CP Plus NTK amount charged more than signage

yaks20

Hi
I received a NTK from CP Plus saying that they are fining the keeper £140 due to "not displaying a valid permit, scratch card or holding a virtual permit". They also explained that a PCN was affixed to the car windscreen which wasn't acted on, so they offered no discount period. They sent the NTK within 42 days of issuing the PCN. The PCN was issued at the start of June at a hospital car park. I appealed using the standard template letter here, and also attached evidence of the landowner informing their staff that parking permits were not required, except that those with 'red' permit holder need to park in  for 'red' zones and 'yellow' permit holders need to park in  'yellow' zones.

CP Plus rejected my appeal, and provided photos of the car parked (with the PCN stuck to the window) in front of a sign saying that the fine would be "£100" if a valid permit wasn't displayed. Given the conflicting information from the landowner to staff, and no clear signage that the bay is in a 'red' or a 'yellow' zone I believe the PCN has been issued unfairly.

They have provided a POPLA code and I intend to appeal to POPLA on the grounds of:
1) The amount requested in the NTK is £140, whereas their own photos of the parking restrictions show a sign for £100 only.
2) The landowner had provided written material that the permits were not required unless parking was in a red or yellow zone, and signage or markings did not indicate that the car was parked in either of those zones.

Will POPLA accept both points or am I only allowed to appeal on one point? If so, which point is the stronger argument?

Thanks in advance

Le_Kirk

You should use as many points in a POPLA  appeal as you can.  Did you miss the third post (about constructing a POPLA appeal) when you read through the NEWBIE sticky?

Umkomaas

You can appeal on as many points as you like in a POPLA appeal - all the details are in the NEWBIES FAQ sticky, third post, please read that and draft your appeal and post here for critique. But do note that POPLA won't be interested in mitigating circumstances. 

However, as this occurred at a hospital car park, in the middle of a pandemic, have you been in touch with PALS (Google it)?  If so, what did they say; if not, why not?

yaks20

Thanks for the responses. I'll draft my letter and post here.
Regarding PALS, that appears to apply to patients but not staff (the driver is a doctor). Do you think that I could still pursue this line of extenuating circumstances?

Le_Kirk

If you are staff, why not get your union involved?

yaks20

I'm not the driver, just the keeper. I'll find out if the driver is a member of the union.

Coupon-mad

What about the 100% slam-dunk winning point against CP Plus at POPLA stage?   

There is a clue/reminder of this, in the early bullet point FAQs in the NEWBIES thread, where CP Plus get a  mention...you seem to have missed that this was a non-POFA NTK and you can't be liable and that's your main appeal point?

(as long as when you added words to the template you didn't say something like ''I didn't park in a red or yellow area'!).

yaks20

I saw that in the Newbies thread but I couldn't figure out exactly why their NTK didn't comply with POFA. They have written on the NTK that they comply with POFA and I couldn't find an issue when I looked through the POFA requirements of the NTK. Any guidance on which part would be non-POFA would be appreciated.
PS. I stuck to the template and never acknowledged who was the driver. I only mentioned that the landowner had communicated that parking permits weren't required and also called them out for not complying with BPA code of conduct where they offer the discount period on the NTK.

Coupon-mad

CP Plus have never complied with the POFA.  So you are saying you compared it to para 8 of the POFA and found they had the warning about keeper liability (schedule 4, 8(2)f) correctly stated, for example?

yaks20

That's the text from the NTK below. There are also details provided of:
Date of NTK issue
The creditor (CP Plus Ltd.)
PCN date and time of issue (the date of the notice to driver)
Vehicle Registration
Location
Reason for issue: "Not displaying a valid permit, scratch card or holding a virtual permit"
Outstanding amount: £140.00

Coupon-mad

But that's from PCS (a third party who do the back office work) not CP Plus and it's clearly not a POFA NTK if it adds £40.

£140 is also a breach of the BPA CoP ceiling of £100.