Indigo railway PCN (not parked within marked bay)

Ok, so I am hoping somebody might be able to help me with some advice on this one.

PCN was issued on my vehicle by indigo, in a Southern Rail area car park for not parking within a marked bay (valid ticket purchased). The bay I was parked in was rather confusing, as there remained continuous painted lines (all be it faded) of what to me still looked like a parking bay, but could have just been a very poor attempt by the car park operator to remove an old space.

Either way, I possibly jumped the gun and I issued an appeal straight away (and yes I should have read forums first), but I entered my contact details as the driver of the vehicle, and I now understand I should have avoided this.

Regardless, I was at the time confident my appeal would be successful as I had taken photo's of my car parked within a bay with faded continuous lines, and I at least very much interpreted this as a parking space. I didn't think they would reject the appeal as it is pretty clear from my images how you could come to the conclusion that it was indeed a parking space, and at worst it was misleading.

Low and behold, the appeal has been rejected, and with their usual template response (this now comes to no surprise to me after doing some research).

After viewing a few forums on here, I decided to email them with the below message (which I have yet to have a response to after 14 days):


Dear Indigo,

Whilst I disagree with the decision not to overturn the pcn for the reasons stated in my appeal, having sought legal counsel on this matter I understand you have no legal basis to issue such notice.

You have stated in this instance the vehicle was in breach of railway byelaw 14 (breach code 7 - not parked correctly within a marked bay).

Railway byelaw 14 does not state that the vehicle has to be parked correctly within a marked bay, nor does it state that if it isn't, it is in breach of the byelaws. There is no breach code 7.

As a private parking company, operating on railway byelaws in this instance, you have no legal basis for this pcn.

I have been advised to begin a detailed log of my time assigned to this matter, but in the meantime you are required to cancel this charge forthwith.

I realise there is no longer a POPLA option for this as railway byelaws, but I would appreciate some advice here on what my options are and whether my best bet is just to continue making my points and be prepared they might take me to magistrates court if I continue to refuse to pay (although I'm not sure I would see the point of this as the money goes to the government, and regardless of my points raised above on their authority to issue this PCN under railway byelaws, I still have images of my vehicle parked in what many people could conclude was a parking space)

I guess I am just after some re-assurance as it's starting to bother me a little! - but at the same time I don't think I should pay the fine. Any help would be VERY GRATEFULLY received.

Thank you