Smart Parking PCN Advice - No letter till fine increased to £155!!

Madgeblade · 14 April at 1:21PM

Hi, looking for advice fighting a PCN issued from Smart Parking. Looking at the other threads looks quite common practice that they skip straight to sending letters after the 14 day discount has expired and charging £155!! Unfortunately I didn't come across this forum prior to seek advice and angrily appealed the PCN on grounds I hadn't received any correspondence from them and I wanted proof. Has expected claim was rejected with probably the standard template letter and told to pay up or case would be handed over to DCB. Firstly, I feel the PCN unjust in the first place. Was attending a doctors appointment (not my regular doctors) and the surgery car park is reached by going through a pub car park and a gap in some bushes to the surgery car park. Unbeknown to me at the time pub car park is policed by Smart Parking. I didn't really take much notice of the signage when I arrived as the surroundings were unfamiliar. However, after revisiting I would hardly class the signage as prominent. 1 sign at the entrance to the pub car park. Unfortunately my car was captured on ANPR for a grand total of 18mins at 8:30am in the pub car park. Now after reading the 'newbies' section I feel emboldened to fight the extortionate fine in the first place and something that was purely accidental. Question is would it be best to approach the pub to rescind the PCN . Reading on social media they seem reluctant to cancel PCNs, with my story seemingly being very commonplace. If that is unsuccessful what would be the best course of action to follow.