Newbie-Am I stuffed

Newdubsciple

Dear collective hive mind. I picked up a PCN at a shopping centre in Worcester (Brindley Road Shopping Center) back in August. It’s operated by Britannia parking. I was in my work issued van. Britannia know I was the driver as fleet sent me the NTK and I lodged an initial appeal. Stupidly (life stuff going on) I didn’t do sufficient research into the appeal process. Basically my appeal was a plea for leniency based on my lack of observation of signage. I’ve parked in the car park for years and either the ppc have only recently started issuing time limit based PCN’s or I’ve never parked long enough to incur one. I’ve yet to go back and check signage etc but google suggests it’s a 1.5hr limit and I was there for 1hr 49min.  

My question is whether it’s now worth lodging an appeal with POPLA or should I just suck it up and pay the exorbitant £60 I ‘owe’ them for the 10 minute overstay?

All help greatly appreciated. Apologies if this is covered elsewhere but I’ve trawled through many threads and my brain has now melted from legalese overload!

Fruitcake

If you have a PoPLA code then you should use it. Construct a draft appeal using all the template points available from the third post of the sticky thread for NEWBIES, then post it here for checking before you submit it.
Normal appeal points would include, 

Not the landowner
No standing (no valid contract) to issue charges in their own name
Inadequate signage
BPA CoP failures
Lack of grace periods
Anything else relevant.

Get pics of the site and signage, paying particular attention to the name of the company that sent you the PCN with the name on the signs. Often they are from a different company with a similar name.

Half_way

No one on here ( and no one in their right mind ) would advise paying the £60.

If someone demands money from you, you should find out why they are demanding the money, and if they are justified in doing so, with private parking in almost all cases, demands received in the post are not justified, do you know who the landowner is??

have you complained to the landowner?

is this place listed here: https://www.gjsdillon.co.uk/gjs-dillon-appointed-to-manage-worcester-neighbourhood-shopping-centres/?utm_content=buffere81ba&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Le_Kirk

What you could do is to check if the signage has changed such that it used to be, say, two hours free.  Google street view often helps here or you could check with the local council reference the original planning permission to see if there were caveats such as a MINIMUM free period.

Newdubsciple

Thanks both. No I’ve not complained to the landowner yet. I did have a quick google earlier but had no joy finding them, so thanks Half_Way for finding that out! Is it still worth a complaint to them at this late stage?

I’m going to head over tomorrow to check out the signage. Britannia have given me a POPLA code.

Redx

It's always worth a complaint to the landowner , ALWAYS , it is also the best option and quickest solution , so should ALWAYS be tried , it's plan A in the newbies FAQ sticky thread near the top of the forum

Also get on with the Popla appeal draft

Newdubsciple

Le_kirk streetview shows one out of focus sign at the entrance to the shopping centre bit of brindley road that looks like it says 1.5 hours stay. Can’t tell when that was taken. I’ll get a better look and some actual photos tomorrow.

Le_Kirk

Newdubsciple said:

Le_kirk streetview shows one out of focus sign at the entrance to the shopping centre bit of brindley road that looks like it says 1.5 hours stay. Can’t tell when that was taken. I’ll get a better look and some actual photos tomorrow.

If you use the box at top left hand corner there is sometimes a drop down box to look at different years.

Coupon-mad

You do know Britannia ones are usually easy to win at POPLA by following the same approach as all the others that suggest that the contract is probably in the wrong company name?  I am NOT suggesting a one-trick POPLA appeal. I am telling you what's likely to win.

This was fully covered a few months back in POPLA DECISIONS so scroll back a few dozen pages there searching for 'Britannia'. 

DO NOT START FROM THE BEGINNING OF THAT THREAD AS IT IS YEARS OLD, AT THE START!

Ralph-y

help with street view

  1.    Drag and drop the yellow ‘Pegman’ onto the desired street. (To do this, left click on the yellow man at the bottom right of the map and, keeping the mouse button held down, drag him across the screen, only letting go when you are on top of the road or place you want to look at. If it doesn’t work for you the first time you will need to try again!).
 2.    When the man lands, the map changes to show you street imagery, and a dark grey box appears at the top left of the map.  Click the tiny clock symbol in the dark grey square – see screenshot below.
 3.    Use the slider that appears to go further back in time, then click on the small map above the slider. Street View will then show you historical views. You can change the year by clicking on the slider again. You can also navigate your way around Street View just as you would in a more up-to-date map.
 4.    To exit Street View, click the back (left) arrow in the original dark grey box.
 5.    N.B.Historic imagery isn’t available for everywhere in Street View.

Ralph

Newdubsciple

Le_Kirk said:

Newdubsciple said:

Le_kirk streetview shows one out of focus sign at the entrance to the shopping centre bit of brindley road that looks like it says 1.5 hours stay. Can’t tell when that was taken. I’ll get a better look and some actual photos tomorrow.

If you use the box at top left hand corner there is sometimes a drop down box to look at different years.

That’s brilliant! Doesn’t work on the app but found it on the website. Looks like the signs appeared in 2018. The one sign on the left that just states it’s a camera controlled parking zone could easily be missed if entering from the left. The detailed signs within the car park are spread around fairly evenly but none in front of the space where I parked. So not surprising I didn’t notice any of them having parked here for over a decade routinely and the signs being barely 2 years old.