PCN for overstay with blue badge - appeal rejected

Sokk78

I received a private PCN at the private land, from carflow, I appealed and it was rejected.(please see their response below)  I was shopping at Lidl and spent around 86£. I have a blue badge (which was displayed on the dashboard and I know it is not valid on a private land, but it was attached to my appeal as a proof of my disability). I also said that I was using my reasonable adjustments under Equality Act 2010, but still it was rejected. Now, they offered to appeal to Popla. 
My PCN had two timestamped picture of my vehicle, one on arrival and one on leaving. 
It is my first time PCN on a private land. Can anyone advise what would be best as my next step? or shall I simply pay the discounted 60£?


Thank you for contacting Carflow.

This car park is private land and Carflow has been engaged by the landowner to ensure that motorists pay the correct parking tariff.

You mention that you have a blue badge - this does not entitle you to park without paying a sufficient tariff in this car park. The British Parking Association’s Code of Practice also states “Operators of off-street car parks do not have to recognise the Blue Badge scheme.”

Please also find attached an extract from the Department of Transport leaflet: “The Blue Badge scheme: rights and responsibilities in England.” This explains that you should not assume that you can park for free in off-street car parks.

The Equality Act 2010 states that reasonable adjustments must be provided for disabled users, e.g. disabled parking bays. As your appeal pertains to you not paying a sufficient tariff for your stay, we vehemently reject your claims of discrimination. We do not believe you were denied service or treated unfavourably in this instance. The British Parking Association Code of Practice’s minimum grace period is 10 minutes, therefore we do not believe enforcing a parking charge on an overstay of 39 minutes over the free-stay period is discriminatory or unreasonable in any way.

Please note the following from our signage,

“Tariffs apply to all motorists, including disabled badge holders"

As such, you were clearly informed that there are no exemptions in place for blue badge holders.

By entering and parking, the driver entered into a contract with Carflow Limited and agreed to the terms and conditions, which are displayed on the signs at the entrance and throughout the site. The full tariff must be paid prior to leaving the car park and the correct Vehicle Registration Number (VRN) entered. As a sufficient tariff was not paid, we must reject your appeal.

As a gesture of goodwill we are willing to extend the discounted payment period by 14 days from the date of this correspondence. Therefore, payment can still be made at the discounted rate of £60 until 22-Jan-25. Payment must be made within 28 days (by 05-Feb-25). If payment is delayed beyond 05-Feb-25, an administrative charge may be added for late payment and debt recovery or court action may be taken. Additional costs may also be incurred as a result of debt recovery or court action.

You have now reached the end of our internal appeals procedure and you now have two options; you can either pay or appeal to POPLA. You cannot do both. If you feel you have not been given a fair decision from Carflow you have the right to appeal to POPLA, the independent appeals service. Your POPLA appeal code can be found at the beginning of this correspondence. You must appeal to POPLA within 28 days of this rejection notice. The quickest and easiest way to submit your appeal to POPLA is  If you appeal to POPLA, you will lose the opportunity to pay at the discounted rate. POPLA's latest annual report notes a 45% appeal success rate for motorists. In contrast Carflow maintains a 91% all-time success rate at POPLA.

Gr1pr

Complain to lidl head office with proof of patronage plus the BB and EA2010 angles and get it cancelled, known on here as plan A   ( should have been done as soon as the pcn arrived   )

Coupon-mad

Dear Carflow,

This is discriminatory.

The Equality Act 2010 covers more than just bunging in a few physical adjustments to remove barriers for people with protected characteristics. In fact, adjusting fixed time limits for disabled persons is also your legal duty, and there's an example of that in the EHRC Statutory CoP for Services, Public Functions.

Here it is so that you can read it and learn:

https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/equality/equality-act-2010/codes-practice/services-public-functions-and-associations-code-0

You and I both know that no additional costs will be incurred as a result of debt recovery and your parking charge is already hiked to a sufficient level to more than cover the usual automated letter chain (which is your core business model, nothing extra). i will not reply to threatograms demanding more money.

If you think you have a case, then sue me and don't waste my time.  Threatograms will be evidence of a course of conduct of harassment of a known disabled person.

If you accept within 14 days of the date of this email, I am willing to settle this now for £10 which more than covers your admin and some unidentified tariff that you seem to think I should have paid. This offer has a far higher value to your firm because it will save you c£30 in a POPLA fee and many hours of your staff's time because, even if you do win at POPLA, I am not obliged to accept that and won't be paying the parking charge.

Whilst you might well dismiss me as just Another Forumite, I will mention that this case is featuring on MSE forum this week; a forum which has informed Government policy for years and maintains a 99% all-time success rate in the small claims track.

Yours faithfully,

Sokk78

Thank you so much for your advice. I emailed the CEO of lidl, and received the message that they would like to call me and discuss this further. I am not sure what they want to ask... 

Coupon-mad

Sounds good.

You need to tell them that people hate what they are doing to shoppers and ANPR is unfair on people delayed or slower to shop (and what they are doing is actually illegal when it affects disabled people who are legally allowed a time extension).  Get angry about this.

Gr1pr

Also complain about these issues to your local MP,  lobbying them about requiring urgent implementation of the MHCLG mandatory Code of Practice as required by the Parking Bill 2019 , almost 6 years ago 

( the deep expected it to implemented by Xmas of that year,  lol  )

You should sign the latest petition on gov UK that asks for the same thing, urgent regulation by that law via the MHCLG CoP 

Nellymoser

Petition demanding the re-launch of a Govt-backed Parking Code of Practice.

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/701453

Please sign 🙏 

Sokk78

I appreciate your advice and thank you so much. I did sign the petition. 

ChirpyChicken

100% use Coupon-mads reply

Sokk78

I sent Coupon -mad reply. I will let you know what they said. Thank you