Railway Station Car PNC - Query on Appeal

PocketD

Hi,

I have received a PCN from Upminster Stn car park (incidentally I successfully appealed a previous PCN there back in 2023 as it was non POFA as they sent it over a month later). However the circumstances for this one are a bit different.

A ticket was bought and we luckily still have the receipt, however my other half bought the ticket at the machine (not via app) and according to the receipt, it has the wrong Number Plate on it.  In fact there are 3 letters which are wrong!  She is sure that she would not have got so many digits wrong but unfortunately this appears to be what has happened and unless the machine is defective, we will have to put this down to user error.

However I think they sent the letter a day too late.  The letter is dated Friday 1st August, the incident was 20th July.  My understanding is for them to be able to use POFA, the NTK needs to be received within 14 calendar days of the incident.  14 days from the incident would be Sunday 3rd August (the next working day would be Monday 4th).  

The letter says 'This notice is deemed to have been given to you on the second working day after the date of sending above.'   So by their own admission, this would have been sent too late as 2 working days after the 1st is Tuesday 5th.  This is later than the required 14 calendar days and even if we went to the next working day its still 15 days not 14.   In actuality, I received the letter on Wednesday the 6th August.

So my question is this.  Would it be better to appeal this and just state it does not conform to POFA (by 1 day)  and I will not be identifying the driver etc.  Or should I also state in the appeal that a ticket was bought yet it appears there were mistakes with it - or would this confuse the fact it was not POFA compliant?  I have read threads where people have had non compliant PCN's have their appeal rejected where the non POFA,compliance was just ignored and they focused on rejecting the appeal's other reasons identified.  So I'm worried they will just ignore the non compliant part and just say, you admitted you were there and you made a mistake so you have to pay the fine.  
Does anyone have any advice?  If I appeal once I believe that is it, if its rejected I cannot then appeal and say we have a ticket but there was a mistake with the Reg number?

(FYI the last time I appealed and won in 2023 I wrote here https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6460444/is-my-understanding-of-this-non-pofa-pcn-correct/p1) 

Castle

Upminster railway station is subject to TFL Byelaws so it wouldn't be relevant land.

Furthermore, a PCN posted on 1st August is deemed received on Tuesday 5th August, which is day 16 after the 20th July 2025.

Coupon-mad

Which parking firm? This tactic will work if it is a BPA firm with POPLA on offer.

Castle

I think it's National Car Parks.

PocketD

Yes it's from NCP.

Castle said:

Upminster railway station is subject to TFL Byelaws so it wouldn't be relevant land.

Furthermore, a PCN posted on 1st August is deemed received on Tuesday 5th August, which is day 16 after the 20th July 2025.

Yes I agree this means that it is too late for POFA.  

Regarding Bylaws, when I searched I found the following:

"Upminster railway station's car park is managed by National Car Parks (NCP) and is designated as a C2C station car park, not directly operated by Transport for London (TfL)2. This means it is not subject to TfL Byelaws, which typically apply to premises and services operated by TfL such as the London Underground, Overground, Docklands Light Railway, and TfL bus stations.

Instead, the Upminster station car park follows C2C and NCP regulations, including payment systems like RingGo and AutoPay, and enforcement policies such as ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) for entry and exit monitoring".

Coupon-mad

But I expect the NTK matches the non-POFA picture in my NTK pictures thread linked in the NEWBIES thread anyway. Easy to see.

PocketD

Yes, in fact is almost exactly matched the non POFA PCN I received in my thread from a few years ago......
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6460444/is-my-understanding-of-this-non-pofa-pcn-correct/p1) 

The main difference I can see is the their POFA ones say 'we will have the right to recover from you....'  whereas the last one I had and this one appears non POFA and says 'if this Notice has not been paid in full, further recovery action will be taken'.   

So my question is should I just do what I did last time, say its non POFA, I'm not identifying the driver and pls cancel.  Or should I explain a ticket was bought but had the wrong number plate on it?

I was worried they might focus on that part and ignore the the non POFA part. But don't want to do something wrong.    

Coupon-mad

"So my question is should I just do what I did last time, say its non POFA, I'm not identifying the driver and pls cancel."

This.

PocketD

Just in case anyone comes across this in the future in a similar situation, I finally got a reply from C2C / NCP, they have reviewed my appeal and accepted it, so the PCN has been cancelled. That's 2 successfully appealed for Upminster Car Park as they weren't POFA. 

Castle

PocketD said:

Just in case anyone comes across this in the future in a similar situation, I finally got a reply from C2C / NCP, they have reviewed my appeal and accepted it, so the PCN has been cancelled. That's 2 successfully appealed for Upminster Car Park as they weren't POFA. 

So no "gesture of Goodwill" then?

PocketD

No, they took almost the full 2 weeks to reply and just a straight cancel.  Same as I had before with them, but the first time they responded in 15 minutes of me sending the appeal email.