POPLA Appeal

mhugradar

Hi 

I  was parked in a staff permit holders parking bay (there is a sign ) but my baby was admitted into hospital and i was in a rush to get inside.
She is on oxygen tank, so i have a disabled badge and i could not find a suitable bay to park in to get the equipment out. So i parked and went in from there
I got 3 tickets in total, on 14th Jan, 15 and 17th Jan.
No ticket was displayed on windscreen, just got the letters.

I did an initial appeal on all 3 on the case that there is no NCP Signage in the area. (As there is no NCP Contract up just Trust Signs)
All 3 appeals were rejected, and my points were not addressed.
I also contacted Parking Services on site and the CEO of the Trust and not had any luck in getting the ticket cancelled.
So i went down the route of POPLA Appeal on these 2 grounds
1) The Operator failed to display sufficient signage at the location where the vehicle was parked
2) No evidence of Landowner Authority - the operator is put to strict proof of full compliance with the BPA Code of Practice

I wanted help in the next steps ... the comments from operator
What do i need to prepare for this? Nothing is on there yet, but if it does come on how long do i get?

MistyZ

You have 7 days to respond to the so-called evidence.  Unless of course NCP discontinue, which would be nice.  

You need to keep your comments on their evidence to 2,000 characters or under.  They will most likely bombard you with images of signage.  Don't be thrown by this, it's standard.  Compare what they claim is evidence to what was said in the appeal, if they fail to refute the points you made then state that and explain, briefly, why they have failed.

Critique the landowner contract carefully, looking for any indication that it may have expired, for example.  

You can use bullet points, abbreviations if their meaning is very obvious and capitals if particular emphasis of some words is required as I hear that italics and underlining don't necessarily work. 

What happened when you complained to PALS and the hospital's CEO?  Your baby's health was so, so much more important than precise parking.   Reading this makes me so angry.  I realise you are probably focused on keeping a good relationship with the hospital but to me they have failed in their duty of care.  They should be working with you to look after your child rather than allowing you to be fleeced by a third party while doing your best for her.  

mhugradar

PALS said they can not do anything related to parking and i must speak to Parking Services

The exact response was:

Thank you for your enquiry. Unfortunately we cannot assist with parking fines etc. Please follow the appeals process as directed in the letters you have received.

 The email to the CEO was forwarded to the Director of Estates who rang me and basically said the same thing as above

I followed up with further emails and got this response:

As you know from our recent conversations, my advice to you is to pay the PCN’s as soon as possible in order to keep the cost to a minimum, or to follow NCP’s appeal process as detailed on the back of the PCN.

 So basically no help from either

The land rates are paid by the trust so they have the power to cancel if they wanted to .. but did not want to

The operator will not be able to put any pictures of signage up, as there is none from them.  Just the trust.

I have taken pictures to show this.

In terms of the contract - How do i get hold of this?

nosferatu1001

Contract - assuming your POPLA appla reqiured them to show you the contrac,t it MUST be in their evidence
If it isnt there then thats an obvious point to comment on!
welcome from pepipoo

mhugradar

ok, i will keep an eye out on there .. I did it online so assuming i will get some form of notification when that has been posted by the operator - but i will keep checking anyway

D_P_Dance

It is very likely that given you circumstance a local authority would cancel at least one of these tickets, read this

https://www.cheshireeast.gov.uk/car_parks_and_parking/penalty_charges/how_to_appeal_against_a_pcn/mitigating_circumstances.aspx

Alsi read this

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nhs-patient-visitor-and-staff-car-parking-principles/nhs-patient-visitor-and-staff-car-parking-principles

and this

https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/advice-and-guidance/what-are-reasonable-adjustments

Nine times out of ten these tickets are scams, so consider complaining to your MP, it can cause the scammer extra costs and work, and has been known to get the charge cancelled.

Parliament is well aware of the MO of these private parking companies, many of whom are former clampers, and on 15th March 2019 a Bill was enacted to curb the excesses of these shysters. Codes of Practice are being drawn up, an independent appeals service will be set up, and access to the DVLA's date base more rigorously policed, persistent offenders denied access to the DVLA database and unable to operate.

Hopefully life will become impossible for the worst of these scammers, but until this is done you should still complain to your MP, citing the new legislation.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2019/8/contents/enacted

Just as the clampers were finally closed down, so hopefully will many of these Private Parking Companies.

nosferatu1001

Keep looking, every single day, on the POPLA system. Relying on a notificaiton to arrive is foolish. 

mhugradar

I did the online appeal on Thursday 13th Feb 2020 and regularly checked the appeal for updates.  There is still nothing on the Operators Evidence.

How long do they get to do this stage?

Umkomaas

They have 21 days. Get your MP involved, get your local press involved. The more pressure you add now, the better. 

mhugradar

Email sent to MP
Will also contact Local Press shortly

mhugradar

the local MP responded to me, and she has also written to POPLA  mentioning my points asking them to go in my favour to cancel the ticekts