Parking at Costa

jrc123

Hi all at the forum

an interesting one I would like help on.

my partner her recently parked at a Costa which had spaces labelled ‘Costa Only’, the sign on the wall were of course very small to read and hardly noticeable, she did this four times and so received 4 tickets.

there are no signs upon entering the road and only small signs on the wall which are small and hard to read.

if anyone saw the space Costa Only in big letters could easily meaning Costa customers etc.
the images online also only show the vehicle and not the current sign which I have seen on tickets in the past.
the rejection appeal was also received 34 days after I sent the appeal (Full days not working days)

I have appealed with the first stage not mentioning the driver etc and of course been rejected.
next step I would need to appeal to POPLA
any recommendations of the appeal to use?

This is some of the rejection text they sent me:

You have advised us that you are the keeper and deny any liability or contractual agreement and there will be no admissions as to who was driving and no assumptions can be drawn. However under POFA and the fact you have either not provided or made no attempt to provide driver details within 28 days from the date of issue of the Parking Charge, we may regard you as the keeper were one of the same person whom was driving and will reply to your appeal in the usual manner.

This being said, we must advise that the terms and conditions are displayed on car park signs, informing you of the requirements in order to park in line with the displayed terms and conditions, which confirm that the terms and conditions are operation 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

We have displayed a large entrance sign at the two entrances of the car park, indicating to visitors terms and conditions of parking apply.

The entrance signs are displayed with large bold text on a bright white background and at the same time referring drivers to additional, more detailed signage within the car park. There are signs covering each Costa parking bay with an additional sign displayed under the light beside the door entrance of Costa, providing additional warning of the terms of parking.

The signs read in large text COSTA STAFF PARKING ONLY, and go on to read VEHICLES ARE NOT PERMITTED TO PARK, WAIT OR STOP IN BAYS MARKED COSTA ONLY

AT ANYTIME, UNLESS THE VEHICLE HAS ALREADY BEEN PREREGISTERED WITH OUR OFFICE.

any guidance would be greatly appreciated
i have fought many in the past but not this kind of situation

many thanks

jrc123

Also to add there is now a sign board put in the space now with a sign to stop people parking there as a lot of people are getting tickets - this is very new it seems

i am going tomorrow to get images of the signs which the Costa shop has put in the spaces as further evidence the sign are not clear enough

Coupon-mad

OK, show us some photos please.

jrc123

These are the images I took after The letter were first received.

Since then Costa customers have received a lot of letter saying they have been fined for parking there.

Luckily I took these photos as since then the ‘someone’ has changed the road markings and the Costa staff have left out an A-board 24 hours a day which has a notice on it.

This area has now changed to this:

Very interesting.

I have already appealed with the suggest response found on the forum which was rejected

should I go straight to POPLA?

if so any suggestions?

thanks

Redx

I would , based on the original poor and inadequate signage which has now meant that better signage and bay markings now exist proving that they were both bad before , so a Popla appeal based on

Poor and inadequate signage ( with proof )
No landowner authority
Any BPA CoP version 8 breaches , especially signage etc

You haven't mentioned POFA compliance , or non compliance , or if the appeal revealed who was driving to Capital car park control

Plan A is still your best option , a landowner cancellation or a retail park management cancellation

jrc123

Hi Red X thanks for the input, been while since I was back on this forum both you and couponmad helped me once a long time ago

noted on the 3 points above I will put my POPLA defence together based on that

when I appealed I did not say who was driving :-)
POFA compliance meaning?

any thing else I should add?

any links to a POPLA appeal which would have points I could take out?

thanks

Redx

Checkout the newbies FAQ sticky thread near the top of the forum in announcements for advice on checking your NTK PCN for compliance with the law named POFA , read the fifth post and the first post

Either it did , so a keeper could be liable , or it didn't meaning that only the driver is liable

So you check for POFA compliance , or non compliance , it's one or the other

No links , I won't be searching for them , it's your case so you should do the research , but here is a hint on what I would do

I would start with the Popla decisions announcement , from the end , working backwards , plus read the third post in the newbies FAQ sticky thread near the top of the forum

jrc123

Many thanks for the info and help I will work on this one tonight and tomorrow and submit to POPLA really appreciate the help!

Thrugelmir

No evidence to support being a customer of Costa at the time of the offences? 

jrc123

The Costa store couldn’t help as they said the spaces are for staff even though poorly labelled

Redx

They are not offences , no laws were broken

Any claims are civil claims for unpaid invoices for alleged breach of contract on private property

Savile and Talbot and Sutcliffe etc committed offences , real offences !

A private PCN is just an invoice