Three parking fines at Tesco Hove by Horizon

dahliafield_d11

I just drafted the third appeal against the PCN issued on 22nd Oct. Could anyone let me know if I need to amend anything? I wish I could use more ground, but sort of exhausted so far. 

Dear Sirs

 

I am writing to you to lodge a formal appeal against a parking charge notice sent to myself as registered keeper of a vehicle, in respect of an alleged breach of parking conditions at "Tesco Hove" on 14th Oct 2025.

I appeal to you that I am not liable for this parking charge on the basis of the below points:

 

I am not the driver, but the registered keeper. There is no obligation for me to name the driver and I will not be doing so.

 

I have visited the Tesco Hove store to take some pictures of the car park. I found the signage in the car park was inadequate. 

 

1. This site has no entrance signs at all now, because Horizon removed them when you started this new regime that took locals by surprise.  

 

2. No 'P' entrance sign.

 

3. There is nothing to alert anyone to the change of hours at the VRM kiosks:

 

4. On one external side window of the store (in an area not seen by most drivers as they approach on foot), they've altered the 'Guide' with a minuscule '2' sticker plonked over the '3' at the top. In the 'Step 1' white box there's a black handwritten '2' scrawled on a grey square:

 

5. A banner that's clearly designed for store entrances is put at the back of the car park.

 

6. Exemption offer for Blue Badge holders is too small to read!

Please see the photos attached.  

 

From the evidence provided, it is clear that you are in breach of the Code of Practice.

 

In addition, I also found a shopping receipt on 14th Oct 2025. I can only assume that the driver was not aware of the change and hence did not validate the receipt.

 

Please confirm that you will cancel the charge and if you choose to decline this appeal, you must issue a POPLA code. 

Coupon-mad

Yep that'll do.

dahliafield_d11

Coupon-mad said:

The photos proving the lack of entrance signs (and no extra signs to communicate the change to only 2 hours free and the sudden and uncommunicated reintroduction of the VRM validation after 5 years) will win at POPLA, even for the POFA PCN.

Thank you! Coupon-mad, I am absolutely grateful for your help and reassurance! 

dahliafield_d11

Just a quick update here. The second PCN (The one I only provided the shopping receipt) has been cancelled. Coincidentally, this cancellation was received after I submitted the appeal on the last PCN from Horizon. Not sure if they could see all PCNs under the same car number plate and realised that there was no hope on getting money in. 

dahliafield_d11

We have just received a rejection letter from Horizon for the last PCN. The other two PCNs were cancelled. 

Please see below; I must say that I forgot to attach the receipt and some photos that I used for evidence to prove insufficient signage were from Coupon-Mad. These photos were taken from a computer screen, so not as good as those taken by my own phone though (not sure if these would make any difference). I will send my appeal letter in another message.

27th November 2025

 

Dear Appellant, 

 

Parking Charge:xxxxxxx

 

Thank you for your recent correspondence concerning the above-referenced Parking Charge.

 

 

Review of your Appeal

 

The Parking Charge was issued lawfully and in full and proper accordance with the Private Parking Sector Single Code of Practice issued by the British Parking Association (the ‘BPA’).

 

There are signs located at the entrance to, and within the car park, that state the terms and conditions that apply when parking. 

 

As clearly stipulated on signage within the car park, validation for parking must be made for the full duration of the vehicles stay.  Our systems do not show any evidence of validation made against this vehicle on the incident date.

 

The signs throughout the car park are clear and comply fully with the BPA’s prescribed rules and regulations.  When parking on private land, it is the driver’s responsibility to ensure they adhere to the terms and conditions of the car park concerned.

 

As we have not been provided with the name and a serviceable address for the driver/hirer, under Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, we do have the right, subject to meeting the requirements of the Act, to recover from the Registered Keeper the amount that remains outstanding. We have obtained the name and address of the registered keeper of the vehicle from the DVLA for the purposes of enforcing this charge.

 

Given the above, and whilst we have considered your representations carefully, on this occasion your appeal has been rejected.

 

 

The Charge Amount and Methods of Payment

 

In good faith, Horizon will hold the charge at the current amount of £70 for a further 14 days from the date of this correspondence to allow you further time to pay.

 

Payment of the outstanding charge can be made using our 24-hour payment line: 020 8106 0789 or online at Horizon Parking Portal 

 

Alternatively, payment can be made via cheque made payable to Horizon Parking Ltd and posted to Horizon Parking Ltd, Finitor House, 2 Hanbury Road, Chelmsford, Essex, CM1 3AE.

