Parking Charge due to diabetic blood sugar crash

jax1701

I've searched the forum and found articles relating to this happening with no result of when issued from a council.
Quick round up.
Had a hypo whilst driving, was on a main road and could not park safely on the road, so turned left at the nearest turning in, and turned into, what turned out to be, the DVLA theory test centre staff car park.
Road rules stipulate your blood sugars need to settle at a reasonable level, and you must not drive for 45 minutes at least. All well and good, turned round and left afterwards.

I get a ticket several weeks later from a private parking company. Appealed to POPLA and they said that I should have paid when I left. Honestly, didn't really think I should have had to. It was an emergency, plus I don't even think there is any way to pay. However, I cannot appeal this decision, so therefore I am now being threatened with court.

So, I am thinking that I fight it in court.
My argument will be -
Emergency matter
Could not have entered into a contract whilst severely ill
It was the safest place to park, and is illegal to drive until 45 minutes have elapsed, when they did I left.
No other reason to park there (it is nowhere near any shops and I am in a wheelchair, so in essence I have a LOT of better parking available for shopping so I wouldn't intentionally have chosen to park there anyway.
No parking signage where I parked (I had parked Infront of a very leafy bush, there was no sign there)
Nowhere to pay any parking fees as it is not a pay and display car park.

I should have really said all this to POPLA but I didn't because I mistakenly thought they would be reasonable, I only alluded to parking due to a diabetic emergency, and had no other reason to park there as there was nowhere else I could safely go. They advised I could have gotten out after to see if there was any signage, and pay at the pay station, and that I lawfully entered into a contract. The parking company provided really weak, generic signage photographs. On closer inspection, after the fact, this isn't even a pay and display car park so not sure how I could have paid anything anyway. I rang POPLA and advised them, but they said their decisions are final.

As such, this has emboldened the parking company and now had my last threatening letter before court action.

Whilst I feel I am in the right, their argument will be the entering into a contract defense no doubt (as POPLA mentioned). I don't want to play my whole hand just yet until they send their LBA. Will a judge see common sense, and agree this is a pointless charge?

I am wondering also whether to offer the company £5 in full and final settlement. I would presume this would cover the length of time I was in their car park (45 mins for £5 seems very fair).

Thank you on advance, and if there are any threads that mention this issue before, please link them. I have searched and come up rather dry, and relatively old cases.

Coupon-mad

Which PPC?

Which solicitor?

UncleThomasCobley

Offering to pay £5 will not get you anywhere and will embolden the intellectually malnourished thugs to ramp up any threats to you. From what you have written, it would appear that you are still in the debt recovery stage and we all know that you can safely ignore those as advised in the Newbies/FAQ thread.

If/when you get an LBC, you just need to re-read the second post in the Newbies/FAQ thread on how to deal with it. Which PPC?

Whilst you say there was no P&D option at the location, was there any option to pay by phone or app? Not that that will make a huge difference because the template defence covers most situations. The fact that you say you parked by a bush and no signage was visible from that location is a good point. However, was there an entrance sign that mentioned private land? If you can tell us the location, we could have a look on GSV.

tacpot12

You didn't intend to park, which involves leaving your vehicle, so you can't be held to any contract. 

Your defence in court is that you weren't parked, you stopped in your vehicle due to a medical emergency. If you have a Libre Freestyle or similar device that logs your blood sugar level, see if you can get data off your app to support your statement that you were ill and that you left as soon as it was safe enough for you to do so. Photos of the busy main road leading to the car park might also support your view that you could not safely stop on the road.  

jax1701

Thanks very much folks.

The car park I went into is in a place called Packwood Court, Stratford on Avon. On Google Street view, there is a white van just Infront of the entrance protected by a gate. As you can see, it's on a 4 lane carriageway leading to traffic lights and junctions, there was heavy traffic at the time, and I was panicking, so took the closest turning as I could feel it getting worse. There is nowhere else nearby I could have safely gone to, the traffic was moving in fits and starts and it was the last week before Christmas last year hence the heavy traffic. 

Honestly, wasn't looking for signs driving in, so didn't see any. Just needed to park up before I passed out. I have brittle diabetes (technical term, type 3c, which is treated as T1, but because I'm not t1, I don't have a libre (NHS rules). Only machine I had has now been replaced since. 


I'm going to get defensive by reiterating, and I do not mean to be rude, but I am sure there are people thinking I am trying to talk my way out of this to get free parking to do shopping, (I've read other threads and they can become toxic quite quickly) however, I use a wheelchair, so parking is freely available almost everywhere in the town centre anyway. 

But again, thank you for your advice.

jax1701

tacpot12 said:

You didn't intend to park, which involves leaving your vehicle, so you can't be held to any contract. 

