Apcoa Airport charge notice. Your urgent help required

Foreveryoung2025

We have a £5 drop off receipt, a £6.40 pickup receipt, and a parking fine for £100.

On pickup I drove to T1 Dep B and took the left hand lane marked CAR PARK believing it was the right thing to do.

An helpful HiVis airport worker kindly escorted me the complex half mile route to the proper second floor entrance where I picked up my family and went home

It never occurred to us I had triggered a third fee for passing through the what is effectively the drop off zone.

I appealed and they have said my appeal is unsuccessful.

What should I do next ?

Paul_01

Take a look at the Gatwick/Heathrow/Manchester Airports thread.

As long as you haven't told them who was driving the car, it is very straightforward to get it cancelled.

Gr1pr

As above,  have you revealed who was driving in your appeal to Apcoa  ?

Have Apcoa issued a popla code   ?

Have you read a dozen similar Apcoa at Manchester Airport threads yet  ? Look at anything in the last 4 months 

ChirpyChicken

what ever it is, it certainly is NOT urgent

Foreveryoung2025

Thank you very much for your replies, at 79 years old it seems urgent to me.
Yes we filled the appeal form in straightaway and made it clear I was driving my son's car.
I was picking up my son his wife and grandchildren.
I have a Blue Badge but I understand it only applies to passengers.  

Foreveryoung2025

Gr1pr said:

Have Apcoa issued a popla code   ?

I'm not sure, they say I can further appeal to POPLA 
 

Gr1pr

Foreveryoung2025 said:

Gr1pr said:

Have Apcoa issued a popla code   ?

I'm not sure, they say I can further appeal to POPLA 
 

Then there is a 10 digit popla code on the rejection,  meaning that you can appeal to popla based on signage etc

Its a shame that you didn't ask us first, and a shame that you told them who was driving,  otherwise you would have had a simple appeal win based on the law,  the law that protects a keeper,  but doesn't help a driver 

So you either ignore them and future debt collectors letters,  or you appeal to popla based on recent examples of Apcoa airport appeals, regardless of which airport the cases involved 

Foreveryoung2025

Thank you for your continued help

You’re right, it is a pity I didn't see this forum first.

We expected it would simply get cancelled.

I had a recorded conversation with a named person at Apcoa C/Serv the same day. 

He confirmed the route I was taking to the pickup point was correct.

I had dropped them off at T1 DepB and thought I should be picking them up at the same roundabout turn off but in the left lane clearly marked CAR PARK.

On the night when I got to the closed bottom floor entrance to the multi storey a kindly airport worker escorted me the half mile route to the proper second floor entrance.

It never occurred to me it had triggered a third payment.

I picked the family up inside the car park, paid at the barrier and drove the 70 miles home

Gr1pr

Try plan A,  a complaint to the airport,  asking for a cancellation based on your story above

Coupon-mad

Foreveryoung2025 said:

Thank you for your continued help

You’re right, it is a pity I didn't see this forum first.

We expected it would simply get cancelled.

I had a recorded conversation with a named person at Apcoa C/Serv the same day. 

He confirmed the route I was taking to the pickup point was correct.

I had dropped them off at T1 DepB and thought I should be picking them up at the same roundabout turn off but in the left lane clearly marked CAR PARK.

On the night when I got to the closed bottom floor entrance to the multi storey a kindly airport worker escorted me the half mile route to the proper second floor entrance.

It never occurred to me it had triggered a third payment.

I picked the family up inside the car park, paid at the barrier and drove the 70 miles home

You will never have to pay this, not even if and when you lose at POPLA. Nothing happens.

Do not pay.

Was the first PCN sent to the keeper (your son) who passed you the notice and now APCOA have you in their sights and have issued YOU the POPLA Code, not your son?

He'd have won the appeal if he'd used our template appeal on the Airport Drop off Group thread. Tell him that he needs to read the MSE Guide to Private Parking Tickets - linked at the top of the page - and never pass private PCNs to the driver in future! He had 100% slam dunk win awaiting him as keeper. How annoying!

I would try a complaint to the Airport FIRST and a complaint to APCOA that they both misled you and entrapped you (the Airport worker and the APCOA person in the phone both caused this). If you need support ask your own constituency MP and or your son to help you with the complaint.

MPs do these all the time. Get help to complain properly. Not POPLA.

Foreveryoung2025

Thank you for your help.

Yes, the PCN was sent to my son and he passed it onto me. The POPLA code came to me, on notification of the unsuccessful appeal.

I am certainly going to take up your advice on complaining via email to the airport and to APCOA.

Presumably, they won't answer within the next 14 days, when the charge increases from £60 to £100.

Out of interest this is a (Since shortened) version of my appeal ...

" We have a £5 drop off receipt, a £6.40 pickup receipt, and a parking fine for £100
 
I was taking and fetching back my son, his wife and our two little grandchildren.

All I needed was the precise coordinates for the pickup location which I now know are 53.362686 -2.271943.

I had made a number of phone calls to Manchester Airport to try to get the answer, the nearest I was given was a Post Code of M901QX. The pickup point is actually in M901NN.

I spoke to Street Cars Taxi firm and a YouTuber who has posted Airport videos, all in an effort to identify exactly where I needed to be.

Most importantly I had a recorded conversation on 23rd July with Apcoa Customer Services at 10:32 - ten hours before setting off - I explained how the last thing I wanted was a fine for breaking a rule I was unaware of. We spoke about East Midlands Airport where people have been fined for simply stopping on the red lined roads. He kindly assured me I would not be fined at Manchester. I checked with him the route I was taking to the multi storey car park, taking the same road I had taken for the drop off, but in the left hand lane sign posted “CAR PARK”. He agreed with me that was the correct route to take.

When we arrived at Terminal 1 Dep B on the morning of 20th July I asked the security attendant if I needed to do anything different having a Blue Badge. He said not, as it only applied to passengers. I asked how I paid for parking and he kindly gave me a piece of paper containing an online link to use when I got home.

I got back into the car ...  then back out again ... to double check with the attendant my understanding of where I would pick them up in three days time. The attendant gestured to the multi storey car park to his left. Marked "CAR PARK" on the tarmac. This exchange will be on camera just after 0831.

When I went to pick them up I took the same turn but in the left hand lane following the CAR PARK signs.  An extremely helpful Hi-Vis airport employee asked if I needed help, explaining I was in the wrong place, and gave me turn by turn instructions.

While I proceeded at a snail’s pace in the dark and rain trying to remember what he had said, he thankfully pulled alongside me and gestured to follow him – he kindly escorted me to the proper entrance where my family were waiting. 

On the Parking Charge it says “Use of Pick up / Drop off Zone without making a payment”. We paid for both drop off and pick up. I picked our family up at the proper place inside the car park and paid £6.40 by card at the barrier.

It would seem the £100 charge is for not paying for passing through what I’d been led to believe was the correct route to the multi story car park. It had taken 1 minute 49 seconds, most of which I was accompanied by the most helpful of Airport workers.

My mistake wasn’t done to gain anything, or to save anything. I simply thought I was driving towards the correct car park entrance - the one the Attendant had gestured to three days before and the one Apcoa had agreed with eleven hours earlier.

Going to Disneyland should hold the fondest of memories for a four year old, not remembering Granddad being upset at the prospect of going to prison."

( For people reading this in future, I don't think they read the letter before announcing my appeal was unsuccessful ... When I later spoke to Apcoa on the phone and asked the lady if she would take the time to read it, she straight away cancelled the charge.