 

Additional Types of Appeal

 

If you have no evidence that you wish to submit to us, then you have now reached the end of our appeals procedure.  Although we have rejected your appeal, the Parking On Private Land Appeals (POPLA) provides an independent appeals service. To use this service, you must appeal to POPLA within 28 days of the date of this correspondence.

 

For full instructions on how to appeal to POPLA, please visit their website at www.popla.co.uk. If you would rather progress this matter by post, please contact our Appeals Office and we will send you the necessary paperwork.

 

Your POPLA reference number is xxxx

 

Please be advised that if you elect for independent arbitration of your case, you will be required to pay the charge at the full amount and, as such, will no longer qualify for payment at the reduced rate. Please also be advised that POPLA will not accept an appeal where payment is made against the Parking Charge in question.

 

We are required by law to inform you that Ombudsman Services (www.ombudsman-services.org/) provides an alternative dispute resolution service that would be competent to deal with your appeal; however, Horizon has not chosen to participate in their alternative dispute resolution service.  As such, should you wish to appeal, then you must do so to POPLA as explained above.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Appeals Department

Horizon Parking Limited

dahliafield_d11

Below is the appeal letter I sent on 12/11/2025. 

Dear Sirs

I am writing to you to lodge a formal appeal against a parking charge notice sent to myself as registered keeper of a vehicle, in respect of an alleged breach of parking conditions at "Tesco Hove" on 14th Oct 2025.

I appeal to you that I am not liable for this parking charge on the basis of the below points: 

I am not the driver, but the registered keeper. There is no obligation for me to name the driver and I will not be doing so. 

I have visited the Tesco Hove store to take some pictures of the car park. I found the signage in the car park was inadequate. 

1.  This site has no entrance signs at all now, because Horizon removed them when you started this new regime that took locals by surprise.  There is no extra signs to communicate the change.

2.  No 'P' entrance sign.

3.  There is nothing to alert anyone to the change of hours at the VRM Kiosks.  

4.  On one external side window of the store (in an area not seen by most drivers as they approach on foot), they've altered the 'Guide' with a minuscule '2' sticker plonked over the '3' at the top. In the 'Step 1' white box there's a black handwritten '2' scrawled on a grey square.  

5.  A banner that's clearly designed for store entrances is put at the back of the car park.  

6.  Exemption offer for Blue Badge holders is too small to read!

Please see the photos attached.  

 The BPA Code of Practice states:

3.1 An entrance sign must be displayed and maintained at the entrance to controlled land to inform drivers as appropriate whether parking is permitted subject to terms and conditions, including payment, or is prohibited... 

 

From the evidence provided, it is clear that you are in breach of the Code of Practice. 

In addition, I also found a shopping receipt in the car. I can only assume that the driver was not aware of the change and hence did not validate the receipt.

Please confirm that you will cancel the charge and if you choose to decline this appeal, you must issue a POPLA code. 

Coupon-mad

Urgent: remove the PCN number & POPLA Code from your posts! They are unique to you so redact that data.

This is new, not seen this before and it's a serious breach of the Code of Practice:

In good faith, Horizon will hold the charge at the current amount of £70 for a further 14 days from the date of this correspondence to allow you further time to pay.

So Horizon are pretending that they can only 'hold' the PCN at the full rate for 14 days!

Yet POPLA Codes are valid for 33 days, during which the sum CANNOT increase; operators must pause work/not escalate a case during the appeals process. They certainly cannot threaten to increase the PCN in just 2 weeks but they have!

They also lied here:

"Please be advised that if you elect for independent arbitration of your case, you will be required to pay the charge at the full amount".

POPLA is not 'arbitration' and you will NOT 'be required to pay' anything, win or lose! They make it sound like you have to pay just to choose to try POPLA.

Please can you share the photos you took including the date metadata? I can really use them because I'm doing a POPLA Appeal this weekend for a friend in Brighton who was caught out at Hove Tesco,

When I have submitted their POPLA appeal I will copy & paste it here so you can copy it. But  I could really do with your photos with date metadata showing please.

To do that you can just screenshot your photos, or drag on the image from the bottom upwards.

dahliafield_d11

All three photos were taken on 11/11/2025

dahliafield_d11

I can't get a copy of photo evidence I supplied from Horizon site, but based on memory, I supplied the above picture 1 and picture 3. The rest of photo evidence I used yours taken from my computer screen. 

dahliafield_d11

I have another ten photos taken on 11th Nov, but I never used for the appeal. Hope these are of some help to you and your friend.