Euro Car Parks Taking The "P"

FingerBlob

Hey all,

I'm looking for a little advice.

We recently recieved a parking charge for an overstay at a Euro Car Park at Mastilda St Sheffield of 11 minutes after paying for three hours and feel it rather unfair.

We entered the car park (on camera) and after finding a space, reading the signage, finding the pay station and working out how to pay (bank card) we bought a ticket.

This took about 9 min from entering the car park to purchasing the ticket as I have a medical condition that makes walking painful.

We returned before the ticket had expired but by the time we exited (on camera) we had overstayed by 1.5 min which is well within the 'grace period'

An alleged overstay of 11 min in total (even though it was actually 10m 41s.

We appealed to Euro Car Parks but this was rejected and the charge upheld.

As I said, I consider this a little unfair and I'm wondering if I have grounds to fight this?

Very many thanks in advance.

Umkomaas

We appealed to Euro Car Parks but this was rejected and the charge upheld.

Do you now have a POPLA code?  What is the date of the ECP rejection letter?

You can win this at POPLA on the basis that the ECP sign does not sufficiently draw attention to the £100 parking charge. If you go to the POPLA Decisions Announcement (near the top of the forum thread index page) and scroll back to around 12 months ago, you will find a number of POPLA decisions going in favour of the motorist there. Look at how others have penned their POPLA appeals and follow their pattern and wording. There actually might be a Matilda Street one, as that car park is familiar to forum regulars as it does crop up here from time to time. 

In addition, in the NEWBIES FAQ Announcement, third post, (also near the top of the forum thread index) you will find other near-template written appeal points to add to your signage one. Let us have a look at your POPLA appeal draft before submission. 

UncleThomasCobley

Of course you have grounds to fight this attempted scam. To begin with, have you read the Newbies/FAQ thread?

Plan A is to complain to the landowner/retailer and also to get our MP to intervene. You already tried Plan B and failed. You then try Plan C, appeal to POPLA. If you fail at POPLA, you go for Plan C which is fight it in court where a judge will be the final arbiter as to whether you owe a debt to ECP.

ECP used not to be litigious, at least over single PCNs but they may be trying desperately to change that before new legislation comes in. For now, read the Newbies thread and try Plan A (never too late for that).

fisherjim

Once again absolutely abysmal signage from ECP no conformance to the BPA COP at all.

Coupon-mad

If you are at POPLA stage, see post 3 of the NEWBIES thread.

And add into the standard appeal point about unclear signs, a copy of POPLA's own words when they've found against ECP this past year for the £100 being inconspicuous in the small print on the signs.

FingerBlob

Umkomaas said:

We appealed to Euro Car Parks but this was rejected and the charge upheld.

Do you now have a POPLA code?  What is the date of the ECP rejection letter?

You can win this at POPLA on the basis that the ECP sign does not sufficiently draw attention to the £100 parking charge. If you go to the POPLA Decisions Announcement (near the top of the forum thread index page) and scroll back to around 12 months ago, you will find a number of POPLA decisions going in favour of the motorist there. Look at how others have penned their POPLA appeals and follow their pattern and wording. There actually might be a Matilda Street one, as that car park is familiar to forum regulars as it does crop up here from time to time. 

In addition, in the NEWBIES FAQ Announcement, third post, (also near the top of the forum thread index) you will find other near-template written appeal points to add to your signage one. Let us have a look at your POPLA appeal draft before submission. 

Thanks for the reply.

Yes I do.

The POPLA code was in the PDF attached to the email rejecting my appeal which was sent on 06/10/202.

The picture of the sign I posted was what they sent me as well.

What's bugging me most is that they are counting my parking from the moment we drove into the car park and not from when we purchased the ticket.

This was around 9 min gap which is not long at all.

We returned to our car before the ticket time had expired but left 1.5 minutes after the ticket time.

There wes no signage to say that it started on entry or that there was a time limit to purchase a ticket.

If I had "entered into a contract" with them by parking there, they didn't show the terms....right?

We simply followed what we thought was right but this feels like we've been trapped into a parking charge.

FingerBlob

Coupon-mad said:

If you are at POPLA stage, see post 3 of the NEWBIES thread.

And add into the standard appeal point about unclear signs, a copy of POPLA's own words when they've found against ECP this past year for the £100 being inconspicuous in the small print on the signs.

Thank you. I'll take a look.

I did have a look before but my head was spinning by that stage.

FingerBlob

fisherjim said:

Once again absolutely abysmal signage from ECP no conformance to the BPA COP at all.

Exactly!

UncleThomasCobley said:

Of course you have grounds to fight this attempted scam. To begin with, have you read the Newbies/FAQ thread?

Plan A is to complain to the landowner/retailer and also to get our MP to intervene. You already tried Plan B and failed. You then try Plan C, appeal to POPLA. If you fail at POPLA, you go for Plan C which is fight it in court where a judge will be the final arbiter as to whether you owe a debt to ECP.

ECP used not to be litigious, at least over single PCNs but they may be trying desperately to change that before new legislation comes in. For now, read the Newbies thread and try Plan A (never too late for that).

I'll do that so thanks for the info.

I'm happy to go to court on this one as we tried to comply but fell into a trap as it seems.

Fruitcake

The UK Government has prohibited the use of ANPR scameras for monitoring council and local authority car parks because they are not fit for purpose.

You are absolutely right that they don't record parking time, only time on site this has been tested in court.

Parking Prankster: Waiting for a space is not Parking. ParkingEye lose in court. Beware of snakes at Fistral Beach (parking-prankster.blogspot.com)

FingerBlob

Umkomaas said:

We appealed to Euro Car Parks but this was rejected and the charge upheld.

Do you now have a POPLA code?  What is the date of the ECP rejection letter?

You can win this at POPLA on the basis that the ECP sign does not sufficiently draw attention to the £100 parking charge. If you go to the POPLA Decisions Announcement (near the top of the forum thread index page) and scroll back to around 12 months ago, you will find a number of POPLA decisions going in favour of the motorist there. Look at how others have penned their POPLA appeals and follow their pattern and wording. There actually might be a Matilda Street one, as that car park is familiar to forum regulars as it does crop up here from time to time. 

In addition, in the NEWBIES FAQ Announcement, third post, (also near the top of the forum thread index) you will find other near-template written appeal points to add to your signage one. Let us have a look at your POPLA appeal draft before submission. 

I've written a draft statement of what I intend to send to POPLA regarding the unfair PCN.

What is the best was to post it to this thread as I have it in PDF format and all I can seem to upload is images.

Just wondering the best way to do this.

Umkomaas

FingerBlob said:

Umkomaas said:

We appealed to Euro Car Parks but this was rejected and the charge upheld.

Do you now have a POPLA code?  What is the date of the ECP rejection letter?

You can win this at POPLA on the basis that the ECP sign does not sufficiently draw attention to the £100 parking charge. If you go to the POPLA Decisions Announcement (near the top of the forum thread index page) and scroll back to around 12 months ago, you will find a number of POPLA decisions going in favour of the motorist there. Look at how others have penned their POPLA appeals and follow their pattern and wording. There actually might be a Matilda Street one, as that car park is familiar to forum regulars as it does crop up here from time to time. 

In addition, in the NEWBIES FAQ Announcement, third post, (also near the top of the forum thread index) you will find other near-template written appeal points to add to your signage one. Let us have a look at your POPLA appeal draft before submission. 

I've written a draft statement of what I intend to send to POPLA regarding the unfair PCN.

What is the best was to post it to this thread as I have it in PDF format and all I can seem to upload is images.

Just wondering the best way to do this.

Host it on Dropbox - make sure it's open for public view.