Author Topic: APCOA,Parking on Yellow or Hatched lines, Northwick Park Hospital  (Read 2185 times)

0 Members and 146 Guests are viewing this topic.

Dear members

APCOA issued PCN for alleged contravention of parking on yellow or hatched lines next to disabled parking bay. Disabled badge was displayed on the windscreen.
The vehicle was parked at the NorthWick Park hospital site.
No display of parking T&C and other sign by the area where vehicle was parked.
The patient in the car was due to attend appointment at 2pm and there was an emergency with the patient where she was rushed to the toilet to avoid soiling the cloth. She carrying "No Waiting Card" with her and suffers from bowel incontinence due to chronic constipation.

The APCOA rejected our representation and we would like to seek advice on the possibility to challenge this appeal further.

Attached are specific documents related with this PCN.

Regards
Ams
« Last Edit: December 28, 2023, 09:39:08 am by DWMB2 »

Share on Bluesky Share on Facebook


This is a private ticket, being a "Parking Charge Notice", not a "Penalty Charge Notice" issue by councils and Transport for London.
You therefore need to re-post it in the private tickets forum: -
https://www.ftla.uk/private-parking-tickets/
Experts there will tell you whether you're in with a chance or not.

Posted.

Many Thanks.

APCOA issued PCN for alleged contravention of parking on yellow or hatched lines next to disabled parking bay.
Can you explain what you mean by this (ideally show us any photos APCOA took)? Do you mean that the car was in the bay, but the wheels were overhanging into the hatched lines, or was the vehicle parked entirely on the hatched lines, outside of the disabled bay? If the former, I'd suggest you have a much stronger case than if the latter is true.

At any rate, a good first step would be to speak to the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) at the hospital in question, explaining the situation, to see if they can intervene.

Many thanks.
"The vehicle was parked entirely on the hatched lines, outside of the disabled bay".
Uploading pictures taken by the APCOA here.

PALS are concerned with any negligence in clinical activities. Parking related discussions falls outside PALS remit.
« Last Edit: December 28, 2023, 09:39:38 am by DWMB2 »

Many thanks.
"The vehicle was parked entirely on the hatched lines, outside of the disabled bay".
Not ideal - by doing this access to the (presumably occupied) disabled bay next to this area was reduced, which doesn't help your case.

PALS are concerned with any negligence in clinical activities. Parking related discussions falls outside PALS remit.
They have a far broader remit than just clinical negligence. Over on PePiPoo we've seen cases where PALS have intervened to help patients who have had issues with unfair parking enforcement, but it's your money on the line, not mine, so you're free to disregard the suggestion.

They might be less likely to intervene in this case as it does seem like the T&Cs were breached. Although a suitably emotive story about the circumstances as you described in your opening post may just elicit some sympathy. It costs £0 to try.

Do you have any photos showing where the nearest sign was (and a close up of the terms and conditions)? Any photo of signage at the entrance?
« Last Edit: October 27, 2023, 07:02:23 pm by DWMB2 »

Dear member

We tried to recreate the scene in a video (cant attached due to 25MB size) of the event happened after parking the car on 07-Sept and rushing mother to attend the emergency.

Few points worth noting :
1. The vehicle was parked outside the car park 3. No parking sign found displayed where the vehicle was parked and on route accessing the hospital
2. In PCN, there is no picture attached showing the display of signage and the T&C confirming the contravention. Isn't this Mandatory when issuing PCN ?
3. The parking T&Cs were displayed within the car park 3 area, however the contravention occurred outside the CP3 zone
4. From other attached pictures, also evidences non-display of signage near the parked car area
5. There is no evidence where the parked vehicle caused any obstruction to any emergency vehicle or caused a risk to other vehicle passenger or pedestrian or so on

We will try to contact PALS again on Monday to seek their interventions in this matter.

To be honest, we feel APCOA is trying to milk vehicle owners to generate extra cash at the expense of vehicle owner.

Your help would be highly appreciated.
« Last Edit: December 28, 2023, 09:39:54 am by DWMB2 »

We tried to recreate the scene in a video (cant attached due to 25MB size)
You'd need to use a third party site such as YouTube.

Can you share a Google Street View link of that space?

From what you've shared so far the signage doesn't look great - I can see how a driver would miss the only nearby sign, which appears to be an 'entrance' sign, and/or think it applies to the spaces beyond the zebra crossing. If PALS won't help, you can of course appeal to POPLA, although I wouldn't expect them to find in your favour. It would then essentially be a case of toughing it out and seeing if they took the matter to court, and then trying to defend it there.

It's not a great bit of parking (this isn't a criticism, I understand the circumstances), and one could argue that even without the signs, a driver knows that they should not park on hatched lines - however, one could also argue that without clear signage, they wouldn't know that by doing so they were entering into a contract to pay £100.

Many thanks - uploaded two videos on YT, link below.






Link to google map :
https://maps.app.goo.gl/igMt4Y9oVxHyLbHz7

51.574576, -0.319030
Harrow

I hear and understood your points. Few clarification points :
 - Wouldn't this mandatory for parking attendant to upload relevant T&C's in the PCN, else the PCN is invalidated ?
 - Will parking on hatched markings contravenes the parking rules on private lands (contrary to public road) and the guidelines laid outs in British Parking Association (BPA) code of practice? 
 - what key differences in laws between public road and private land around parking on hatched lines and /or displaying the signage clearly + t&cs ?

