Penalty Notice for parking diesel car in EV parking bay

BruceBobby

Hello,
Got a ticket (Penalty Notice) from APCOA at a railway station yesterday. I am sure you've heard this countless times before but I have actually found just one example in this forum that could be similar to mine so am not 100% confident about my chances to appeal.
The parking fee was regularly paid for but I was stupid enough to park my diesel car at 8am in a parking bay reserved for EV vehicles until 9am. It was an honest mistake really as I actually saw the signs and thought I was doing anything wrong. So the penalty notice refers to ''Misuse of electric vehicle bay''.
I am not asking for advice on what to do next in order to appeal the decision - l have read the NEWBIE thread and got all the steps to follow (wait 25/26 days / appeal to APCOA / lose to the appeal to APCOA / appeal to POPLA /win the appeal). Simply put, I was just wondering if, given the circumstances, I have strong enough grounds to appeal or not.
Thanks in advance for your input

KeithP

Hello and welcome.

Yes you must appeal.

Send the blue text template appeal easily found in the first post of the NEWBIES thread.

Send it unchanged - no additions or alterations needed.

If this was a railway station car park then it is extremely important that the drivers identity is never given away. This is because railway property is not 'relevant land' - i.e. the parking company simply cannot transfer any driver's liability to the keeper. So as long as they don't know who the driver is, they have no-one to chase.

APCOA are easy to beat anyway.

Which railway station are we talking about here?

Fruitcake

Get pics of the site and signage. Look especially hard at the wording on the main signs, and EV bay signage. Does it say for electric vehicles only, or for charging electric vehicles only? 

BruceBobby

Thanks for your replies.

Which railway station are we talking about here?

Coulsdon South

Get pics of the site and signage. Look especially hard at the wording on the main signs, and EV bay signage. Does it say for electric vehicles only, or for charging electric vehicles only? 

Good question, will go back there one of these days to take pics and look at wording properly.

Coupon-mad

You don't need to do anything like that.  Simply win due to it being non-POFA.  This is a cinch.

BruceBobby

Coupon-mad said:

You don't need to do anything like that.  Simply win due to it being non-POFA.  This is a cinch.

thanks to you too.

By the way:

Fruitcake said:

Get pics of the site and signage. Look especially hard at the wording on the main signs, and EV bay signage. Does it say for electric vehicles only, or for charging electric vehicles only? 

I was driving by earlier today and stopped to take a few pics, just in case for my appeal. The EV bay sign reads: ''ELECTRIC VEHICLE CHARGING POINTS - These spaces are reserved until 09.00 for Electric Vehicles only. Parking charges apply at all times. Failure to comply with the above may result in a parking charge notice being issued.''

Coupon-mad

OK so just use the template first appeal from the NEWBIES thread and ignore them if they write asking who was driving.  Wait for the rejection with POPLA code then win, due to never saying who parked, and pointing out to POPLA that APCOA don't use the POFA 2012 wording (don't ask us which, please...it is flipping obvious when you look at para 9 of Schedule 4).  Also, the fact it is a railway station car park means it is not 'relevant land' under the POFA anyway and thus, there is no scope or law under which APCOA could hold a registered keeper liable in this case.

Easy.

BruceBobby

Apols for not letting you know how it went, I totally forgot to update.  Ticket  was canceled by APCOA eventually. Thanks very much to all those who helped me.

Redx

Well done , Apcoa knew that they had failed POFA and failed keeper liability , so were just trying it on for a Brucie bonus !  😁😁

ElefantEd

As an EV owner I'm happy that you've escaped this charge - so long as it means you know not to park there again! A warning followed by changed behaviour is the ideal outcome, I don't see why the parking company should get your cash, it's not them who have been inconvenienced.

Coupon-mad

A warning followed by changed behaviour is the ideal outcome, I don't see why the parking company should get your cash, it's not them who have been inconvenienced.

Agree 100%.

That aim above sums up why we regulars on this board do what we do. It is the unjust enrichment of fat cat ex-clampers that grinds our gears most.

If they could just move away from aiming to issue as many PCNs as possible and instead run an honest business where they make contracts where landowners pay them, and stop blooming well looking for a 'get rich quick' scheme, we might have some respect for those PPCs who survive in future.

It is ironic that PPC World is about to be regulated by a Government whose aim is clear signs creating a deterrent with little or no breaches happening, when PPC World's aim - despite what the PPC suits said to the Select Committee last month - remains the polar opposite.