UK CPM PCN on private road

poper

Hi friends

I received a PCN from UK Car Parking Management for parking my car in a private road. It was past 9pm and I wasn't aware a restriction existed. The car was parked on a single white line but not blocking a driveway.

I have read the Newbies and dealt a couple of cases in the past with PPCs. However, in this occasion I feel I may have a poor defence(ignorance) if I am taken to court.

I want to understand if I still go ahead with the standard appeal text or just pay up. A £60 parking charge is unfair, which does push me to not to pay.

Attached image on restriction

MrJenkinsEsq

The headline is PARKING CONDITIONS and every term on the sign is about parking. "By entering" is buried in the small print. Read as a whole, it's an offer to park on terms.

That offer gives nothing to someone without a permit, or to anyone on white lines, paved, hatched or landscaped areas. Often there are no bays either, which leaves nowhere to park at all. Were there any here? Without permission to park, there's no consideration from CPM and nothing to accept. At most it's trespass, and that's for the landowner to pursue, not CPM.

Relying on "by entering" means relying on small print that contradicts the headline and can't be read while driving past at 9pm. It also depends on an entrance sign, which likely wasn't there. Was there one?

UKCPM have been caught out issuing charges on public highways before. The local authority will usually have an online map showing which roads are adopted, or you could email them.

https://www.ftla.uk/private-parking-tickets/cpm-parking-charge-for-alleged-private-land/

poper

Thank you. There were no bays in the road I parked. Only areas without hatched or white lines. There are some bays if I had driven a bit more.
From google street view I could see the attached entrance sign.

I do not reside in that said road. Parking outside the white line would've met the same result.

MrJenkinsEsq

A road isn't a car park. That entrance sign sends drivers to "signs in the car park for details", and the terms sign talks about bays and landscaped areas. CPM hasn't bothered designing signs for roadways, it has just reused its car park signage.

If there are no bays, the requirement to park wholly within a marked bay means even a permit holder can't comply. Terms that nobody can meet aren't an offer of parking at all.

No reasonable motorist would read a sign about a car park as applying to the road they're driving along, especially when that road has no bays.

Coupon-mad

"I want to understand if I still go ahead with the standard appeal text or just pay up."

Neither.

Appeals to IPC firms don't work because the IAS is considered a kangaroo court, with 96% of adjudicated decisions going in favour of the parking operator,

Just ignore it and tell them if you move house. Open all letters promptly, in case of a LBC or small claim arriving.

Come back here if one arrives.