Smart Parking Charge @ OK DINER, A38 near Derby

GrandadTrain

On 18th April 2026 I was driving along the A38 in company with my wife. We were just south of Derby. We were traveling from East Yorkshire and had been in the car nearly 2 hours. We needed a comfort break and having stopped there before, we pulled off the road at the OK Diner. Our intention was to buy some refreshments there and use the facilities. Having pulled onto the car park we realised the restaurant wasn't open. So we considered where we could then travel to and left. At the beginning of May I received a parking charge letter from Smart Parking giving the times of arrival as 07:42 and departure as 07:48 a total of 6 minutes. The usual charge of £100 was applied with a deduction if the charge was paid within 28 days. I appealed to the company, they carried out an investigation and upheld their charge.

Should I be paying this as I believe there is a consideration time applied before the charge is allowed

Gr1pr

No paying

Ignore them for the time being

Ignore any powerless debt collectors letters

Do respond to any Letter of Claim giving you 30 days notice ( from lawyers. )

Then wait for a Money Claim N1SDT pack from the CNBC in Northampton using MCOL to arrive in the post in due course

James_Poisson

Why would you pay it?

They never "carried out an investigation" the just sent you an invoice, hoping you would pay it, they might say the consideration period was 5 minutes but that is a minimum.

Complain to OK that you would have been a customer had they been open, also read the newbies thread on here.

SacredStephan

From their website, OK Diners is owned by Dafydd Poole, email dafyddp@okdiners.com

AKA Dafydd Glyn Lawrie

https://www.ledburyreporter.co.uk/news/25557208.porsche-driver-slams-leominster-ok-diner-parking-fine/

kryten3000

Have a look at the CMA's open letter to parking companies where they specifically call out their habit of issuing PCNs for cars on site for between 5 and 11 minutes:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6a5784276d6d5c7e2845ca02/open_letter.pdf

MrJenkinsEsq

Tablet is beyond the customer counter and can't be seen from the entrance. It's blocked by the privacy dividers between the tables. The diner is situated on a main road, nobody is walking here, but the staff didn't bring the tablet to my attention. I had to ask where it was. Coffee was decent and surprisingly cheap.

The tablet has a 30 timer per screen that does not reset until the next screen. My Nan could not input her reg in 30 seconds.

Mix of signage. OK Diner's forbid non-customers. Smart Parking's signs only "validate" they do not offer parking.

The only full terms sign is small and the bottom edge is at least 7ft. It's also only on the approach so you have to park then walk back out. To then have to take a photo and zoom in to read it. I'm 6ft and I literally cannot read it otherwise. This is the only sign with time limits.

The Smart Parking sign also says it only applies 9am to 9pm. Otherwise, "no parking overnight".

The whole thing is a trap. There's a welcome board on approach. The first terms sign is after the turn in to the diner and there's no opportunity to turn around. You will be caught on ANPR.

There were supposed to be photos but I don't think my mobile signal is good enough. I'll upload them later.

Good luck reading this on the drive in (on the left):

1505grandad

Wonder how long before signs show the correct ATA.

HoneydewLemon

This is going on a tangent to the OPs specific issues but anyway...

The Smart Parking sign also says it only applies 9am to 9pm. Otherwise, "no parking overnight"

As the sign confirms that the 'Customers of OK Diner only' term only applies from 9am-9pm, if one were to park at 8am and leave before 9am, would that constitute 'overnight parking' or would that be completely fine and within the t+c's?

Edit: Actually, this is not a tangent from OPs post at all, since they parked from 0742-0748 - hard to define that as 'overnight' - and the term 'overnight' doesn't seem to be explicitly defined in the small print of the T+C's either.

HoneydewLemon

I'd be interested to know if one were to park here at 0854 and wait 6 mins for OK Diner to open at 0900 before inputting ones VRM into the tablet, whether the PPC would still issue a PCN since you spent over 5 mins parked outside of their allowed hours?

MrJenkinsEsq

There are too many failings to particularise, many fatal, but even on Smart's best case the 6 minute stay isn't a breach. The 5 minute limit appears once on the T&Cs board and only as the time allowed to leave if you reject the contract.

If you do not accept both sets of terms, we are unable to offer you our parking facilities, and require you to remove your vehicle from the car park immediately or, where Automated Number Plate Recognition cameras (ANPR) are in use, within 10 minutes during 9am - 9pm and 5 minutes from 9pm to 9am.

It is not a maximum stay and not a consideration or grace period. If the OP accepted the terms, the clause never applied and Smart must identify a parking term that was breached and there isn't one that covers a 6 minute stay. If the OP did not accept, the vehicle was removed within 5 minutes from the point of rejection and there was no contract.

Coupon-mad

"Should I be paying this?"

No. Categorically not. You'll never have to pay this invoice, so no worries there, @GrandadTrain

🙂

The terms on the sign don't even apply to non-customers, nor do the terms apply before 9am.

I'm guessing you are at DRA threatogram stage and can't now run this past the bent farce of the IAS kangaroo court? Might gave been worth the laugh but if not, ignore them completely and come back when you get a DCB Legal LBC in the post.

No CCJ or costs are risked. You actually want a DCB Legal court claim.