Witness Statement Feedback

Angel137

This is my first post regarding this PCN. Any feedback on my wording would be much appreciated. I have started preparing my WS for a PCN issued by LPS. They issued it for 'parking out of bay'. I have a court date on the 19th July. Gladstones have filed their witness statement and in it they have stated I did not make an appeal at the time, which I did. They also stated that I have not correctly pleaded my case as "the defendant has lodged a template defence that is heavily circulated on the internet" referring to the defence template shared on this forum. I'm not sure how to respond to this part? Here is what I have so far:

1.    I am xxxxx of xxxxx and I am the defendant against whom this claim is made. The facts below are true to the best of my belief and my account has been prepared based on my own knowledge.

 Sequence of events

  2.  I entered the xxxxxxx car park on the morning of xxxx 2019, I  parked alongside an existing parked car (to my passenger side) ensuring that I left adequate room for the driver to be able to enter their car, taking into consideration that they may have been elderly or disabled.  

 3.   At the time of parking the space next to my driver’s side was empty, as I recall.   

 4.   I then approached the machine to make payment for an all day ticket costing £10. I returned to my car and displayed my ticket on the dashboard as instructed by the pay and display signs. 

 5.    Although the signage had large writing stating that a ticket must be displayed, the writing which mentioned breaches was much smaller and not legible from the car. I only became aware of this after requesting photographs from the claimant.

Terms and conditions

6.  The claimant in their witness statement refers to “the drivers breach of terms and conditions” stating that “the driver did not return the PCN by making payment or submitting an appeal”. This is not true. I submitted an appeal via email to the claimant on November 18th 2019 and then a POPLA appeal on December 20th 2019. I have submitted the emails that demonstrate this.

Coupon-mad

You don't have to respond to the desperate bleating from the other side that you dared to use MSE resources!

Have a look at the WS by @aphex007

Angel137

Thank you. I'll check it out.

Fruitcake

What happened when you complained to the landowner? That is always Plan A, and it is not too late to get a cancellation.

Where did the alleged event occur? It may have cropped up here before.

Do you have photos of the site and signage, especially the alleged unmarked bay?

Please show us the claimant's WS. Redact personal information, but leave in anything that is already in the public domain. Upload it to Dropbox or similar and post the link here. Make sure the account is not in your real name, and the folder does not contain any personal documents or images. 
Please tell us what redactions the claimant has made, if any. This especially important if they have included a copy of the landowner's agreement.

Angel137

Fruitcake said:

What happened when you complained to the landowner? That is always Plan A, and it is not too late to get a cancellation.

Where did the alleged event occur? It may have cropped up here before.

Do you have photos of the site and signage, especially the alleged unmarked bay?

Please show us the claimant's WS. Redact personal information, but leave in anything that is already in the public domain. Upload it to Dropbox or similar and post the link here. Make sure the account is not in your real name, and the folder does not contain any personal documents or images. 
Please tell us what redactions the claimant has made, if any. This especially important if they have included a copy of the landowner's agreement.

Hi Fruitcake, thanks for your response. 

Ah, I didn't complain to the landowner unfortunately. I appealed directly to LPS and also made a POPLA appeal, which was denied. The bay was marked and my car was photographed to be outside of the lines, the car next to mine was parked right on the line, so when I parked I lined up alongside that car leaving the usual space to allow their door to open. I ended up outside of the bay, unfortunately I didn't notice that at the time, the car park was pretty empty. I thought I was being courteous by parking and leaving enough space for the other driver.

Gladstones only sent me a hard copy of their WS to my home address 2 days before the deadline. So unfortunately I can't upload it here. They did include the landowners agreement with names redacted. I really need to get my WS sent off ideally tomorrow to ensure I don't miss the deadline. I have spent today drafting a WS after reading  @Daiapolon2021 one . I can edit that and upload here once I have anonymised it. 

Coupon-mad

Great. Yes you can use lots of that WS.

You can email your WS to the local court and the claimant's solicitors. Don't post it.

Angel137

Coupon-mad said:

Great. Yes you can use lots of that WS.

You can email your WS to the local court and the claimant's solicitors. Don't post it.

Ok, great. Thanks. That gives me a bit more time then. 

Angel137

Hi All, 
Here's the draft of my WS. Any feedback much appreciated.


https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/08q3zisgie31lcvape979/WS-A-137.docx?dl=0&rlkey=xo43oztgg9pvsyihcx0ezwtp8

1505grandad

Claimant are BPA AoS members (as confirmed by POPLA exhibits)  -  yet you are exhibiting the IPC CoP

Angel137

1505grandad said:

Claimant are BPA AoS members (as confirmed by POPLA exhibits)  -  yet you are exhibiting the IPC CoP

Ok thanks, so I juts need to get rid of that exhibit then. 

KeithP

Angel137 said:

1505grandad said:

Claimant are BPA AoS members (as confirmed by POPLA exhibits)  -  yet you are exhibiting the IPC CoP

Ok thanks, so I juts need to get rid of that exhibit then. 

Or cite the BPA CoP instead?