Hi,

First of all - just wanted to show some gratitude for all the available resources on this forum (particularly the Newbies guide). Without them I would be utterly lost, and being a student I would certainly struggle with a £60 charge. Apologies if there are numerous other threads reporting similar cases but I feel I have sufficient evidence to get a result at the first appeal.

Today, I received a parking fine to my home address under my mother's name (I am insured on her car). The PCN was with regards to an evening I went out for dinner and parked at Regis' Birmingham, operated by Smart Parking. The PCN informed me that I had breached the terms of the 'signage which is clearly displayed at the entrance to and throughout the car park [...] by either not purchasing the appropriate parking time or by remaining at the car park for longer than permitted'.

Luckily, I went back into the car and found the receipt of the ticket down the side of my seat (phew). Smart Parking have stated, with photographic evidence, that I entered the car park at 18:13pm. The ticket I have permitted parking between 18:24 and 19:24. The 11 unaccounted for minutes were spent:

a) Finding a space
b) Going to the parking meter (which was on the other side of a 100 yard parking space) to check the price of the tickets and pay for the ticket. I then realised I had insufficient change for the parking (£5 an hour - ludicrous), so I returned to the car to look for/ask my girlfriend for change.
c) Going back to the machine and paying for the ticket - which btw was also supposed to return change and failed to do so.

Personally I was not aware that the allotted time began upon entry into the car park (which is not clear from the signage outside of the car park). I also believe that 11 minutes was a perfectly reasonable amount of time to conduct the aforementioned tasks. It's not as if I was 'enjoying' the services of the car park in the time that I was paying for the ticket.

I returned to my car a minute or two before the timer ran out (I remember this because I was constantly checking my watch during the evening). I left the car park 4 minutes after the allotted time (at 19:28) as a few minutes were spent plugging in directions home and demisting my windscreen. Any CCTV footage they or the hotel have would clearly show my presence in the car park during all minutes that are not accounted for by the ticket.

I am preparing my appeal now to send off by tomorrow evening but would appreciate any advice on how to approach this. Should I attach evidence of my parking ticket and a formalised explanation using my points above, or should I demand a POPLA code and do this at the next stage of appeal? Should I still contact Park Regis with a complaint, despite not being a paying customer of the hotel?

Cheers!