Parking Eye - Appeal

joecrossy123 · 15 July 2022 at 12:13PM

Hello all.

I’m after some advice please.

I’ve recently appealed a Parking Eye PCN. The brief circumstances of the fine are as follows;

On 15/06/22 my partner parked in an Aldi car park whilst doing the weekly shop. She was heavily pregnant and 4 days overdue. She had to find a toilet in the nearby town centre after paying for the shopping as Aldi don’t have their own customer toilets.

As a result, she was 16 minutes late back to the car. The maximum stay is 1.5 hours. This is a free car park in Strood, Kent (England) and we are regular customers to the store.

I appealed on the basis that she was pregnant and quoted the equality act etc and how the fine was unfair and unlawful as it was not based upon any commercially justifiable loss to the landowner.

Having read through a lot of these forums for similar matters, the fact she was pregnant doesn’t seem to wash with POPLA or PE nor does their clear breach of the equality act.

PE have come back to me asking for receipts or bank statements to prove she was shopping in Aldi at the time and date of the alleged overstay. However, she paid by cash and as it was a month ago, we no longer have the receipt and I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect someone to keep a receipt for such a length of time. Most of us throw them away.

Before I respond to them, has anyone got any advice?

I have since revisited the site and the signage on display is small and poorly visible. One is in the middle of the car park, not the entrance, and another is on a wall to the side of Aldi. This therefore doesn’t make them obvious (unless you’re going there to look for them) from all parking spaces. It appears this may be more of a sticking point with POPLA alongside whether PE provide the contracts to determine if they have the landowners permission to fine and if they were authorised to operate at the time of the alleged overstay etc.

A mere 16 minutes (6 minutes really if you take into account the 10 minute grace period) surely isn’t worth the hassle to them but I’ve no doubt they’ll persist.

Below is the first and only email at this time I sent them to initiate the appeal.

To whom it may concern,

You issued me with a parking ticket on 21/06/22, but I believe this was unfairly and unlawfully issued. I decline the invitation to name the driver, which is not required of me as the registered keeper of the vehicle. I will not be paying your demand for payment as there are mitigating circumstances to explain why the vehicle was parked where it was, allegedly 16 minutes past the stay time, which I will outline below;

My partner is currently heavily pregnant and the vehicle was parked in the car park whilst doing the weekly shopping prior to the arrival of our baby. My partner needed to use a toilet, after paying for our shopping, and was in discomfort. As there are no customer toilets in Aldi, she had to find an alternative in the nearby town centre in order to relieve her discomfort. As a result, she was unable to return to the vehicle in time before the stay limit expired. Due to being heavily pregnant, she cannot walk fast which caused further delay. I refer you to a medical note provided with this appeal proving her pregnancy, however you should note that this document has been redacted to remove personal data which you are not entitled to under GDPR. I’ll refer you to the expected due date within the attached document which is after the date of this alleged overstay. She remains heavily pregnant to date and is currently 4 days overdue. Should you wish to dispute her pregnancy at the time of the alleged overstay, evidence can be provided to counteract your dispute.

I will take this opportunity to remind you, or make you aware if you are not already, that Pregnancy is a protected characteristic and under The Equality Act 2010, those with such protected characteristics must be treated with understanding and can’t be discriminated against, so the ticket should be cancelled. My partner couldn’t get back to the vehicle on time as a direct result of her heavy pregnancy as outlined above.

Further to the above, the amount you have charged is not based upon any commercially justifiable loss to your company or the landowner.

In this case, the £70 (or reduced £40 if paid within 14 days) charge you are asking for far exceeds the cost to the landowner given the vehicle is only alleged to have overstayed for 16 minutes. I therefore feel the charge you have asked for is excessive.

If you choose to pursue me, please be aware that I will not enter into correspondence and this will be the only letter you will receive from me until you answer and address the specific points within this appeal.

I look forward to, and expect, a response from you with how you wish to proceed.

PE stated that if they did not receive a response from me within 28 days, they would raise a POPLA code.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated to avoid paying these cowboys money!

Many Thanks

Joe

Le_Kirk · 15 July 2022 at 12:18PM

Complain to Aldi and ask them to get it cancelled on the basis that they should have allowed more time for someone who, although not clear on the day, they now know required more time due so their pregnancy.

joecrossy123 · 15 July 2022 at 1:00PM

I have sent an email to Aldi requesting they get it cancelled but I’m not hopeful. From reading various comments on similar forums involving supermarkets, they tend not to get involved. So I’m not hopeful that they will do anything to assist.

Coupon-mad · 15 July 2022 at 10:50PM

Can you gather any evidence of regular shopping at that Aldi over the past year or so (bank statements) to show ParkingEye you are regular shoppers there? That might be enough.