Crowne Plaza Stratford on Avon - parking fine for using BP Pulse EV charger

EV_Driver1

In mid June '23 I used the BP Pulse 50kW public charger in the Crowne Plaza Stratford on Avon carpark.  The only way to get to the charger was by entering the carpark as the charger is next to the wall of the hotel in an area for car charging (there is another slower BP Pulse charger in the same charging area).  The charger worked fine and I paid using a bank card.  The charger had a prominent notice warning that there would be an overstay charge if the user stayed more than 90 minutes.  I stayed 70 minutes as that gave enough charge. 

I was very surprised to receive 2 days ago a parking fine notice from ParkingEye who state that they manage the car park.  This is the first time I've used the BP Pulse charger in the Crowne Plaza carpark and I am surprised that there seems to be no link between BP and ParkingEye so that people who are charging their cars aren't penalised with large fines. 

Does anyone have any ideas how to get this parking fine cancelled? 

Coupon-mad

Complain to Crowne Plaza Stratford on Avon.  They can cancel it and need to sort this discrepancy out.

Don't ignore ParkingEye. Also appeal stating what the sign beside the EV Charger said and that there are NO contractual ParkingEye signs at the EV bays, and ask them why they don't have an exempting camera to avoid unfairly churning out auto-PCNs to people who were merely EV charging within the allowed 90 minutes.

1505grandad

Never call these speculative invoices a "fine" in any correspondence/verbally.

EV_Driver1

Many thanks for the help - I called the Crowne Plaza and they have cancelled the speculative invoice.  I tried to contact ParkingEye via their website but wasn't able to leave any message to ask them to either put a camera on the EV charging bays (to allow them to automatically net off EV charging vehicles) or at least an information sign explaining that the person charging the EV should register their reg in the hotel as well.  

Umkomaas

The only way to sensibly contact PE (or any other PPC for that matter) is in writing. The phone line is pretty much a Pay Your PCN facility. 

Coupon-mad

I simply meant appeal saying that!  Not some convoluted way of 'leaving them a message'.
 Albeit ParkingEye certainly have a complaints policy because it's mandatory, so you could use that method of contact.

You still need to appeal, if the ParkingEye website doesn't update later this week to show it is cancelled.

Easy wasn't it?  No idea why people don't just do this as soon as they get a scam PCN from a private firm  The retailer/landowner can always step in.

savergrant

EV_Driver1 said:

In mid June '23 I used the BP Pulse 50kW public charger in the Crowne Plaza Stratford on Avon carpark.  The only way to get to the charger was by entering the carpark as the charger is next to the wall of the hotel in an area for car charging (there is another slower BP Pulse charger in the same charging area).  The charger worked fine and I paid using a bank card.  The charger had a prominent notice warning that there would be an overstay charge if the user stayed more than 90 minutes.  I stayed 70 minutes as that gave enough charge. 

I was very surprised to receive 2 days ago a parking fine notice from ParkingEye who state that they manage the car park.  This is the first time I've used the BP Pulse charger in the Crowne Plaza carpark and I am surprised that there seems to be no link between BP and ParkingEye so that people who are charging their cars aren't penalised with large fines. 

Does anyone have any ideas how to get this parking fine cancelled? 

Just out of interest does the pcn say the correct times of entry and exit? Are they saying that you weren't exempt or that you overstayed your exemption period?

EV_Driver1

The times on the pcn were pretty close to what the app for charging the car stated and it took a few minutes to find the charger in the car park and get hooked up etc.  As it happens I was across in Knowle (near Solihull) at the weekend and was charging up in the car park attached to the Village Hall there.  That's a pay and display car park and even though it is free to park for 2 hours (and states this on the front of the chargers) we needed to get a pay and display paper slip from the pay and display machine (which was free) and put in on the dash.  I chatted with one of the parking attendants who was walking around and he said that even if you are in a EV charging bay you need a pay and display slip (free) so that they can see what time you arrived.  If you don't do that then you get a parking fine.  So if you are charging up in Knowle Village Hall car park, make sure that you have a paper ticket on the dash! 

Umkomaas

EV_Driver1 said:

The times on the pcn were pretty close to what the app for charging the car stated and it took a few minutes to find the charger in the car park and get hooked up etc.  As it happens I was across in Knowle (near Solihull) at the weekend and was charging up in the car park attached to the Village Hall there.  That's a pay and display car park and even though it is free to park for 2 hours (and states this on the front of the chargers) we needed to get a pay and display paper slip from the pay and display machine (which was free) and put in on the dash.  I chatted with one of the parking attendants who was walking around and he said that even if you are in a EV charging bay you need a pay and display slip (free) so that they can see what time you arrived.  If you don't do that then you get a parking fine.  So if you are charging up in Knowle Village Hall car park, make sure that you have a paper ticket on the dash! 

Was that a private parking firm's weasel, or someone from the local council?