Parking Eye PCN at Aldi for Using Adjacent Superbowl

JohnD2410115

Hello All,

I need some advice regarding a parking fine that I got for parking in an Aldi Car Park whilst using the adjacent Superbowl. The car park for the Superbowl and adjoining Home Bargains store is ridiculously small (less than 100 spaces) so we parked on the Aldi car park, which is separate but on the same retail development, without realising that this would cause any issue. 

I recently returned and spoke with the Superbowl manager but were told that there was nothing they could do. Our stay was for just over 2 hours and the car park has a 1.5 hour max stay, there is signage at the entrance to the Aldi car park stating this (although I didn't notice this at the time). The date of the fine is 14/11/21 and I haven't contacted Parking Eye to appeal.

Umkomaas

Difficult to shake PE off, especially if using the Aldi car park for a purpose not connected with shopping there. 

Are you a regular Aldi customer (did you actually shop there as well as going to the Superbowl?) and do you have past receipts/cc/bank statements to prove regular patronage, in which case the Aldi manager or the Aldi HO parking department might be able to help. 

If the PCN was incurred in November then it's too late to appeal to PE, so exhaust your Aldi contact, then see what happens next from a PE point of view, possibly a Letter Before County Court Claim in due course. 

go-on-then

Where are Superbowl patrons expected to park if their car park is full,  what are the alternatives here ??

JohnD2410115

Hi Umkomaas,

We are weekly Aldi shoppers, but not at this branch. Would proving our regular spend with Aldi be sufficient to go down this route?

I'm all for going down the 'wait and see' route with PE but my stance was based on support from Superbowl due to them providing insufficient parking, which I now haven't got.

JohnD2410115

go-on-then said:

Where are Superbowl patrons expected to park if their car park is full,  what are the alternatives here ??

The only alternative, I suppose one would mitigate, would be to find space near the neighboring residential area and then walk to the Superbowl, the site is St Helens West Point for information. 

Umkomaas

JohnD2410115 said:

Hi Umkomaas,

We are weekly Aldi shoppers, but not at this branch. Would proving our regular spend with Aldi be sufficient to go down this route?

I'm all for going down the 'wait and see' route with PE but my stance was based on support from Superbowl due to them providing insufficient parking, which I now haven't got.

You must exhaust every possibility at the earliest opportunity to avoid PE going down the route of issuing court proceedings. 

Why do you think Aldi should provide a car park for Superbowl customers because Superbowl can't provide enough themselves?  Maybe it's a reason why they have PE operating there?

go-on-then

What time did the alleged offence take place ??   What,  if any,  are the times of parking / t+c's on the parking signs ? 

Have to think outside of the box for these ! 

Coupon-mad

And what's the date of sending on the PCN (not the reminder)?

D_P_Dance

It is not a fine.  Please read the nebies and complain to your MP if you think that the PPC have acted incorrectly.

go-on-then

The local paper ( easy to google ) says the council were very keen to have the new £1.8million Superbowl complex on the site which is all very well if little or no consideration is given to facilities/ size of the parking area.

Complain to your local council chief executive / mp  and also to Superbowl UK director Kate Quaintance-Blackford.  She was very confident about the success of the new site but she won't be if people stop going there because of the parking problem.

Umkomaas

You might want to check with the LA as to what any planning restrictions/permissions were granted for the Aldi car park. We have seen cases where the car park is to be made available to any user, not just Aldi customers, for shopping in other parts of the town. 

Also check the parking time limits the LA approved for the development, it's not unheard of for PPCs to ignore those limits and set a lower ones in order to generate more penalties for their self-enrichment!

You might find that there is an entry on the LA's planning applications web portal.