Appealing parking fine not on pay by phone app

JFH1975

Hi, 
I’m in the process of appealing a parking fine issued by a London council, initial 2 appeals have been rejected so I’m taking this to the Environment and Traffic Adjudicators.

In summary I parked in a multi-storey car park by a shopping centre. The car park has a big sign outside with its name - let’s call it Martha’s. As I’m currently appealing I don’t want to name the actual details of the car park and council yet. It uses a popular phone parking app. I use the app a lot as I’m sure many motorists do.

I parked, went to Find parking section of app and it displays only one car park nearby, ‘Martha’s place car park’ 223 ft away.

So I selected that car park and paid. 

When I returned I had a parking ticket on the window. Dismayed I looked again at the app and the nearby car park and the number for it was XXXXX5 rather than XXXXX6 which I then realised was displayed on the car park signage I was actually in. On the signage it displayed ‘Martha’s multi storey car park’ to add to confusion.

Rather annoyed at this I later went back to the car park a week later to double check and found that when you go onto the phone app the only car park on the map of the app is ‘Martha’s place car park’ XXXXX5 which happens to be right next door to ‘Martha’s multi storey car park’. However Martha’s multi story car park XXXXX6 is not on the map at all so wouldn’t be listed on the find parking section of the app. I had screenshotted the relevant sections of the app on the day and submitted this with my appeal explanation.

Anyway I’ve appealed twice now and all the authority say is the app does state the location name after the location ID has been entered and state the location number can be found on the signage around the car park.

They make no reference to my statement that their car park location is not loaded onto the map and so does not list when searching. The fact that there is a car park next door which is listed and is in on the map adds to the confusion. 

My argument to them is any reasonable person using the app would select the car park Martha’s place as it is the only one listed as being nearby (223ft away) and as there are no other car parks listed it would be the only one you would select and pay for. Not everyone keys in the location code manually and why would you when there is that function on the app. Incidentally both car parks are owned by the same London borough. I’m arguing there has been procedural impropriety on behalf of the enforcement authority- grounds I understand on which you can appeal.

What is also concerning is surely I’m not the only person that has been caught out by this. There is clearly a fault in not loading the Martha’s multi storey car park onto the map of the system and consequently fining unsuspecting motorists and spoiling their day.

Any advice on appealing welcome but also wanted to highlight what I see as a negligent setup of the car park in the app by being not on the map.

Gr1pr

If this is a council pcn, I strongly suggest that you post your query over on the FTLA parking forum website in the appropriate section there,  after reading their posting requirements first.  Ideally use a non Hotmail email address when signing up 

JFH1975

thanks will post there
looks like a great resource