Parking charge notice from Haults Yard Newcastle- via Parking Eye

Victim_of_parking_cowboys

I have been reading the Newbies thread and there is some great info on there so thank you. Unfortunately I did not find this forum before my initial appeal so I have admitted I was the driver, not sure how important that is but I am an honest person and feel I have a strong appeal anyway.

Quick summary, I attended Golf Fang (mini golf venue) at Hoults Yard Newcastle. Unbeknownst to me Hoults Yard is a site operated by parking eye that charge for parking and scan your number plate. For what it is worth, Golf Fang did not mention anywhere during the booking process or booking confirmation that you had to pay for parking. They also did not mention at reception when i attended the venue.

I was also on a date, the lady I was on a date with travelled separately in her own vehicle and also did not notice any parking signs and also got fined. Unfortunately she was in a company car and I believe her company paid and took it from her wages. This however does add to the fact that it was not just me not being observant as she also did not notice.

I attended after 6pm on 7 January so as you can imagine it was pitch black and I did not notice the badly lit car parking in the actual car park i parked in (pic provided). In peoples opinion does this sign meet the required standard for adequate lighting/visibility?

 

 

 

Secondly I have not been given an opportunity to appeal to POPLA.

Timeline of events

07/01/2024   I attend Golf Fang at Haults Yard after 6pm and do not notice parking sign due to it being badly lit

11/01/2024 Parking charge Notice issued (i received it about 13/01/2024)

14/01/2024 I submit my appeal to parking eye via their online form (i received an email acknowledgement- this is an important point i will explain later)

THEN RADIO SILENCE SO I ASSUME THIS IS THE END OF THE MATTER UNTIL

13/03/2024 I receive a letter before county court claim dated 13/03/2024. This letter informs me as I did not appeal to POPLA I now owe £125 and if i do not pay the next step is court proceedings.

19/03/2024 I contact parking eye via their online form and tell them I did not receive their rejection letter of my appeal and therefore the ref number I need to appeal to POPLA. I ask if they could re-issue this and reset the time limit to allow me to submit an appeal to POPLA. (again i get an email receipt)

3/4/2024 I receive a letter stating they are unable to consider any further correspondence and they attach a copy of an email supposedly issued 22/01/2024 with the appeal rejection and a now expired and unusable POPLA ref code.

Now I found this very suspicious because I check my email daily and I also get a notification on my phone every time I get an email. I checked my email address on 22/01/2024 and I have no email from parkingeye on this date. I did think maybe it went into my spam folder and got deleted but again this is impossible as the document they provided shows they sent it from the same email address that I already have the 2 confirmation emails from (that I mentioned earlier) so this email address does not go to my spam folder.

It therefore leaves me with the following questions

1) Did they fabricate the fact they had emailed me on 22/01/2024?
2) Why would they email me when all other correspondence relating to this matter has been via letter?
3) If I have not been given an opportunity to have my appeal independently assessed by POPLA is this even legal? I even explained to parking eye I had not received any appeal rejection or POPLA ref and they have pressed on regardless. How would a court view this?

Victim_of_parking_cowboys

Unfortunately It wont let me add pics for some reason so i was not able to add a pic of the badly lit sign or the letter they sent me.

I have also tried going the landowner route and have been getting fobbed off by Hoults Yard but have escalated it up the chain and have a telephone call with a manager next week as I have persistently complained. I will provide an update once I have had that call.

Coupon-mad

You can add a photo using the portrait icon.

Victim_of_parking_cowboys

I can get the image to appear but when i go to post i get this message 

"Whoops, your thread has been caught in on our suspicious thread filters! If you think this is a mistake, please email ForumTeam@MoneySavingExpert.com with details of the thread"

Any idea why?

fisherjim

Well you  are dealing with a parking scam so don't expect too much in the way of cooperation, unfortunately GSV isn't that up to date with this site, but the entrance is up to the usual bad standard with Parking Eye which shows the poor entrance signage in 2023 probably invisible at night.

You really need photos at night to show how bad it is.

The internal signage isn't looking great either but as I said three years ago but I doubt ant better today, and probably in a worse state they don't spend money if they can get away with it:

Victim_of_parking_cowboys

Yeah not much has changed it is very badly lit at night.

Golf Fang is actually located through that tunnel on the left of your bottom pic. You go up a long road into what appears to be a completely separate car park. Hoults yard tried to fob me off saying there is loads of signs in the car park you have pictured but I would argue they are not relevant as that is not where i parked, I may have drove past them in a moving vehicle in the dark but i did not even park in those car parks. The car park i parked in had one sign that was in complete darkness.

Unfortunately google maps does not allow you to go up that tunnel on the left.

There is def an issue with me posting pics as I could not even quote your message. I think maybe as I am a new member

Victim_of_parking_cowboys

Also have to factor in I am following a satnav and pre-occupied with looking at the buildings to see if any are labelled Golf Fang. Once I have actually found the venue It is only then I begin to actually think about parking etc.

Victim_of_parking_cowboys

I can post pics now! So this is the sign i did not see due to it being dark. Is this sign adequately lit?

fisherjim

It's not lit at all how on earth could you read anything on that in the dark, you could ask the man standing next to it if he has a torch, no wait......on closer inspection it could be a pay machine.....or maybe not I can't see very much with that bright light at the back blinding me!

Victim_of_parking_cowboys

fisherjim said:

It's not lit at all how on earth could you read anything on that in the dark, you could ask the man standing next to it if he has a torch, no wait......on closer inspection it could be a pay machine.....or maybe not I can't see very much with that bright light at the back blinding me!

Hoults yard kept sending me cut and paste replies about how all parking signs are "adequately lit" I eventually had to say Actually look at the photo i sent you!  How on earth they had the brass neck to say that even after i had sent them that pic is beyond me.

Hopefully if it gets to the court stage that photo will help me win

Victim_of_parking_cowboys

Oh and not only that they outright lied and told me that "Golf Fang inform customers of a parking charge on the booking confirmation". Again i had to send them my booking confirmation to prove that is also complete !!!!!!