ES Parking / Gladstones claim

Coupon-mad

 I haven't had to pay their ludicrous penalty charge and instead they must pay my costs.  It has cost them, therefore it's a win.  It's all been an experience and hopefully I won't find myself in this unfortunate predicament again,  but if I did, I wouldn't hesitate to take them on.

Perfect!  Do stick around to help other newbies if you get spare time.  Many of the regulars have never been to court and I only started to go a year ago, so your experience is great to help other posters.

It is high time the new CoP and Single Appeals Service, coupled with the regulatory framework the MHCLG are working on, hopefully made court claims far less likely.  I know the exponential increase, explained here by the RAC, worries Government:

https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/news/motoring-news/private-parking-firms-issue-15-new-tickets-every-minute-research-reveals/

It's actually about ten million PCNs issued per year because the figures in that article are only of cases where the DVLA Data of the keeper has been sought, and don't include windscreen PCNs that are paid immediately or appealed up front. 

Takes the total right up to about 10million per annum - atrocious.  And about 110,000 per annum see court claims issued.