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 the wording on my appeal ...

"Please read this with a smile on your face. I sound abrupt in writing, whereas in real life, I am by all accounts as friendly a person as you could wish to meet.

We have a £5 drop off receipt, a £6.40 pickup receipt, and a parking fine for £100
 
XXXXX at Customer Services put my mind at rest by explaining I may have unknowingly driven through an extra camera, in which case you would look kindly upon us and cancel the charge.

I was taking and fetching back my son, his wife and our two little grandchildren booked on flights for XXXXXXXX.

I was doing all of this for the very first time. I tried my best to avoid doing anything wrong.

I have live satellite navigation and all I needed for the 23rd July 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, one answered by a helpful XXXX on 15th July using 08081697030 which doesn’t show on my attached phone bill. The nearest I was given was a Post Code of M901QX. The pickup point is actually in M901NN.

I spoke to XXXX at Street Cars Taxi firm and unusually, I had a text exchange with XXXXX, a YouTuber who has posted Airport videos, all in an effort to identify exactly where I needed to be.

Most importantly, a 03459013318 recorded conversation on 23rd July at 10:32 - ten hours before setting off - I explained to XXXX that being a 79 year old, 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. We spoke of me maybe having to stop to check a sign or the possibility of taking a wrong turn; he kindly assured me I would not be fined at Manchester. I asked if people coming off a plane emerged onto the ground floor of the multi storey car park and what would happen if there were no parking spaces. He said it was unlikely. 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 in the right hand lane, second to last parking spot on the morning of 20th July my family went into the building and I asked the security attendant stood across the road 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. This exchange will be on camera just after 0831.
When I went to pick them up on the night of 23rd July I drove in the same way, but in the left hand lane following the CAR PARK signs towards the multi storey car park. An extremely helpful Hi-Vis airport employee walking to his vehicle, asked if I needed help, explaining I was in the wrong place, and gave me turn by turn instructions.

While I was stood less than 40 feet from the correct entrance, I needed to drive a complex half mile route to get there.

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. I would have been lost without him.

On the XXXXX 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 at around 2320 to start our 70 mile journey home.

Thirteen days later, the parking charge arrived. We were completely oblivious to the reason for it.

If XXXX at Customer Services is correct, it would seem the 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. According to the charge notice 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 XXXX had agreed with eleven hours earlier.

I realise using the Drop Off Zone generated a £5 charge paid on the 20th July. It never occurred to us it would generate another one for passing through the car park lane on the 23rd July. And even if it had, we would have assumed a sophisticated airport system would easily connect it to the same car paying at the barrier a few minutes later.

Thank you for your understanding.

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."