Excel - Car Park with Two Schemes- "Wrong" Ticket Displayed

YogaCat

I parked at Burton upon Trent railway station where the car park is covered by two schemes:  Excel Parking and East Midlands Railway.  There are no physical barriers between the two areas, in fact I am still not clear which spaces are which!  I bought and displayed a ticket from an EMR machine.  I thought I was in an EMR bay and this was the nearest machine.  Excel say I was in one of their bays and have issued me with a penalty, which I have not paid.  They are taking me to court.  I have submitted an acknowledgement of service and now need to submit my defence.  I have the template ready to complete but would welcome some advice on what I include in section 3, specifically, is there any appropriate legal (or other) wording for this scenario (multiple schemes, areas not clear)?

KeithP

Hello and welcome.

What is the Issue Date on your County Court Claim Form?

Upon what date did you file an Acknowledgment of Service?
Your MCOL Claim History will have the definitive answer to that.

YogaCat

Issue Date: 4th December, Acknowledgment of Service filed 9th December.

KeithP

YogaCat said:

Issue Date: 4th December, Acknowledgment of Service filed 9th December.

With a Claim Issue Date of 4th December, and having filed an Acknowledgment of Service in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Wednesday 6th January 2021 to file your Defence.

That's over two weeks away. Plenty of time to produce a Defence, but please don't leave it to the last minute.

To create a Defence, and then file a Defence by email, look at the second post in the NEWBIES thread.

Don't miss the deadline for filing a Defence.

Ralph-y

next to read ...

direct link to court section in newbies thread
.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/64350585/#Comment_64350585

Ralph

YogaCat

Thanks for your responses, KeithP and Ralph-y. I really appreciate some feedback as I have found this very stressful so far and I'm worried about what is to come.   I've read those and I understand that my critical next step is preparing my Defence, and I have the template.  It may be that I'm not understanding the details in the threads, but it all seems to be about contesting the legality of the inflated charges, as opposed to whether any charge should have been made.  If so, I guess it doesn't really matter how I word my particular situation in Section 3 of the template?  If it did matter, I'm hoping to get some advice about whether there is some specific legal wording that covers car park with multiple schemes where the areas are not clear and the claimant alleges that you were parked in their area and not the area covered by the ticket you bought?  

Coupon-mad

How about reading the other threads about this same place, and the fact that it is not clear where one car park ends and the other begins?  We've had other threads including photos so we know about this scam site.  You do not need 'legal wording' to say this.

Snakes_Belly

There is no demarcation between the Station Car park and the Travelodge (Excel) car park. So easy to park in the wrong car park.  The entry signs are poor. You cannot see them for all the clutter and there are random (non related) signs all over the car park. 

Where was the driver actually parked? 

I still have my images of this car park.  It's a dreadful car park and a number of posters have been caught out. It also appeared in a local newspaper.  Of the posters regarding this car park all the claims progressed to court bar one which was pulled at the last minute. Lets just say that it was an expensive process for Excel/VCS.

Prepare for the long haul as they will go all the way or to the brink however quite a lot of work has already been done regarding this car park. I am very familiar with it. 

Downside is that it is a car park that is difficult to understand unless you have been there so you will need to focus on communicating the ambiguity to the judge with images and maybe a video.

Snakes_Belly

I guess that the driver was parked at the side or round the back of the Travelodge and used the machine that is near the steps. 

Excel bays are in yellow and the Railway are in white but from recent images the yellow has faded. Excel bays and Railway bays are in the same row next to each other. How confusing is that?

Snakes_Belly

I am guessing that the driver bought a ticket at the Station ticket machine and parked further down the row in an Excel space. I would be looking at signage, DeMinimis, lack of demarcation in the defence. As the Railway Car Park would be subject to Bylaws and Excel's is not there should be better demarcation. The signage on entry is difficult to see unless you turn into the first turning off Miller's Lane.  You can effectively enter this car park without seeing a sign. 

Excel do have a lease on their part of the car park so landowner authority may be difficult as a defence point. You should still request site of it though as it may have expired.

I think that you will need to included pointers on the images. Daniel and Chelsea recently won against VCS (same directors as Excel) in Derby and produced some very good images of a car park in Nottingham. Images are used in the WS to support the defence points.  Daniel marked the images with pointers. 

Row of cars below with some subject to bylaws and others not. 

Snakes_Belly

The driver would have probably bought a ticket from this machine.  This machine is right next to Excel spaces.