Hope I am making sense.
APologies - I am new to this and may be my questions seems stupid.

Regards

Response from PALs

"Further to your email below I have since forwarded on the APCOA Senior Area Manager to look at.  Unfortunately, PALS do not influence and  overturn APCOA’s Appeals department decision.
The Senior Area Manager will respond directly to you.

Kind regards,
Brenda Bennett"
« Last Edit: December 28, 2023, 09:40:23 am by DWMB2 »

APCOA,Parking on Yellow or Hatched lines, Northwick Park Hospital
« Reply #10 on: »
Dear members

APCOA issued PCN for alleged contravention of parking on Yellow or Hatched lines next to the disabled parking bay.
We displayed Disabled badge on the windscreen of the vehicle (evident in the original PCN attached).
The vehicle was parked at the Northwick Park hospital site (Private Land).
Link to google map :
https://maps.app.goo.gl/igMt4Y9oVxHyLbHz7
51.574576, -0.319030
Harrow

We didn’t observe any Parking T&C and / or other sign displayed around the area where the vehicle was parked.
We tried to recreate the scene in a video where the event happened.



The vehicle was used to transport the patient who was due to attend the clinical appointment at 2pm at the same hospital clinic. However, there was an emergency with the patient where she was rushed to the toilet to avoid soiling her clothes. She carries a "No Waiting Card" with her and also suffers from bowel incontinence due to chronic constipation.
Further, there was ongoing construction work in NPH car park resulting poor availability of the parking in the car parking area. Also, due to this, there was significant delay in finding the parking space to park the car.

The APCOA rejected our original representation and have sent the “Notice to the Keeper” either to pay the penalty charge or make an appeal.
We approached to PALS and they denied.
Response from PALs :
"Further to your email below I have since forwarded on the APCOA Senior Area Manager to look at.  Unfortunately, PALS do not influence and  overturn APCOA’s Appeals department decision.
The Senior Area Manager will respond directly to you.

Kind regards,
Brenda Bennett"


We would like to seek advice from this forum around specific points to consider when drafting the representation.

Attached are specific documents related with this PCN.

Few points are worth noting :
1. The vehicle was parked outside the car park 3. No parking sign found displayed where the vehicle was parked and on route accessing the hospital
2. In PCN, there is no picture attached showing the display of signage and the T&C confirming the contravention. Is there any legal mandate around this point when issuing any PCN ?
3. The parking T&Cs were displayed within the Car Park 3 (CP3) area, however the contravention occurred outside the CP3 zone
4. Other attached pictures, also evidences non-display of signage near the parked car area
5. There is no evidence where the parked vehicle caused any obstruction to any emergency vehicle or caused a risk to other vehicle passenger or pedestrian or so on


Kindest regards
Ams

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]
« Last Edit: November 21, 2023, 11:33:34 pm by DWMB2 »

Re: APCOA,Parking on Yellow or Hatched lines, Northwick Park Hospital
« Reply #11 on: »
2. In PCN, there is no picture attached showing the display of signage and the T&C confirming the contravention. Is there any legal mandate around this point when issuing any PCN ?
No - The signage must be 'there to be seen' and capable of creating a contract. If it is not, you can challenge this, but there's no requirement for them to show you the signage on the PCN.

5. There is no evidence where the parked vehicle caused any obstruction to any emergency vehicle or caused a risk to other vehicle passenger or pedestrian or so on
This isn't relevant. They aren't alleging that an obstruction was caused (although one could make an argument that the vehicle was obstructing access to any car parked in the adjacent disabled bay).

The arguments haven't changed since your last post - the lack of signage seems like your strongest argument. Did you appeal to POPLA? If not, it'll be a case now of waiting to see if they decide to take the matter to court.

Re: APCOA,Parking on Yellow or Hatched lines, Northwick Park Hospital
« Reply #12 on: »
No appeal to POPLA sent. The original representation against the PCN was made in the patient name who was the passenger in the vehicle and not the owner of the vehicle. This representation was rejected by APCOA.

Now APCOA sent the "Notice to the Keeper" of the vehicle with two options a) Pay the charge, b) appeal to dispute the PCN.

Hope this is clear.
 

Re: APCOA,Parking on Yellow or Hatched lines, Northwick Park Hospital
« Reply #13 on: »
Right - understood.

I've removed your first attachment (the Notice to Keeper) as it contains your full name and address. You may wish to redact then re-upload.

To be clear, the driver has not been identified to APCOA at any point?

Re: APCOA,Parking on Yellow or Hatched lines, Northwick Park Hospital
« Reply #14 on: »
Right - understood.

I've removed your first attachment (the Notice to Keeper) as it contains your full name and address. You may wish to redact then re-upload.

To be clear, the driver has not been identified to APCOA at any point?


Uploaded "Notice to the Keeper".
No - the driver was not identified earlier. I presume, APCOA reached out to DVLA to identify the keeper of the vehicle to send the notice.

Regards
« Last Edit: December 28, 2023, 09:40:46 am by DWMB2 »