PCN collections advice

peter_parsley

Apologies to everyone, I only found this forum today while part way through a PCN appeal so have not followed the NEWBIE advice for the earlier stages. 

These fines relate to an NCP car park for which I have an online account set up at Greater Anglia Parking (GAParking.co.uk) to register my vehicle and auto pay parking costs via vehicle number plate recognition. 

I received a PCN of £60 through the post in summer 2024 for parking in the NCP car park, for parking in an area not marked as a parking bay - something very commonly seen in this car park due to lack of space. I paid the PCN, but a few weeks later received a letter from NCP stating they had "reviewed the situation at the car park and have decided to cancel the Parking Charge Notice on this occasion" and refunded the £60 fine. I assumed this meant that parking in the position I had was no longer against their rules. 

Later in 2024 I parked at the car park again, again it was full so parked in the same spot as previously. I again received a PCN through the post for £60 stating I had parked incorrectly. I appealed the fine to NCP, who rejected the appeal, so I appealed through POPLA with the letter from the original refunded fine showing ambiguity around parking spaces. After almost three months, during which time NCP provided photos of the car and notices in the car park, POPLA replied in later March 2025 to say the appeal had been unsuccessful. They stated they could not take into account the previously refunded fine and letter, only conditions in the car park on the day. The fine now stood at £100.

In their appeal decision POPLA provided a link to the GAParking website to make the payment following the text "if you would like to pay your fine you can do so below..."

I went to the GAParking site to pay the fine, entered the parking charge reference in the parking charge notices section of their site, and it showed 'case not found' so was not able to pay it. Over the next few weeks I logged in periodically to see if the charge appeared against the ref but it did not, so I had no way of paying. NCP did not contact me to request payment or send any other communication. I assumed, given the long time the appeals processes took, that it would take NCP a while to ask for this payment so have waited and periodically checked my account at GAParking.

Today I received a letter from ZZPS debt collection agency saying they have been 'assigned the task of recovering the unpaid parking charge' which now stands at £170 including a £70 admin fee. 

Now I do not want to pay this fine. It seems crazy that NCP offered no route to pay the £100, increased from £60 due to entering the appeals process, and have increased the fine to £170. This effectively means a PCN is £60 if paid immediately, and £170 if you follow the appeals process, rather than the £100 claimed. 

Given I haven't followed the advice provided in the NEWBIE section for the original appeal (again sorry about that), is there any course of action I can take to avoid this fine? Even if the fine were set to the original £100 it should have been after the appeals process I would consider paying it to avoid going through threats of CCJs etc but really do not want to be blackmailed by a process that feels very unjust.

Gr1pr

Ncp dont issue fines,  magistrates issue them , but arent involved in this case 

Did NCP issue Penalty Notices or Parking Charge Notices on behalf of the TOC  (  GAA  )   ?

Ignore zzps

What you want or dont want is irrelevant,  these cases follow certain protocols and processes , regardless of your wishes ( sorry to be blunt   )

So exactly what was issued   ?

Coupon-mad

You don't have a fine. Just ignore this.

peter_parsley

Annoyingly I can't find the original letter from NCP. The operator is NCP ANPR Rail - EW, given in the POPLA decision. The 'fine' is described as a Parking Charge Notice on the gaparking website where payment should be made. I do not know what TOC or GAA stand for and can't find a definition for them on the NEWBIE posts or online sorry. 

Coupon-mad

You'd have 100% won at POPLA, if you'd come here first and not said who was driving. Remember that next time!

TOC = Train Operating Company.

Gr1pr

As above,  TOC is the operator,  Train Operating Company,  responsible for the stations etc in that area 

GAA is Greater Anglia Abellio,  the TOC

Ncp oversee various TOC franchises,  including GAA

So presumably it was a Parking Charge Notice from NCP,  a PCN , so not a Penalty Notice 

peter_parsley

Yes I wish I'd have come here before starting the POPLA process! Won't make that mistake again. Yes it is described as a Parking Charge Notice.