Clarification on Grace and Consideration periods under BPA

Anon298

Hi, 

We recently received a parking ticket from Ocean parking for being 12 minutes over the 3 hr maximum stay in a free car park. They are a member of IPC and BPA. The initial appeal was rejected. When I contacted them over the phone they stated it was a 2 hour maximum stay and based our initial appeal on this. However on revisiting the car park it is clearly a 3 hr stay.

I was wondering whether my interpretation of the grace period and consideration periods were correct? 

My understanding is that the consideration period is the minimum time to park and agree to t&cs is at least 5/10 minutes (car park is around 500 spaces) and it was busy so full time was needed. 

The grace period is the time one has when leaving (so long as have obeyed all other terms). 

Therefore, with the 5 consideration +10 grace we will not have exceeded the maximum stay? 

I was also wondering whether I should request a POPLA number for appeal- they’ve referred us through to IAS but obviously have heard there’s a better chance with POPLA. 

Many thanks in advance 

Gr1pr

The code of practice in force at the time of the incident defines the appropriate consideration period or grace period 

Ocean Parking were BPA AOS members but have now jumped ship to the IPC, only one applies,  depending on the incident date 

You dont get the 2 added together,  so only the latter applies if a parking event took place 

If the incident date was after they jumped ship,  you wont obtain a popla code,  which is what it seems to be,  due to the waste of time IAS being offered 

Plan A in the newbies sticky thread in announcements near the top of the forum is currently your best option here 

Coupon-mad

You could try POPLA by saying it is a large car park / has a long entrance approach / mini roundabouts first and one way lanes / it was very busy, hard to find a space in the January sales / you had young kids with you which takes longer than other drivers to strap them in safely / there was a queue at the exit where cars (which had all left their parking bays and were gaining no further amenity from the site) had to wait a couple of minutes because there is a traffic light constantly stopping vehicles and only lets maybe 5 cars out at a time, at the main road junction (whatever is true).

Add that a supposed 12 minutes to leave is far more 'in the region of' the minimum 10 minutes mandated by the BPA CoP than £100 is laughably said by POPLA to be 'in the region of' the £85 in ParkingEye v Beavis! If the Assessor gives that some thought they'll see that 12 minutes is a mere 20% more than the 'MINIMUM' ten minutes but £100 is 23% over £85, so the POPLA rationale about 'in the region of' applies.

Add the usual POPLA points from the NEWBIES thread third post:

- unclear signs

- no landowner authority