PCN Issued While Queuing to Exit Gridlocked Car Park

Jame4ters

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6647039/parking-charge-after-concert/p1

Half_way

If that was the genuine response from the landowner, they need taking to task over that.
Tell them they are jointly and severally liable for the actions of their agents, and they must instruct their agents to cancel

ChirpyChicken

Use LinkedIn to find the main people within that company 

MothballsWallet

@UpDownStrange - if you don't have a LinkedIn account (you need one to see the full profile pages of people on it) and don't want to create one, let me know and I'll have a look.

Companies House could also help you find the directors and company secretary(ies) as well, they could also be copied in on your complaint.

ChirpyChicken

MothballsWallet said:

@UpDownStrange - if you don't have a LinkedIn account (you need one to see the full profile pages of people on it) and don't want to create one, let me know and I'll have a look.

Companies House could also help you find the directors and company secretary(ies) as well, they could also be copied in on your complaint.

Good offer there, i use it a lot when i need to find the right contact away from a generic email address, works a lot of the time

UpDownStrange

@MothballsWallet thanks for the offer! I do have LinkedIn, I'll see what I can find.

Btw, turns out that @Umkomaas was right, the managing agent is indeed Cushman & Wakefield. It was originally Green & Partners but they sold it to C&W a couple years ago.

I sent C&W an email a couple days ago but have not heard back. I'll see what I can find on LinkedIn and Companies House but I will need to start considering an appeal directly with the PPC soon!

ChirpyChicken

UpDownStrange said:

@MothballsWallet thanks for the offer! I do have LinkedIn, I'll see what I can find.

Btw, turns out that @Umkomaas was right, the managing agent is indeed Cushman & Wakefield. It was originally Green & Partners but they sold it to C&W a couple years ago.

I sent C&W an email a couple days ago but have not heard back. I'll see what I can find on LinkedIn and Companies House but I will need to start considering an appear directly with the PPC soon!

Loads of time

UpDownStrange

I've had no luck getting anything out of C&W. Next step is to appeal directly with the PPC. Here is my draft appeal below, happy to receive any feedback.

"I dispute this Parking Charge Notice in full as it is founded on a false premise: no parking breach occurred.

The location offers three hours of free parking. The vehicle did not remain parked beyond that period. The driver returned to the vehicle over an hour before the free parking allowance had expired and attempted to leave the site. However, the entire retail park was gridlocked, with congestion throughout the internal road layout and at the exits, preventing vehicles from leaving.

The vehicle was therefore not parked beyond the permitted time. It was occupied and in transit, delayed solely by traffic conditions within the site. Time spent stationary in a queue while attempting to exit a congested car park does not constitute “parking”.

Your charge relies entirely on ANPR entry and exit timestamps. These do not measure parking time and do not account for unavoidable congestion preventing egress. Any interpretation that treats forced exit-queue time as chargeable parking time is unreasonable and unsustainable.

The delay was entirely outside the driver’s control and arose from conditions within the car park itself. The driver had no ability to influence the pace of traffic or leave sooner.

Video evidence taken at the time exists and shows the extent of the gridlock and lack of movement within the car park and can be provided if required.

For these reasons, I require that this Parking Charge Notice is cancelled.

No payment will be made."

Coupon-mad

"and can be provided if required."

No. attach it NOW. Personally I'd also send your video to a journalist at your local paper and push them to contact C&W to answer for the actions of their agents, and to publish your story asap because loads of people must have been affected.

UpDownStrange

Hi all. As expected, Premier Park has rejected my appeal. Here is their response, where they do not really address any of my points at all.

Thank you for your appeal against the above Parking Charge Notice (PCN). We have carefully considered your appeal, however on this occasion the appeal has been rejected for the following reason;

Whilst we note your comments and reason for appeal, we can confirm that the maximum stay period within this car park is 3 hours. As your vehicle was on site for 3 hours and 16 minutes, this was an overstay of 16 minutes. The signage on site clearly sets out the terms and conditions of parking, including the maximum stay period. There are no exceptions to these terms and we can therefore confirm that this PCN has been issued correctly.

Please note, a new notice will automatically be generated and sent to you, as the liability has been transferred in to your name, as the Driver of the vehicle. This is for your records only and does not allow you to appeal again internally or transfer liability. You now have 14 days from the date of your new notice to make payment at the reduced fee of £60.00. If payment is not received within 14 days, the fee will increase to the full amount of £100.00.

We have considered this PCN and found that it does not fall under the category of Annex F the Appeals Charter of the Single Code of Practice. Therefore, if no further evidence is provided, we will deem this to be our final decision.

You have now reached the end of our internal appeals procedure and therefore you now have two options; you can either pay or appeal to POPLA - you cannot do both:

You can pay the total amount due as shown above via the following payment options;

Call us on: 01302 513232
Pay online: www.pcnpayments.com
Send a postal order: Premier Park Ltd, PO Box 624, Exeter, EX1 9JG

Or, you can appeal to an Independent Appeals Service, POPLA (Parking on Private Land Appeals) using the POPLA reference code provided above. Please note, should you decide to appeal to POPLA and your appeal is subsequently rejected or you withdraw your appeal, the option to pay a discounted amount will no longer be available (if applicable) and the full amount of the PCN will become due. Please note, if you pay the PCN prior to appealing to POPLA, your appeal will be withdrawn as you will have accepted liability in full.

If you decide to appeal to POPLA, you will need to visit their website, www.popla.co.uk where further details of how to appeal (either online or by downloading the relevant forms) can be found. If you are unable to access their website, please call us for further information on how to obtain the forms. Please ensure your POPLA Reference Number, as noted above, is quoted on all correspondence to POPLA. You have 28 days from the date of this email to submit an appeal to POPLA. If you appeal to POPLA we will suspend recovery activity on the PCN and the charge will not increase until the appeal has been determined.

By law we are also required 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, we have 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.

If you do not make payment or submit an appeal to POPLA within the relevant timeframe, the outstanding PCN may be passed to our appointed debt collection agency for further action. All costs associated with this process will be added to the amount outstanding.

With my appeal, I sent screenshots of the video I took at the time showing the extent of the gridlock, since they didn't accept video files.

My next step is to escalate the appeal with POPLA. Any tips or things I need to know?