Free Traffic Legal Advice

I’ve just discussed it with my completely risk averse husband and we’re going to pay it. If I ever get another PCN I’ll come here first! Think if I’d had the right argument I could have avoided getting this far. Thanks for the advice.

Hi everyone.

I’ve just had my appeal rejected by POPLA but I feel they haven’t considered my evidence. Is there anything else I can do?

The vehicle was parked in Euro Car Parks, where the car park is split in to several different sections. The signs said pay on exit. After eating at a restaurant the driver went to the machine in the area but it was out of order. They then walked across to another part of the car park and entered the vehicle registration number. A message appeared saying “you do not need to pay, simply leave the car park”. The driver took a photo which I provided as evidence to POPLA. It doesn’t have the registration number but it was time stamped so you can see it was for the same occasion.

POPLA haven’t addressed this at all in the appeal response - they have just seemed to have copied and pasted a standard reply that Euro Car Parks are entitled to charge and that signage was clear.
There was also no comment on the fact that the car park photographs Euro Car Parks gave to POPLA as evidence were of a different car park to the one where the vehicle was parked - not just a different area but a completely different car park several streets away.

The driver genuinely
tried to pay and the operator’s machine advised no payment was due - their rejection included the line “ I agree that the onus is on the customer to ensure they have paid for the full duration of their parking before they exit the car park.” but I would argue that this is exactly what the driver tried to do. Not only that, they’ve not given any suggestion on how they could have paid, given that the machine didn’t give any option to pay - it just told the driver to leave.

Where I am now is I have emailed POPLA asking for clarification. I don’t particularly expect to receive a reply as it was only chance that I had an email address for them - they didn’t provide any contact details after my appeal was rejected. I have also emailed Euro Car Parks asking them to reconsider the charge given the circumstances.

Further info: the car park is free for up to an hour and the vehicle was parked for 1h16m. The charge is £100 but £60 if it is paid within two weeks.

Thanks in advance for any advice you’re able to offer.

(Edited to improve layout and other improvements)

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