Initial Parking at Abersoch

Mickstercf

Hi all,

I’ve read the NEWBIES thread and would really appreciate some advice on an Initial Parking PCN at Abersoch Village Hall Car Park.

The vehicle was parked there on 31 July 2026, from approximately 19:27 to 20:35 according to Initial’s ANPR.

The parking tariff was paid at the machine. It was £3, sufficient to cover the whole stay. I have banking evidence showing the £3 transaction as “ABERSOCH HALL ABERSOCH”.

Despite this, Initial Parking issued a PCN saying that the appropriate parking time had not been purchased.

I appealed as registered keeper, supplied the banking evidence and asked Initial to check their payment records.

They have now rejected the appeal, but importantly they have found the payment. They say the payment was associated with only the first two characters of the vehicle’s VRM.

For anonymity, I’ll refer to those two characters as “AB”. They correspond to the first two characters of the actual VRM.

Initial have classified this as a Major Keying Error under the BPA Code and reduced the charge to £20. They have also supplied a POPLA code.

I do not accept that the driver simply entered two characters of the registration and stopped. My suspicion is that there may have been a problem with the payment machine/input system.

Why I suspect a machine issue

I’ve found what seems to be an extraordinarily similar case at the exact same Abersoch Village Hall car park, involving the exact same operator:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6625857/initial-park-at-abersoch-village-hal

In that case the motorist said they entered their registration and paid. Initial initially claimed there had been no payment. After the motorist produced banking evidence, Initial found the payment but said that only two letters (“SS”) had been entered.

So we apparently have:

Same operator – Initial Parking
Same car park – Abersoch Village Hall
Parking tariff paid
PCN subsequently issued
Payment subsequently located
Only TWO characters of the VRM recorded

In the previous case: “SS”.

In mine: the first two characters of my VRM.

I’ve since found several other MSE threads involving remarkably similar problems.

This one describes a payment machine which would accept only two characters before automatically moving on to the payment stage. The driver apparently tried three times and got the same result:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6485843/popla-appeal-ecp-nth-and-major-keying-error

Another motorist reports that they began entering their registration but after the first two characters the machine printed the ticket:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6302025/pcn-but-i-paid-at-the-machine-full-reg-no-wasnt-input-machine-at-fault

Another thread concerns a PCN where only the first two characters of the registration were recorded:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6556813/incomplete-car-reg

And this more recent discussion is specifically about keying errors/payment-machine design:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6657029/keying-errors-on-payment-machines

I’ve also found this court case discussed on MSE where the motorist maintained that they had entered their registration correctly but the parking company’s log showed a partial registration:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6582662/claim-form-for-pcn-help-with-defence/p6

The motorist won in court. From the account posted on MSE, the judge considered the reliability of the machine/log evidence and the fact that there were other anomalous/partial registrations in the operator’s data. Obviously that’s not a binding precedent, but it seems highly relevant to the factual question of whether a partial VRM in an operator’s database necessarily proves that the motorist only entered those characters.

There is also this older MSE case discussing a court decision where the judge found on the balance of probabilities that the motorist had entered the VRM correctly and the machine had failed to record/print it correctly:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5785805/6-year-old-pcn-county-claim-form-received/p9

What I’ve done so far

Following the NEWBIES advice, I’ve now gone down Plan A and complained directly to the Abersoch Village Hall trustees/landowner.

I’ve sent them:

• the evidence showing the £3 Abersoch Hall payment;
• Initial Parking’s appeal rejection confirming that they’ve located the payment but claim only two VRM characters were recorded;
• details of the other almost identical Abersoch Village Hall case.

I’ve asked the trustees to instruct Initial to cancel the PCN and also asked them to investigate whether their payment machine has a history of recording truncated registrations.

For context, I paid well over £100 in parking charges during that week in the Abersoch area, so there was plainly no intention to avoid paying a £3 parking tariff.

I’m now waiting briefly for the landowner’s response before using POPLA, while obviously making sure I don’t miss the POPLA deadline.

My proposed POPLA argument

If Plan A doesn’t work, I’m thinking that I shouldn’t concede that this was a Major Keying Error by the driver.

Instead, I’d dispute Initial’s assertion that the driver caused the incomplete VRM and put them to strict proof.

It seems to me there is an important distinction:

Evidence that Initial’s system stored only two characters is not necessarily evidence that the motorist entered only two characters.

I’d therefore want Initial to produce the relevant PDT/payment-machine transaction log, suitably redacted, including other partial/invalid VRMs recorded around the relevant period.

I’d also like them to provide evidence that the machine was functioning correctly and, if possible, any relevant fault/maintenance information.

If their log contains a significant number of one/two/three-character registrations, that would seem highly relevant to whether this is actually a series of inexplicable mistakes by motorists or a problem with the machine/interface.

I’m particularly suspicious because we already appear to have two separate cases at Abersoch Village Hall where Initial located a valid payment but their system apparently contained only two VRM characters.

I’d really appreciate the regulars’ thoughts:

1. Am I right to pursue Plan A with the landowner before submitting POPLA, provided I protect the POPLA deadline?
2. Is disputing that a driver keying error occurred, rather than arguing about whether £20 is reasonable, the right approach?
3. At POPLA should I specifically put Initial to strict proof with the full redacted PDT log and evidence that the payment machine was functioning correctly?
4. Does anyone remember any other Abersoch Village Hall / Initial Parking cases involving truncated VRMs?
5. Is there anything else I should be asking the landowner or including in a future POPLA appeal?

Thanks for any advice.