PCN for St Michael's Mount Long stay

tariqm

Hi all

Received a PCN for allegedly overstaying my parking by 20 minutes or so. But I do not recall that at all- I paid (bank statement from the day showed a charge of £1.50 by contactless). 

Does anyone know whether you have to enter how many hours/min you parked, or do the parking meters calculate the fee due automatically? 

If the former, then maybe it was a genuine mistake on my part, but I am normally careful, and so was extremely surprised to receive the PCN.

Anyway, I appealed the PCN, but this was rejected, but I never received the rejection letter (dated 02.08.21) until it was forwarded to me by the debt collection company who are now demanding £170 (and even offering a payment plan). I wrote to the debt collection company saying could I pay the initial reduced fee of £60, and they said no. I asked them if Initial Parking had sent the letter by recorded delivery, and they said no. 

I am tempted to stick to my guns here. I do not want to pay £170 for what may well be an underpayment of a few pence, which may have been a genuine mistake. Again, I do not want to pay this, because I did not receive the rejection letter outlining my options of appealing to POPLA or paying a reduced fine. I even stated that I had been working hard on the frontline as an NHS key worker, and this was my first break in 18 months, but that was ignored by the debt company too. 

Any advice on what I should do next? 

It sounds as if Initial Parking is run by cowboys, and many many people have been caught out. There is another thread by cosmonautX which included photos of the meters, and he was in a similar boat. 

D_P_Dance

 who are now demanding £170 

Read this, complain to your MP and ignore the DCA.

They have added what appears to be an extra unlawful amount for debt collection. Judges have dismissed an entire claim because of this. Read this and complain to your MP.

Excel v Wilkinson

At the Bradford County Court, District Judge Claire Jackson (now HHJ Jackson, a Specialist Civil Circuit Judge) decided to hear a 'test case' a few months ago, where £60 had been added to a parking charge despite Judges up and down the country repeatedly disallowing that sum and warning parking firms not to waste court time with such spurious claims.   That case was Excel v Wilkinson: G4QZ465V, heard in July 2020 and leave to appeal was refused and that route was not pursued.  The Judge concluded that such claims are proceedings with 'an improper collateral purpose'.   This Judge - and others who have since copied her words and struck dozens of cases out in late 2020 and into 2021 - went into significant detail and concluded that parking operators (such as this Claimant) are seeking to circumvent CPR 27.14 as well as breaching the Consumer Rights Act 2015.   DJ Hickinbottom has recently struck more cases out in that court area, stating: ''I find that striking out this claim is the only appropriate manner in which the disapproval of the court can be shown''.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/16qovzulab1szem/G4QZ465V%20Excel%20v%20Wilkinson.pdf?dl=0

Redx

Read all the other threads about Marazion car parks and Initial Parking

If it's gone to debt collectors you are in deadlock , no action yet apart from plan A in the newbies FAQ sticky thread near the top of the forum in announcements

NationalTrustMember

tariqm

zhonguonuren for all the photos taken of the signage. Looks like Marazion Long Stay Car Park is going to be causing many people headaches!

I have also written to the National Trust to alert them about the behaviour of Initial Parking because whilst they don't own the land they majority of people using that car park will be doing so to visit St Michaels Mount so they don't want lots of annoyed NT visitors and members.

interested to hear how you get on.

NationalTrustMember

looks like alot of my post disappeared but briefly what it said was. I am in a similar situation. Didn't get the notice to keeper but did receive a debt letter two days ago for overstaying which I was rather shocked about. We did overstay by 30 minutes due to children having meltdowns but I do not wish to pay £170 when I wasn't even aware of the ticket and therefore not given change to appeal nor pay £60

I have gone with plan A and written to St Aubyn Trust the landowners and will await their response

Le_Kirk

NationalTrustMember said:

I have gone with plan A and written to St Aubyn Trust the landowners and will await their response

When you receive the response, could you please start a thread/discussion of your own and let us know how you get on.

tariqm

I wrote to St Aubyn Trust, who then write to Initial Parking, who then reduced fine to £100, and gave me 48 hours to pay. 
Obviously I wasn't going to pay that either, so have now received a letter from CST Law (not a LBC). 
I have written to St Aubyn Trust again asking them to write to IP, and asking them to either cancel the charge, or accept my offer of £1, which was the underpayment. 
Any other advice?

Coupon-mad

It was never a fine.

Quite right not to pay £100.

tariqm

So here's an odd thing. Why was I charged £1.50, and not £1 or £2.50, when I paid using my contactless card?? As was user kcwro. 

Archie_Duke

The fee for over two hours in the Marazion short stay car parks is definitely more than £1.50. The payment machine defaults to a 1 hour setting unless you tap the + key to select the correct duration of stay.

I think the photo you linked was for the Green Lane long-stay/overflow site.

This image is from the Kings Road short stay site by the Godolphin Arms. I think £4.50 is the maximum to stay here for 3 hours.

D_P_Dance

Have you written bad stuff on Tripadvisor, the museum websirte, Twitter, Facebook et al?  Have you complained to your MP,  tourist Office and local paper?