Highview Parking - Overstay Parking Charge

scara

I received this today from Nexus:-

"Dear Sir/Madam,
Thank you for your correspondence relating to your Parking Charge.
The Charge was issued and the signage is displayed in compliance with The British Parking Association’s Approved Operator Scheme Code of Practice and all relevant laws and regulations. 
Clear signs at the entrance of this site and throughout inform drivers of the 1 hour 30 minutes max stay  , and it is not possible to access any part of the premises without passing multiple signs. Your representations are not considered a mitigating circumstance for appeal.
We confirm the Charge was issued under Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012. As no driver details have been provided, we are holding the registered keeper of the vehicle liable.
In light of this, on this occasion, your representations have been carefully considered and rejected.
We can confirm that we will hold the Charge at the current rate of £55.00 for a further 14 days from the date of this correspondence. If no payment is received within this period, and no further appeal to POPLA is made, the Charge will escalate and further costs may be added.
Please find below the payment options: 
Online: www.groupnexus.co.uk/pcnBy Telephone: Credit/Debit cards via our automated payment line: 0844 371 8784By Post: Cheques or Postal Orders to: PO BOX 14836, London, NW3 1WT----------You have now reached the end of our internal appeals procedure. This correspondence represents our final stance on the matter and we will therefore not enter into any further correspondence.
CORRESPONDENCE RECEIVED FOLLOWING THE REJECTION OF AN APPEAL WILL NOT CHANGE THE OUTCOME OR EXTEND THE DATE IN WHICH PAYMENT SHOULD BE MADE.
Although we have now rejected your appeal, you may still have recourse to appeal to Parking On Private Land Appeals (POPLA), an independent appeals service. An appeal to POPLA must be made within 28 days of the date of this correspondence.  POPLA will only consider cases on the grounds that the Parking Charge exceeded the appropriate amount, that the vehicle was not improperly parked or had been stolen, or that you were otherwise not liable for the Parking Charge.  To appeal to POPLA, please go to their website http://www.popla.co.uk and follow the instructions. If you would rather deal with this matter by post, please contact our Appeals Office and we will send you the necessary paperwork. 
Your POPLA reference number is:xxxxxxx
Please note that if your appeal does not relate to the above criteria or is rejected by POPLA for any reason, you will no longer qualify for payment at the reduced rate. POPLA will not consider any cases where payment has been made. You must pay the charge or appeal to POPLA, you cannot do both.
By law we are also required to inform you that Ombudsman Services (www.ombudsman-services.org/) provides an alternative dispute resolution service that would be competent to deal with your appeal.  However, we have not chosen to participate in their alternative dispute resolution service.  As such should you wish to appeal then you must do so to POPLA, as explained above."

scara

From their letter above:- "POPLA will only consider cases on the grounds that the Parking Charge exceeded the appropriate amount, that the vehicle was not improperly parked or had been stolen, or that you were otherwise not liable for the Parking Charge."

Does this mean that the lack of clarity on the signage regarding the use of ANPR for detecting crime and not for parking monitoring, cannot be a valid reason for a POPLA appeal?

KeithP

Probably best if you were to remove your PoPLA appeal reference number from your recent post, to avoid the possibility of some rogue person submitting a rubbish PoPLA appeal on your behalf.

Coupon-mad

scara said:

From their letter above:- "POPLA will only consider cases on the grounds that the Parking Charge exceeded the appropriate amount, that the vehicle was not improperly parked or had been stolen, or that you were otherwise not liable for the Parking Charge."

Does this mean that the lack of clarity on the signage regarding the use of ANPR for detecting crime and not for parking monitoring, cannot be a valid reason for a POPLA appeal?

Wow that's misleading and not true.

POPLA are rubbish and not independent (so I wouldn't bother with them at all, personally) but they consider any appeals on any grounds.

I would put a complaint in on the Group Nexus 'complaints' portal/webpage and say you will report them to the BPA for those misleading words.  Then do so.

You won't be paying. Not a penny.

The retail park can cancel it.

POPLA are unlikely to come good.  DO NOT TRY POPLA BEFORE EXHAUSTING LANDOWNER COMPLAINT.

scara

Thanks KeithP reference number removed.

Thanks Coupon-mad I will raise this with Punch.org and make a complaint on Nexus complaints page.

scara

I have written my complaint letter and before sending it to Highview/Nexus/Punch I would like to get your opinion/s as well as any suggestions or comments.

Dear Sir/Madam,

RE: PCN xxxxxxxxxxx

I am writing to you today to make a formal complaint regarding the above PCN which was posted to me at my home address regarding an allegation of exceeding the maximum stay on your clients property at Netherfield Neighbourhood Centre.

I have followed the online appeals process and requested close up actual photographs of the signage as well as the actual grace period agreed by the landowner.

Neither of my requests were fulfilled as shown in the forwarded email from Highview Parking. I have since returned to the site and taken detailed photographs of your signage which are attached to this email.

I challenge this 'PCN' as keeper of the car.

I believe that your signs fail the test of 'large lettering' and prominence, as established in ParkingEye Ltd v Beavis. Your unremarkable and obscure signs were not seen by the driver, are in very small print and the terms are not readable to drivers.

The signs are also specifying ANPR without proper notices. What your signs say is " The automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras in this car park are used for the prevention and/or detection of crime, and the Data collected may be shared with third parties for these purposes. "

What the BPA CoP says is: -

21 Automatic number plate recognition (ANPR)

21.1 You may use ANPR camera technology to manage,
control and enforce parking in private car parks, as long
as you do this in a reasonable, consistent and transparent
manner. Your signs at the car park must tell drivers that
you are using this technology and what you will use the
data captured by ANPR cameras for.

Where does the sign say that ANPR is used for Parking purposes as the BPA CoP demands?

Your signage is untrue and in breach of the DPA and UK GDPR 2018 and will be reported to the Information Commissioner.

From the information supplied in your appeal rejection email:- "POPLA will only consider cases on the grounds that the Parking Charge exceeded the appropriate amount, that the vehicle was not improperly parked or had been stolen, or that you were otherwise not liable for the Parking Charge."

Based on the untrue information in the above paragraph I will be reporting you to the BPA for those misleading words.

Finally I will be making a formal complaint about the incorrect signage and misleading information from Highview/Nexus to your client Punch Retail and leisure.

Yours faithfully,

Keeper of the car

 

Coupon-mad

It's not clear that's a complaint.  Looks like a muddled appeal.

None of the middle is relevant for the landowner to have to read.

scara

Apologies for not making myself clear. The above complaint letter will be edited for Punch. Coupon-mad if you have any suggestions I would be most grateful. Thanks again.

Le_Kirk

scara said:

Apologies for not making myself clear. The above complaint letter will be edited for Punch. Coupon-mad if you have any suggestions I would be most grateful. Thanks again.

Coupon-mad said:

It's not clear that's a complaint.  Looks like a muddled appeal.
None of the middle is relevant for the landowner to have to read.

I thought that the advice from @Coupon-mad was quite clear.  You need to head up your missive to Punch as Complaint.

scara

I get it, thanks Le_Kirk. I didn't make it clear that the letter was a combination of the complaint to Punch and a message to Nexus that their PCN is not lawful and will be challenged. My mistake for not doing 2 separate posts keeping the complaint and appeal separate.