Appealing PCN, to POPLA after ParkingEye (Corporation Street, Preston)

dylatte

Hello, I'm new to forums, threads, all of it but find them very useful every once in a while. I hope I'll get some advice about my specific situation (in the appeal to ParkingEye below), bearing in mind, I want to submit my 'Motorist Comments' by the 22/10.

~ To whom this may concern,

I have just received a parking charge notice this week for an event which took place on 27/08 and would like to appeal the invoice for the reasons below.

I was in the car park for 9 minutes as stated as I initially intended to use the car park for approximately 2 hours and pay with cash. The machine was not accepting the change I'd inserted and I had no alternative method of payment at the time, hence why I was within the car park for such a short amount of time.

I did not leave the car park by foot within those 9 minutes and instead drove back out to look for somewhere else to park. With no one on site or immediate contact information, I could not ask or inform anyone about this.

Upon reading reviews for this car park, it seems to be a common issue with the machine and I'd also like to mention I have received this notice after the 14 day period from when this was issued. With the discounted charge being out of date and receiving this as late as I have, as well as the other reasons mentioned, I do not feel it is fair to pay this notice as I quite literally did not have any option to pay, so I left.

It is to my understanding that ParkingEye is a member of the British Parking Association, who quote a 10 minute grace period, which I did not exceed. The Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 (Schedule 4, Section 56, Paragraph 9(5)) also quotes that I must receive the letter within 14 days after the incident, which I did not.

I would kindly like to ask for this notice to be dismissed due to the information above and in return I will be more cautious using your car parks from now on.

Kind regards ~

This was unsuccessful with ParkingEye which I've seen is to be expected, so I appealed the same reasonings to POPLA who've just emailed me that I have a week to submit comments.

I'm thinking to write something including the following points as I assume this is my last chance to have a say:

• First time parking offence
• Not safe to stop to see signs, safest to view signage inside the car park
• Not familiar with the area, I live in London
• Could not read the T&C's unless I was in the car park and definitely not within 5 minutes, signage not easy to read (PoFA mentions it should be). It'd be impossible to consent to this contract without making the assumption, in such little time also
• I did not have an option to pay in that moment, I could only leave which I did (just not in time) 🙄 
• I didn't use the car park for the intended purpose

I know some of these aren't so important, I'm just brainstorming for now. What do you recommend, from knowledge and/or experience? Am I missing anything valuable to add to this (motorist comments or this post)?

Thank you in advance

foden11

If this is in relation to a pcn you have received, the only car park in corporation st is at the retail park and is managed by ocean parking and managed by ANPR no payment machines, Or do you mean the one on Seed st opposite? 

fisherjim

No no no please read the newbies thread which you should have done before sending anything, those points will not win at POPLA and who on earth writes "kind regards" when appealing to greed obsessed scammers!

Coupon-mad

The Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 (Schedule 4, Section 56, Paragraph 9(5)) also quotes that I must receive the letter within 14 days after the incident, which I did not.

None of that matters because you admitted to being the driver, and sadly ruined that point.

UncleThomasCobley

SNAFU, FUBAR? Take your pick.

Please read the Newbies/FAQ thread and try to understand how you should have dealt with this in the first place and what you now can expect as this moves on. Forget anything about mitigating circumstances.  Forget PoFA for the reasons given above and, anyway, it is not when you received the NtK but the date it is "deemed" to have been delivered. 

"First time offence"? It is not an "offence" and nobody cares. "Not familiar with the area..."? Honestly, do you really think that is in any way an appeal point?

Read the Newbies/FAQ thread about points to use in a POPLA appeal. Fully expect it to fail anyway. The rest of that thread explains what to expect after that and what to if/when a claim is made.

dylatte

foden11 said:

If this is in relation to a pcn you have received, the only car park in corporation st is at the retail park and is managed by ocean parking and managed by ANPR no payment machines, Or do you mean the one on Seed st opposite? 

Yes, the one by Seed Street, it's called Corporation Street on the letter for whatever reason.

dylatte

UncleThomasCobley said:

SNAFU, FUBAR? Take your pick.

Please read the Newbies/FAQ thread and try to understand how you should have dealt with this in the first place and what you now can expect as this moves on. Forget anything about mitigating circumstances.  Forget PoFA for the reasons given above and, anyway, it is not when you received the NtK but the date it is "deemed" to have been delivered. 

"First time offence"? It is not an "offence" and nobody cares. "Not familiar with the area..."? Honestly, do you really think that is in any way an appeal point?

Read the Newbies/FAQ thread about points to use in a POPLA appeal. Fully expect it to fail anyway. The rest of that thread explains what to expect after that and what to if/when a claim is made.

What are SNAFU and FUBAR short for? I'll have a look at the threads, but in the meantime, is there anything else I can look at or do from here? Obviously I didn't know or see the information to use before appealing, so I'm focusing on what to do from here onwards.

UncleThomasCobley

dylatte said:

What are SNAFU and FUBAR short for? I'll have a look at the threads, but in the meantime, is there anything else I can look at or do from here? Obviously I didn't know or see the information to use before appealing, so I'm focusing on what to do from here onwards.

It depends if you are of a sensitive disposition. Google is your friend. No offence intended. 

As for the Newbies/FAQ thread, you really should read rather than look at it.

dylatte

Googled it thanks, not so reassuring but honest I guess. I assumed they were acronyms specific to MSE forums or appeal terminology. I'm reading through the threads as well, I understand that the easiest thing would've been not to mention who the driver was but can't take that back now.

Looking at other threads, I'm wondering if it'd be worth writing to BPA directly and in the motorist comments, put emphasis on the point of signage not being sufficient, especially from the outside. It'd be almost impossible to park, go through the T&C's if even on the signs and leave all within a 5 minute grace period? I've also seen other people point out the reliability of ANPR cameras, that they were not technically parked (entered and left with the assumption of parking being made with no evidence) and so on. Wondering if these are worth mentioning?

Coupon-mad

No-one advises writing to the BPA.  Just do POPLA comments as explained in the third post of the NEWBIES thread.

dylatte

Thank you, I think I've found the post you meant, specifically 'rebut the operator's case, blow by blow'.

Also I've heard that if you're unsuccessful with a private PCN, this could affect your credit score. At what stage does that happen and does anyone have experience with this? I want to continue fighting this situation but not to the point of causing something else irreversible or detrimental.