dear Sir/Madam,!I regret that I have to trouble you, but I wish to obtain your help in seeking the cancellation of a Parking Charge Notice, aka as an invoice, issued by Premier Park at Blue Ice Plaza, Solihull on XX/XX/2019.

I have received an invoice as registered keeper, for the alleged damage the driver caused Premier Park by staying for 1h 44 minutes on the XX/XX/2019 without authorisation by the alleged contract they claim the driver had agreed to.

In fact the driver is a member of the Solihull branch of Fitness First gym and having to their best endeavour entered the registration number at the terminal located within the gym is entitled to free parking whilst at the gym. I have attempted to explain this to Premier Park and provided proof of attendance at Fitness First at the time in question but they continue to harass for payment when a cursory glance through their records would also show the registration number is regularly recorded at this gym and this kind of demand is unreasonable.

The registration process is not fit for purpose. Any reasonable person would surely accept that use of payment terminals on each and every visit is!bound to result in a few handling issues. One would expect a sensible appeal policy would be part of the process. If there is no such policy one would have to conclude that the intention all along was to generate income by penalising genuine mistakes.

I will not be paying it. To save all concerned the wasted time, acrimony and negative reputational impact, I urgently request that you contact Premier Park and insist this parking charge is cancelled.

Parking Charge Notice: XXXXXXX
Vehicle Registration: XXXXXXX
Notice Issue Date: XX/XX/2019

Yours sincerely
Name & Address supplied

cornilleou

Response from Blue Ice:


Subject: RE: Parking Charge Notice from Premier Park
Hi XXXXXXX

I have passed your email onto Premier Park and below is the response:

Hi XXXX,

Thank you for your email.

This PCN XXXXXXX was issued correctly by Premier Park as the vehicle was not registered at the terminal on the date of the contravention.

We can confirm that numerous vehicles were registered whilst the vehicle remained parked on site but none of these entries match the vehicle registration in question.

We had previously offered the reduction fee as per the agreement, however, this has been refused.

If you would like me to get the reduced fee re-visited then please come back to me.

Kind Regards,

XXXX

cornilleou

Premier Park response to my second appeal:


Subject:!Parking Charge Notice XXXXXXX

Dear XXXXXXXXX

Thank you for your appeal, on behalf of the driver, against the above Parking Charge Notice (PCN). We have carefully considered your appeal, however on this occasion the appeal has been rejected for the following reason;

Your vehicle was not registered at the terminal on the date of the contravention. Upon further investigation, we can confirm that numerous vehicles were registered whilst your vehicle remained parked on site but none of these entries match your vehicle registration. The signage on site clearly states that all Fitness First Members & Guests must enter their full correct vehicle registration number at the terminal inside the gym on each visit to benefit from 5 hours free parking. As we could find no evidence of your vehicle being registered, your parking was not authorised therefore this PCN was issued to you correctly.

However, as a show of goodwill we are on this occasion prepared to accept the reduced amount shown above.!Please note this offer is without prejudice save as to costs.

Please ensure you or any other person with access to the vehicle, register it!EACH!time they use this site and/or do not exceed the maximum stay period, as we are unable to issue further reminders.!

You have now reached the end of our internal appeals procedure and therefore you now have two options;

You can pay the total amount due as shown above via the following payment options;
□ Call us on:!01302 513232
□ Pay online: link removed
□ Send a postal order:!Premier Park Ltd, PO Box 624, Exeter, EX1 9JG

You can appeal to an Independent Appeals Service, POPLA (Parking on Private Land Appeals) using the POPLA reference code provided above.!Please note, should you decide to appeal to POPLA and!your appeal is subsequently rejected or you withdraw your appeal, the option to pay a discounted amount will no longer be available and the full amount of the PCN will become due. Please note, if you pay the PCN prior to appealing to POPLA, your appeal will be withdrawn as you will have accepted liability in full.

If you decide to appeal to POPLA, you will need to visit their website,!link removed!where further details of how to appeal (either online or by downloading the relevant forms) can be found. If you are unable to access their website, please call us for further information on how to obtain the forms. Please ensure your POPLA Reference Number, as noted above, is quoted on all correspondence to POPLA.!You have 28 days from the date of this letter to submit an appeal to POPLA. If you appeal to POPLA we will suspend recovery activity on the PCN and the charge will not increase until the appeal has been determined.

By law we are also required to inform you that Ombudsman Services (link removed) provides an alternative dispute resolution service that would be competent to deal with your appeal. However, we have not chosen to participate in their alternative dispute resolution service. As such should you wish to appeal then you must do so to POPLA, as explained above.

If you do not make payment or submit an appeal to POPLA within the relevant timeframe, the outstanding PCN may be passed to our appointed debt collection agency for further action. All costs associated with this process will be added to the amount outstanding.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION
Unless any additional relevant information or facts are provided, Premier Park Ltd considers this to be their final decision regarding this appeal.
Please note that all payments are subject to a 50p administration charge.

This message was sent from an unmonitored e-mail address. Please do not reply to this message.

GDPR – to view how we use and process your data and your rights, including how to object or restrict such use, please see our privacy policy available online at link removed

Redx

are BLUE ICE stating in writing that they broke the GDPR by passing your complaint to a third party ?

yes you want a reduced fee , of zero pounds , so ask them why they broke the GDPR in passing your data to PP without your permission , plus who will they use for court and what dates is this person not available to be a witness in court ? lol