Hilarious! Just like a rat gnawing at a sack of oats, trying to get at the contents, they persist with mendacious rubbish about liability.
If your appeal was made within their stated timescale (28 days from receipt of the Notice to Keeper), then as a BPA operator they are required to do two things when they reject it:
1. Issue a formal Notice of Rejection, and
2. Provide a POPLA verification code so you can escalate to independent appeal.
They have done neither. They’ve just nagged you for driver details, admitted the PCN is non-PoFA, and then stonewalled your explicit request for a POPLA code. That is:
– A breach of the PPSCoP.
– Unfair and obstructive behaviour.
– Something you can and should use against them.
You have very strong grounds now to treat this as a formal complaint issue rather than “appeal correspondence”.
You should now send UKPE a formal complaint to info@ukpenforcement.co.uk and CC the BPA at aos@britishparking.co.uk:
FORMAL COMPLAINT: FAILURE TO ISSUE POPLA VERIFICATION CODE
Dear Sirs,
I refer to your Parking Charge Notice [reference] and my appeal submitted on [date].
You have admitted in writing that the notice ‘does not comply with the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012’. Accordingly, there is no keeper liability and, as I was not the driver, cannot be liable.
I twice requested that you either cancel the charge or issue a formal rejection with a POPLA verification code so that I could exercise my right to independent appeal. You have refused to do so and instead repeatedly demanded driver details and then passed the matter to a debt collector.
This is unacceptable and contrary to your obligations as a BPA Approved Operator. You cannot both (a) reject an appeal and continue to pursue payment, and (b) withhold a POPLA code to prevent independent adjudication.
Unless you now either cancel this Parking Charge or issue a formal Notice of Rejection with a valid POPLA verification code within 14 days, I will submit full, formal complaints to the BPA and DVLA enclosing your correspondence, your admission of non-PoFA compliance, and your failure to provide a POPLA code while continuing to instruct ZZPS.
The BPA is copied into this correspondence as this matter concerns your repeated refusal to provide a POPLA code and misrepresentation of keeper liability.
For the avoidance of doubt, I am under no legal obligation to identify the driver.
Yours faithfully,
[Your name]
Then, if they still do not issue a code or cancel, you follow through with formal complaints to:
BPA: enclosing the email trail and saying “they admit the PCN is not PoFA compliant, refuse to issue a POPLA code despite clear requests, and continue to chase via ZZPS”.
DVLA: saying “my keeper data is being used to pursue a non-PoFA charge without a proper appeal route and contrary to BPA rules, please investigate as a possible KADOE breach”.
In the meantime you continue to ignore ZZPS entirely. They are not a party to anything and are powerless to do anything except to try and intimidate the low-hanging fruit on the gullible tree into paying out of ignorance and fear.