Changes at Stansted AirPort Express Drop Off Zone -PCN CANCELLED ON APPEAL

Coupon-mad

No. You can't appeal now. You are at the stage shown in the 4th post of the NEWBIES thread.

naf123

I feel like crying as I forgot to pay (drop off sunday am, came home, had to deal with a family medical emergency sunday afternoon) and by the time I went online today to pay (Tuesday) it appears too late. 

This is unreasonable. So I just want to check with all of you lovely fellow MSE, so is my plan of action, when I get the fine, is to appeal as per template in the first page of this forum and then I will get off scott free? Does it mean I even save £7? 

Coupon-mad

Yes or use the one in the Airport drop off group thread. It's above this thread right now on the thread list.

Care to join the 1,717 others who are asking Govt to:

Ban Drop-off charges at airports

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/724381

Sign and share

naf123

Does anyone know how long it takes for the PCN to come in the post? Its Friday today and I didnt pay the parking on Sunday....

ChirpyChicken

naf123 said:

Does anyone know how long it takes for the PCN to come in the post? Its Friday today and I didnt pay the parking on Sunday....

Few weeks, but it does not matter

walletwatcher2025

Hi all, sorry if I've something already posted - have spent ages looking through the threads over the weekend, but unsure as to what to do...

I picked someone up at Stansted in the middle of May and have since done a drop off and another pick up.

On Friday 15.08.25 I received a letter dated 01.08.25 stating that owe £170.00 within 7 days to avoid legal proceedings.

The thing is, as others have noted, the signage is not very clear, not visible in the dark and I have completely missed it.  I would be content to pay a late fee or even the orginal PCN, but instead I've received this demad where they've lied and said theey've made 3 collection attempts and ticked all the other necessary boxes.

Do I just completely ignore this or write to them/ APCOA?

To make matters worse, I've just paid via AMEX for yesterday's drop-off and have immediately received a scam AMEX email asking me to update my card details 🤔

doubledotcom

Just ignore everything you receive about the APCOA PCN at Stansted. Nothing will come of it. They don't do court.

walletwatcher2025

Thank you!

Coupon-mad

walletwatcher2025 said:

Thank you!

But there is something you can do.

Is your logbook up to date? The usual reason to not receive a PCN at all and only get traced to your new address later by a debt recovery firm, is an old address on your DVLA car registration.

Also:

These £100 PCNs for forgetting to pay after barrier-less Airport zone drop offs is FAR too punitive. Also, when you DID use the portal, you got a scam text immediately. That sounds like the webpage was insecure, stoping you from having any confidence in the ststem.

You can now have your say and change things by 2026. Here is the Public Consultation thread if you haven't done it yet: -

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6617396/parking-code-of-practice-consultation-8-weeks-from-11th-july-2025/p1

We need every poster to come back & complete this vital Consultation before the deadline! Just 2 weeks left.

I'm taking a closer look this week and we'll walk you through it. I should have all the first post 'how to respond to each question' advice ready by the end of this week.

There are vital points to safeguard motorists interests to make, that many people won't think of/need focus. There won't be a template - the survey is for you to reply in your words - but we'll help everyone with what to focus on.

Blablabla25

Hi all, I created an account only to say a big

THANK---YOU---SO---MUCH 

to all the helpful people in the various threads of APCOA PCN/appeals re airport drop-off charges.

Thanks to you, I made a successful appeal and I dodged the £60/£100 extorsion attempts from Stansted Airport... (apparently the “reduced fine” was £25 back in April, it is now £60, are you kidding me, why not £250 by Xmas)

I went to Stansted for the first time since the barriers were removed… and completely and genuinely forgot to pay once back at home (have a lot on my plate right now like and I’m sure I’m not the only one).

I remembered it 3 days later at 2 in the morning… and of course it was too late to pay online.

So at 2am, I was so considerably !!!!!! off, I started googling the issue and found you guys – this LIBERATED me.

Advised the car owner to appeal more or less rephrasing several points (car owner won’t name the driver, zone not ‘relevant land’, 5-minute period mandated by the BPA Code of Practice), and added the below for good measure, as still hoping we can put some sense into APCOA:

“Additionally, and this is for purely as an attempt to show good faith and help the case of Stansted’s new drop-off zone scheme: for having myself driven through the Stansted drop-off zone in the past since the barriers have been removed, I can guarantee you that the signage is far from “visible”. It almost looks like APCOA expects drivers to look for hidden signs rather looking at the road, pedestrians, and other drivers. The only reason why I paid the £7 at the time, was because a friend of mine kindly let me know about this new procedure. If you would like to ensure timely and fair payment by all drivers going forward, I would suggest you be kind enough to install the relevant signage going forward please, preferably before the zone where the car cannot exit the paying area anymore. And why not implement the possibility to pay the £7 charge up to seven days later? This would give a fair chance to pay to people who have a lot on their plate. We live in hard times and this scheme is not helping anyone (who financially needs it).

I thank you kindly in advance for your consideration.”

APPEAL WAS SUCCESSFUL.

This has nothing to do with the PCN itself, but although I do appreciate the person (or robot) at APCOA who dropped the charge, I know someone who used to work for APCOA, and without going into sensitive details, can tell you some of their Departments throw money out the window all day long. So don’t feel bad for filing appeals and fighting these greedy people, they don’t need extra money.

So thank you guys, and to other people receiving these kind PCN: please, appeal!