Your defence in court is that you weren't parked, you stopped in your vehicle due to a medical emergency. If you have a Libre Freestyle or similar device that logs your blood sugar level, see if you can get data off your app to support your statement that you were ill and that you left as soon as it was safe enough for you to do so. Photos of the busy main road leading to the car park might also support your view that you could not safely stop on the road.  

I did actually mention I stayed in my vehicle the whole time to POPLA, but I will add that to my defence anyway.

Part of me wants them to take me to court to get the publicity. Imagine pulling a witness from the DVLA to advise what to do, considering their staff use the car park themselves.

jax1701

UncleThomasCobley said:

Offering to pay £5 will not get you anywhere and will embolden the intellectually malnourished thugs to ramp up any threats to you. From what you have written, it would appear that you are still in the debt recovery stage and we all know that you can safely ignore those as advised in the Newbies/FAQ thread.

If/when you get an LBC, you just need to re-read the second post in the Newbies/FAQ thread on how to deal with it. Which PPC?

Whilst you say there was no P&D option at the location, was there any option to pay by phone or app? Not that that will make a huge difference because the template defence covers most situations. The fact that you say you parked by a bush and no signage was visible from that location is a good point. However, was there an entrance sign that mentioned private land? If you can tell us the location, we could have a look on GSV.

Hi.

Sorry. To add. I did not see a PD option, or anything about pay and display. It was obviously private land, but I felt I had absolutely no other option. By law. I couldn't carry on driving, if the car park had not been there, I would clearly have had to stop and cause an obstruction, however, the barrier was up, so I chose the safest option.

Also...The fine was made due to ANPR,rather than a physical ticket. Not sure if that makes a difference?

UncleThomasCobley

jax1701 said:

Sorry. To add. I did not see a PD option, or anything about pay and display. It was obviously private land, but I felt I had absolutely no other option. By law. I couldn't carry on driving, if the car park had not been there, I would clearly have had to stop and cause an obstruction, however, the barrier was up, so I chose the safest option. 

Also...The fine was made due to ANPR,rather than a physical ticket. Not sure if that makes a difference?

It's just the you said in your opening post that POPLA said you "didn't pay".

For now, please make sure you have a thorough read of the Newbies/FAQ thread. You will be getting useless debt collector letters for a while. You need to come back if/when you get an LoC/LBC. The second post in the Newbies/FAQ thread tells you what to do and by when. The template defence thread is what you'll use if you ever receive an actual claim.

GrumpyDil

jax1701 said:
 I am sure there are people thinking I am trying to talk my way out of this to get free parking to do shopping, (I've read other threads and they can become toxic quite quickly) however, I use a wheelchair, so parking is freely available almost everywhere in the town centre anyway. 

I very much doubt that is the case on these forums. I would say the general view of these companies is that they are parisites who's sole aim is to extort money from people who they claim have breached something that they agreed to which was printed on a sign which could only be read by standing on a step ladder and peering through the greenery hiding it. 

Coupon-mad

I was going to say the same. I have never ever seen that sort of 'driver blame' culture on this parking forum and I've been posting here about 15 years.

@GrumpyDil has summed up our consistent pro-motorist stance here and we are totally on the driver's side!

You won't be paying this ex-clamper a penny.

The fine was made due to ANPR,rather than a physical ticket. Not sure if that makes a difference?

No difference. But knowing who the PPC and solicitor is does affect our advice as to what is likely to happen next.  Can't see you have answered my questions?

jax1701

UncleThomasCobley said:

jax1701 said:

Sorry. To add. I did not see a PD option, or anything about pay and display. It was obviously private land, but I felt I had absolutely no other option. By law. I couldn't carry on driving, if the car park had not been there, I would clearly have had to stop and cause an obstruction, however, the barrier was up, so I chose the safest option. 

Also...The fine was made due to ANPR,rather than a physical ticket. Not sure if that makes a difference?

It's just the you said in your opening post that POPLA said you "didn't pay".

For now, please make sure you have a thorough read of the Newbies/FAQ thread. You will be getting useless debt collector letters for a while. You need to come back if/when you get an LoC/LBC. The second post in the Newbies/FAQ thread tells you what to do and by when. The template defence thread is what you'll use if you ever receive an actual claim.

Thank you. I  have had a court letter in the past for a different matter, parking again, my disabled badge was upside down, they wanted to go to court. I wanted them to, they didn't even turn up. Was on the phone as well. Judge dismissed it. That was a cut and dry case, but this is a bit more ambiguous having seen similar cases in the news from years before that didn't have a resolution, hence me popping it on here just incase. 

I'll keep this bookmarked and then see what happens. If they do come back with a LBA, I'll put it up here.

Company sending letters is called Debt Recovery Plus. Their client is Local Parking Security LTD.

Huh... As I read this, I realise that it really is just an empty threat by a debt recovery company...

I'll keep the bin next to the letterbox.

Thanks everyone