1
Private parking tickets / Re: NCP - Gatwick Airport- Popla
« on: February 02, 2026, 11:32:03 pm »
The whole of POFA 2012 applies *except* for Schedule 4.
Show Posts
This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.
Pages: [1]
2
Private parking tickets / Re: APCOA Parking - no permit - Bracknell Station car park - railway byelaws
« on: January 17, 2026, 01:07:33 pm »
"and now that train operating companies have been advised to instruct their parking operators to issue parking charge notices rather than penalties"
- please could you point me to where this information comes from? Thanks.
If APCOA etc are switching from penalties issued under byelaws (criminal law) to PCNs issued under civil contract law, they will need to change all their station car park signage to make clear that a contract is being created and failure to pay for parking would be a breach of that civil contract etc etc. That change of signage will be expensive and will take a long time!
[Just to reiterate: Only a Magistrate's court can impose a legally binding penalty. In such a court the defendant is innocent until proven guilty. Fines are paid to the Govt, not to APCOA, not to the TOC. The APCOA "penalty" is actually just an offered contract, which means "pay us the £100 and we will then promise not to prosecute you for alleged breach of byelaws". Nobody has any legal obligation to accept an offered contract. So nobody has any legal obligation to pay the APCOA fake "penalty". You are perfectly entitled to go to court, which in the case of APCOA will never happen because they don't litigate].
- please could you point me to where this information comes from? Thanks.
If APCOA etc are switching from penalties issued under byelaws (criminal law) to PCNs issued under civil contract law, they will need to change all their station car park signage to make clear that a contract is being created and failure to pay for parking would be a breach of that civil contract etc etc. That change of signage will be expensive and will take a long time!
[Just to reiterate: Only a Magistrate's court can impose a legally binding penalty. In such a court the defendant is innocent until proven guilty. Fines are paid to the Govt, not to APCOA, not to the TOC. The APCOA "penalty" is actually just an offered contract, which means "pay us the £100 and we will then promise not to prosecute you for alleged breach of byelaws". Nobody has any legal obligation to accept an offered contract. So nobody has any legal obligation to pay the APCOA fake "penalty". You are perfectly entitled to go to court, which in the case of APCOA will never happen because they don't litigate].
3
Private parking tickets / Re: Woking Railway Station - Railway byelaw
« on: November 08, 2024, 01:36:30 pm »
Byelaws ANPR tickets which are delivered to the keeper more than 14 days after the alleged breach, are considered by POPLA and BPA to have been incorrectly issued. This appears to be thd case here. Too late to appeal to POPLA. I would just ignore it.
4
The Flame Pit / Re: Clamping (Byelaws?) Nottingham Express Transit
« on: October 11, 2024, 08:59:12 am »
There is a strong argument that clamping at train station car parks is illegal, despite what the railway byelaws may say. Clamping without "lawful authority" was made illegal by POFA 2012. Railway byelaws (2005) say that clamping can be used - so the question is, do the Byelaws constitute "lawful authority" in the context of POFA? The following argument suggests they do not: Byelaws are local regulations written by local organisations and councils. They do not get discussed in Parliament. POFA is a law passed by Parliament, so "lawful authority" in the context of POFA must include discussion and approval by Parliament. Since Railway Byelaws predate POFA and were never approved by Parliament, they cannot constitute "lawful authority" as envisaged by POFA. Ergo, they cannot make clamping legal in the context of POFA. Note that the situations in which clamping does remain legal - eg its use by Police and DVSA, have been explicitly enabled by laws debated and passed by Parliament.
5
Private parking tickets / Re: Amberley Railway Station (APCOA), Failure to park in marked bay - three days in a row
« on: October 09, 2024, 08:57:38 pm »
Byelaw 24.4 states “No person shall be subject to any penalty for breach of any of the Byelaws by
disobeying a notice unless it is proved to the satisfaction of the Court before whom the complaint is
laid that the notice referred to in the particular Byelaw was displayed.” So only a Magistrate’s Court
can impose a penalty for a Byelaw breach. Only the driver could possibly be found guilty. The
position was confirmed by the DfT in a letter dated 18 February 2016. It says:
“no other person or body other than the Court is able to impose a penalty for breach of the Byelaws
[including Byelaw 14 (1-3)] made under Section 219 of the Transport Act 2000 (as amended) and
made operational on 7 July 2005.”
This letter can be found at
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/311011/response/770331/attach/2/F0013227%20Foll
ow%20Up%20Reply.pdf
disobeying a notice unless it is proved to the satisfaction of the Court before whom the complaint is
laid that the notice referred to in the particular Byelaw was displayed.” So only a Magistrate’s Court
can impose a penalty for a Byelaw breach. Only the driver could possibly be found guilty. The
position was confirmed by the DfT in a letter dated 18 February 2016. It says:
“no other person or body other than the Court is able to impose a penalty for breach of the Byelaws
[including Byelaw 14 (1-3)] made under Section 219 of the Transport Act 2000 (as amended) and
made operational on 7 July 2005.”
This letter can be found at
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/311011/response/770331/attach/2/F0013227%20Foll
ow%20Up%20Reply.pdf
6
Private parking tickets / Re: Amberley Railway Station (APCOA), Failure to park in marked bay - three days in a row
« on: October 07, 2024, 02:45:38 pm »
The APCOA "penalty" is not a real penalty. It is an offered contract in which APCOA promises not to prosecute for an alleged breach of Byelaws, on condition that you pay them £100 or whatever. Nobody has any obligation to accept an offered contract, so nobody has any legal obligation to pay APCOA the requested amount. You are perfectly entitled to await prosecution in the Mags Court. But APCOA are highly unlikely to ever prosecute, because any fine imposed by the Court is paid to the Government. So it's all a big bluff. After 6 months the prosecution window closes.
Pages: [1]