# Seeking Advice: EV Charging Bay PCN

mhart68

I recently received a Parking Charge Notice from APCOA at Reading railway station. I'm hoping for some guidance on how to proceed.

Two weeks ago I received a Parking Charge Notice from APCOA at Reading railway station. The ticket was issued for parking in a restricted area, specifically an EV charging bay. The fine is £85, reduced to £50 if paid within 14 days. 

I paid the day rate of £20 and with the intention to charge my car in the car park. I parked my electric vehicle (EV) in a designated charging bay at the station. Upon arrival, I connected my charging cable and attempted to initiate charging but encountered difficulties with the charging point. As I was running late for my train, I decided to try starting the charge remotely using the APCOA app. Many EV owners can attest to the challenges of using these apps, which are often not straightforward or user-friendly. While on the train, I made another attempt to initiate charging on a timer. Unfortunately, due to an unreliable connection during my journey, this attempt also failed. When I returned to the carpark in the afternoon I had a PCN on my car.

My primary concern is that I did, in fact, park an EV in the appropriate bay and made multiple attempts to charge my vehicle. It's important to note that I wasn't trying to avoid parking fees. 

My wife appealed straight away and explained the reason why we were parked there. Any we have now received a response stating that 'the car was parked in this area without using the charging ports'. The picture even shows the charge lead in the car and the charge port.

The circumstances seem to stem from technical difficulties rather than intentional misuse of the parking bay.

I would greatly appreciate any help or guidance you can offer, I know that my wife should not have responded to the appeal straight away and waited until the last few days.

[Images removed by Forum Team]

Many thanks!

Castle

OP
I have reported your first post as the image shows your name, address and VRM, as well as APCOA references.

mhart68

Okay I get that my wife did wrong. Is there any way of getting out of this still or do I just pay the £50 for the sake on the ongoing hassle and time having to put into this.

It does appear that I am down as the named driver. This was my appeal:

Grizebeck

Lol no one should pay apoca a penny
There is no going effort 

mhart68

So I'm taking it by users deleting their comments, that no help is available in regards the next step and that what we have done is wrong albeit by mistake.

LDast

Just ignore APCOA. They are benign and don't litigate. Only fools and their money pay APCOA out of ignorance.

Had an appeal been made only as the Keeper without identifying who was driving, you could have simply told them to go sit on a sharp stick and rotate, slowly. They had no idea who the driver was until it was blabbed to them. The car park was on railway land which is under statutory control and therefore not relevant land for the purposes of PoFA which means that only the unknown (to APCOA) driver could be liable.

Just ignore any and all debt collector letters. Eventually, APCOA will move on in search of lower hanging-fruit on the gullible tree. They won't litigate.

Coupon-mad

mhart68 said:

So I'm taking it by users deleting their comments, that no help is available in regards the next step and that what we have done is wrong albeit by mistake.

Nobody has deleted their comments.  The forum team has deleted anything with your personal data on it.

Just completely ignore APCOA.

Nobody here says you did anything wrong (except the appeal which would have won had the keeper appealed. That was the only error).

Now ignore the £170 debt letters. Neither of you are to be spooked by those. Read a few other APCOA threads.  There's no step to take and there is no risk.

Laugh at them!

mhart68

@LDast & @Coupon-mad really appreciate the advice many thanks...... Next a DCB claim from the CNBC to deal with a parking claim issues 3 years ago! I'll do this on a seperate thread.

mhart68

I have now received 2 further letters, do i still ignore?

Thorndorise

Yep, these are standard debt collectors letters that can safely be ignored....They are trying to scare you into paying. These are NOT Letter before Claim's and therefore nothing to action or do with them (other than file away for now).

Coupon-mad

Are they any different than you saw when you looked at the pics in the 4th post of the NEWBIES thread? We think not.

Please don't post to show DRA threatograms.