Free Traffic Legal Advice

I received the following email from POPLA today which I presume means that we have won!

"The operator has contacted us and told us that they have withdrawn your appeal.

If you have already paid your parking charge, this is the reason your appeal will have been withdrawn. Unfortunately, you cannot pay your parking charge and appeal, which means that POPLA’s involvement in your appeal has ended. You will not be able to request a refund of the amount paid in order to resubmit your appeal to us.

If you have not paid your parking charge, the operator has reviewed your appeal and chosen to cancel the parking charge. As the operator has withdrawn your appeal, POPLA’s involvement has now ended and you do not need to take any further action.

Kind regards

POPLA Team"

Thankyou - I will use that

This is what I intend to submit to POPLA as my grounds for appeal - effectively it is what DWMB2 provided me with for the PPS appeal.

1. No keeper liability - failure to comply with Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act (PoFA)

The driver has not been identified and this invoice has been issued to me as the vehicle keeper. The vehicle has been photographed in "Matisse Street". The invoice has been issued as a charge for parking in "Holloway Street, Hounslow". There is no evidence provided that the vehicle at any stage entered Holloway Street, much less parked there. The invoice has therefore been issued incorrectly as the relevant land required under paragraph 9(2)(a) of PoFA has not been correctly identified and therefore, as the registered keeper, I cannot be held liable. Maps attached (one from Ordnance Survey and one from Google Maps) highlight the location where PPS show the vehicle, on Matisse Street.

2. The driver was not afforded a sufficient consideration period

It is well-established in contract law that a party cannot be bound by contract terms with which he has had no real opportunity of becoming acquainted. This is reinforced by 5.1. of the Private Parking Sector Single Code of Practice, which deals with appropriate consideration periods. The pictures taken by the PPS operative of the vehicle cover a period of ~1 minute, a time that is clearly insufficient to properly read the terms of the alleged contract.

3. The signage is incapable of forming a valid contract between PPS and the driver

The signage at the site states "NO PARKING AT ANY TIME", and "strictly no parking, waiting or loading at any time". These instructions are clearly forbidding, and make no offer to the driver to park on certain terms. On the contrary, they forbid any parking or waiting. If there is no offer to park on certain terms, there can be no contract, meaning no charge can be due.

Is there any reason it would be any different to the appeal already submitted to, and rejected by, PPS? (as drafted by DWMB2)

Thanks.

That seems a little worrying to me. It seems that POPLA did not agree that it was Matisse Road and also it sounds like (but I may be wrong here) the vehicle in this case was further on the road than my vehicle was in this case.

For reference, I attach the Google Maps and Ordnance Survey images I added to the letter.



upload images

Thanks, looks great.

I will deal with it as soon as I can - may not be until the weekend (or may be before - depends how work goes).

Really appreciate your support.

Thank you very much for your response and offer of assistance for drafting a response. I'm definitely happy to follow the pathway you have outlined.

The driver is a sameday courier. He was collecting High Street Quarter, Hounslow TW3. It is a modern pedestrianised area. He hadn't been there before and didn't know where he was going. There are multiple entrances and he didn't know which one he wanted. The first one he went to was down Hounslow Street. This led to a large gate, with single file traffic approaching it. He didn't want to block the gate, so pulled up on the left short of it and approached the gate on foot to see if it was the entrance he needed. It wasn't, he returned to my van, did a u-turn and went back the way he came.
His initial thought was he was stationary for maybe 2 minutes - however he received a call from his office as he pulled up at 09:44 and he can see that call lasted 1 min 59 seconds. The ticket was issued to him at 09:48 - so assuming all clocks are accurate, that suggests he was there for a minimum of 4 minutes (which surprises him - he thought it was less).

The photographic evidence from PPS shows him there between 09:47:07 and 09:48:18 (1 minute 11 seconds).

Obviously it's a scam and rip off to charge him £100 (reduced to £60 in 14 days) for "parking" there. However, does he have any choice but to pay it?

I am the registered keeper of the vehicle and the V5C is in my name.

Streetview Location: https://maps.app.goo.gl/tpsi6H8p9thxzw9KA

4 photos attached extracted from the PPS photographic evidence on their website.





Images of the Parking Charge Notice: