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Hi, MP’s office has written to my wife and forwarded correspondence from the BPA which I’ll paste below. Does this mean that the penalty charge is cancelled?

Correspondence from the British Parking Association

Good Morning Uma,

I hope you had a lovely weekend.

Re: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Your reference: CXXXXXX
BPA reference: BPA-XXXXXX
Parking Charge Notice: XXXXXXXXX
Thank you for your patience whilst I contacted MET Parking Services for further information.
Our Role
It might be helpful if I begin by explaining that our role as an Accredited Trade Association is to investigate alleged breaches of our Code of Practice by members of our Approved Operator Scheme. Please appreciate that our remit does not extend to compelling operators to cancel charges or becoming involved in the appeals process.

The Site
McDonald's Leytonstone operates a 90 minute maximum stay for customers only. We are aware that MET Parking Services conduct a survey to ascertain when a parking attendant leaves the site and we do not believe it constitutes a breach of the Code of Practice.

The Parking Charge
When a Parking Charge is issued by a member of our Approved Operator Scheme, a motorist will have 28 days to appeal this via the operator's internal appeals procedure if they believe that it was issued either unfairly or incorrectly; the process should be outlined in the Parking Charge.

The operator has 28 days to respond to the appeal. If the appeal is rejected the operator should provide details on how to further appeal to the free and independent appeals service, POPLA. A further appeal is available via POPLA for 28 days following the operator rejecting the appeal.

Parking Charge issued: 27th December 2024
Appeal received: 5th January 2025
Appeal rejected: 16th January 2025
Correspondence received: 20th January 2025
Correspondence responded to: 23rd January 2025
POPLA appeal submitted

When MET received the correspondence dated 20th January, they considered it to be a further appeal as they felt it did not fit the definition of a complaint outlined in their complaints policy (https://www.metparking.com/wp-content/uploads/Complaints-Policy14.pdf).

We received contact from the motorist under BPA-060029 and our Senior Compliance Manager responded numerous times addressing their queries. Within the motorist’s complaint they have not raised any breaches of the Code of Practice. We are careful to not overstep our remit and cannot advise if an operator is acting unlawfully.

In this instance, MET Parking Services have withdrawn the case from POPLA and the motorist will receive no further correspondence regarding this Parking Charge.

The Parking (Code of Practice) Act
At the BPA we continue to engage with Government departments and other stakeholders on establishing the new single Code of Practice and the surrounding architecture. It has long been our aspiration to establish a standard setting body overseeing a single code of practice and one independent appeals service to give the motoring public a level playing field when dealing with parking operators that manage private land and eradicate confusion created by multiple codes and appeals services.

As the various initiatives outlined in the Act come to fruition, we are keen to continue our constructive input to the Act, and if you would like to arrange a call to discuss any issues, we would be very happy to make mutually convenient arrangements.

Kind regards

Hi all,

Received a response from BPA regarding the complaint (see below). I seem to be going round in circles here and I'm conscious that the POPLA appeal needs to be submitted soon. Could someone please help me draft it?

BPA Response:

Thank you for your enquiry.
Our Role
Our role as an Accredited Trade Association is to investigate alleged breaches of our Code of Practice by members of our Approved Operator Scheme where evidence can be supplied and where the operator’s internal complaints process has been exhausted. We are unable to become involved in individual Parking Charge disputes.

Appealing the Parking Charge
Please be advised that when a Parking Charge Notice is issued by a member of our Approved Operator Scheme, a motorist will have 28 days to appeal this via the operator's internal appeals procedure if they believe that it was issued either unfairly or incorrectly; the process should be outlined in the Parking Charge Notice. The operator has 28 days to respond.

If the appeal is rejected the operator should provide details on how to further appeal to the free and independent appeals service, POPLA. A further appeal is available via POPLA for 28 days following the operator rejecting the appeal.

Our Code of Practice does not cover how Operators choose to prove if a motorist leaves site.  We are aware of the survey MET Parking attendants conduct when ascertaining if a driver has left site and we do not believe this is in breach of our Code of Practice. 

Next Steps
If you believe that there has been a breach of our Code of Practice by a member of the Approved Operator Scheme you must first submit your complaint directly to the operator using their internal complaints process which can be found below:

Complaints-Policy14.pdf
Kind regards
Gemma Dorans
British Parking Association

Reply email from Met Parking regarding the BPA complaint attached below. They've now supplied a redacted picture of a so called site survey.

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Thanks -all working now.

It would seem from Met's response that they have no intention of responding to the complaint. Mcdonald's response atteched...

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Thanks, will get this sent off today. Do they need to respond within a certain timeframe?

Thanks for this, if you could knock something up for us, I'd be grateful. Attached is the rest of the letter. It's signed, but the signature doesn't have a typed name and generically states 'Appeals Department'.

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Many thanks for the replies, really appreciated. I’ll get the keeper to submit the appeal when they’re back home later tonight.