Minster baywatch parking fine

football_striker · 15 June 2017 at 11:55AM

Hello,

I'm new to this forum and wondered if somebody could help me out. I've read various other threads and got myself this far but now I'm stuck.

Basically, there was a wedding at Brecon Cathedral on May 20th. The driver paid £1 at the parking meter for an hour thinking that this was sufficient enough. They thought this was a manned car park, and had no idea they were using ANPR. Other guests said they'd just paid a pound and that's why the driver thought it was ok. The wedding was late to run and took much longer than usual.

A few days later I received a letter in the post from Minster Baywatch showing my car coming and going from the car park. The time stamp is below the photo of my car but not on the photo itself. The driver overstayed by an extra 40 minutes and now they're trying to make me pay a £100 fine reduced to £60 if paid within 14 days. The driver would also like to add that it was only 50p more for 2 hours, so I really can't justify paying a £60 fine for this!! Plus, the driver couldn't just get up and leave the wedding ceremony half-way through and say I've got to go and increase my parking fee. It was assumed that there would have been a ticket in the windscreen if the driver had gone over anyway. The parking sticker was put in the windscreen from the meter.

I have followed the appeal process through Baywatch and not told them who the driver was. I used the BPA template and they have declined my appeal and offered me a POPLA code. But I'm not sure what to do next? I have got a friend who lives in Brecon to take a photo of the parking sign with all the t&c's on it but I'm not sure if I can argue anything against it, like the fact it's got small wording on it etc?

I'd really appreciate any help to try and get this damn ticket cancelled!

Many thanks

football_striker · 15 June 2017 at 11:57AM

As a new user, apparently I'm not allowed to post links? How can I post a link to my tweet which has the photo of the car park sign?

Quentin · 15 June 2017 at 12:01PM

You say you never told them who was driving but your op now does.

Edit it to remove details of who was driving

Host your pics on an image hosting site. Put up the URL with hxxp and someone will post a live link

See the newbies FAQ thread near the top of the forum to learn about a popla appeal

Put together a draft appeal and post it up for comments

Umkomaas · 15 June 2017 at 12:27PM

Please use some paragraphing in your first post - and any subsequent ones - to break up the wall of text.

Many regulars, including me, won't struggle to try to read such posts because the mass of words makes it too difficult to read, thereby you will potentially miss out on valuable advice.

football_striker · 15 June 2017 at 12:36PM

Sorry, what do you mean my op now shows who was driving? What should I edit my post to?

football_striker · 15 June 2017 at 12:39PM

LINK TO PHOTO OF CAR PARK SIGN: hxxps://ibb.co/h0VE3Q

Obviously replace hxxps with https

Quentin · 15 June 2017 at 12:45PM

football_striker wrote: »

Sorry, what do you mean my op now shows who was driving? What should I edit my post to?

To remove references to who the driver was!

Use "the driver" did this and that etc

Quentin · 15 June 2017 at 12:46PM

football_striker wrote: »

LINK TO PHOTO OF CAR PARK SIGN: hxxps://ibb.co/h0VE3Q

Obviously replace hxxps with https

https://ibb.co/h0VE3Q

Umkomaas · 15 June 2017 at 2:18PM

Couple of points to bear in mind as you work on your appeal to POPLA.

1. The car park operator is shown as Bransby Wilson, not MinsterBaywatch. BW and MB are partner organisations but your purported contract is with BW not MB who have issued the ticket. So you must argue the point that you have no contract with MB.

2. Watch out, eventually, for the POPLA evidence pack and the witness statement regarding the landowner contract and who it's signed by. Often signed by BW themselves as landowner.

They do lease (or even own) a car park near to York Minster (their base is close to it, I think) but you need to start digging now as to who actually owns the Brecon car park - Land Registry for £3-£4 will tell you if after, free Google searches, calls to the Local Valuation Office, Local Council, or even the tea room mentioned on the sign, you can't find the details.

Thank you, by the way, for paragraphing out your original post.

football_striker · 15 June 2017 at 2:51PM

Thank you very much for those two points. Surely the contract is void if MB have given me the fine when as you pointed out, it should have come from BW?

Also, I've done some digging. It appears that the land owner is the cathedral, the church of Wales. I've spoken to the Cathedral office and she said she would query this parking ticket with the Dean when he's back in next week. Maybe it might get cancelled, I'm sure the Dean could authorise this, otherwise are you suggesting that if BW were to sign it off as "their land", that too is illegal and incorrect?

No worries and thanks for your help so far!

Umkomaas · 15 June 2017 at 2:57PM

Well done in contacting the cathedral.

Doing your homework now (get some written proof if possible) is a good investment of time should BW claim they own the land, via a witness statement (which we've seen in the past), then you can rebut that at the evidence pack stage with POPLA. This should secure you a slam dunk win. But all in due course.

Minster baywatch parking fine

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