I received a debt recovery letter regarding a Smart Parking PCN, but I never received the original PCN / Notice to Keeper beforehand, so had no chance to appeal or pay earlier.
The incident was at a church car park. I arrived at 16:34. There was an issue with the payment machine, so I went inside an adjacent church for assistance. Staff helped me make the payment 60 minutes at 16:53.
The paid session expired at 17:53. The vehicle exited at 17:58, so only 5 minutes after the paid time ended.
Smart Parking are relying on total ANPR site time 84 minutes and say there was insufficient paid time, then passed it to Debt Recovery Plus. I contacted the church to cancel but they said they don't own the car park so can't make the request. They rejected the complaint and said their grace/consideration periods were applied. They've now referred me to The IPC for making a further complaint. Any advice please.
Final email from Smart Parking Below
Good afternoon,
Thank you for your email.
Complaint Ref: ####
Having considered the comments raised in your complaint, we offer the following response.
We can confirm that your PC was issued via post on 18/04/2025 - please find attached a copy of this.
Smart Parking Limited have no hold over the postal service and if this has not been received, we would advise you get in contact with your local post office regarding your undelivered post.
We can confirm that the Parking Charge was issued due to insufficient paid time. Our payment system shows that 60 minutes was purchased against vehicle registration ##### however, your vehicle remained on site for a total of 84 minutes. Additional time can be purchased at any point during your stay, before exiting the car park. As your vehicle was parked in excess of the parking time purchased, the advertised terms and conditions have been breached.
Smart Parking’s grace and consideration periods are compliant with The Private Parking Sector Single Code of Practice June 2024. Appropriate time is afforded for motorist to enter the car park, identify and comply with the tariff, restrictions, terms and conditions, find an available parking space or decide whether they wish to stay and comply or leave the parking site. Neither the grace nor consideration periods are time for free parking. We can confirm that your vehicle duration on site exceeded the applicable grace/consideration period.
Please be aware that the car park is monitored by an Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) system. All accessible entry and exit points in this car park have a ANPR camera in place which takes an infrared image of the vehicle registration, as the vehicle passes by. The system then identifies the vehicle registration mark (VRM) from these images, after which the total time the vehicle remained on site is calculated, recorded and compared with any parking time purchased/the advertised terms and conditions. Furthermore, regardless of whether the vehicle was left unattended or not: by parking, waiting or otherwise remaining in the car park, you agree to comply with the advertised terms and conditions.
Due to the length of time the parking charge has been open, it has now been passed to a debt recovery agency.
Should you wish to discuss the charge further, please contact the debt recovery agency directly.
We must inform you that you have the right to escalate your complaint further with our Accredited Trade Association. They can be contacted at
https://portal.theipc.info/login/complaints Please note, you will need to upload a copy of your final complaint outcome from Smart Parking Limited, as part of your evidence submission. Any complaints escalated to the IPC’s AOS will not be considered without a copy of your outcome.
We do not believe that there is any further action required from your complaint and therefore we now consider this complaint closed.
You have now reached the end of our internal complaint’s procedure.
For any future queries, please contact info@smartparking.com via email, who will be able to assist you further.
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