Any point trying to fight this?

irked_mse2025

Civil Enforcement are pursuing me for a breach that is my fault - but an honest mistake. Do I stand any chance of winning this, or should I just pay up? (Yes, I've read the Newbies thread.)

TLDR - I paid for the wrong car park (Rowcroft car park, not Rowcroft Medical Centre car park). The two share an entrance, and CE don't share details of their car park in standard locations, so it was an honest mistake.

Full version:

• I parked in Rowcroft Medical Centre car park, went the pharmacy to pick up two prescriptions, realised I needed longer than the free patient parking, thought "I remember the signs had some paid parking", went to Parkopedia on my phone and paid for Rowcroft car park, the only car park listed in the location.
• The two car parks share an entrance from the road: the first turn off is Rowcroft car park, run by the council: the second is RMC car park, run by CE. The Rowcroft council sign looks like the main sign as you turn off the road. (Sorry, I'd post a Street View link but the forum won't let me.)
• Subsequently I got fined by CE. I sent them my receipt from Rowcroft, but they rejected it. The landowner (Rowcroft Medical Centre) refused to drop the fine and I am too late to appeal to POPLA.
• I know now I should have returned to the car park to carefully check every word of the physical signs, but (as it's 2025) I assumed I'd be able to check online.

Would I have any grounds to oppose this, e.g. do car park operators have a duty to make it possible to pay online? (CE do publish the details of RMC on Ringgo, but you'd have to know to use Ringgo, so you'd still have to return to the car park to find out how to pay!) 

It was an honest and (imo) reasonable mistake, but I know there is no room for those in the world of UK parking.

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Entrance from the street... first turn is council car park...



Second turn is (I now know!) a different car park run by CE:



Rowcroft council car park is the only car park Parkopedia shows at the location.
 




 

Gr1pr

Only a judge can decide the outcome,  if it actually got that far,  but signage etc would play an important part in this

Meanwhile,  ignore the powerless debt collectors letters and come back to this thread if or when you receive an LoC or a court claim pack from the CNBC in Northampton using MCOL 

Coupon-mad

Take some pics of the signs but otherwise ignore unless you get a small claim. We say this because the parking industry is unregulated and currently rinses people with excessive charges and sets them up to fail.

irked_mse2025

OK - thanks for the advice.

Out of interest, do you know what proportion of charges CE progresses to Small Claims? 

Coupon-mad

No but the good news is they often use DCB Legal who always end up discontinuing, as you can read about in @Umkomaas' DCB Legal Discontinuances thread. It's updated daily and is one of the only thread titles in capitals, making it easy for you to find on the forum.

irked_mse2025

Thank you again - fingers crossed then.