Free Traffic Legal Advice

Hi,

The driver parked in a car park bay that was pre-booked using the app YourParkingSpace, booked from 8am - 7pm. The driver missed to display the relevant permit, which was part of the instructions. There is a sign that asks for permit display.

I have sent a complaint to the parking app, but they washed their hands of the situation by saying that the email had it written that I needed to get a parking permit from the owner.

I have since clarified with the parking spot owner, and he said that no one would have been on site to provide the parking permit on Saturday morning, and in either case it is very rarely observed. He was surprised to hear I got a fine and recommended I send an appeal to the parking company.

Situation happened on 13/09/25 at 09:12 am in Reading
Parking charge from CPS - Combined Parking Solutions

Would be grateful for advice on what to do in this situation: Would an appeal have any chance of success or I am going to get messed about? Is there an example of an appeal letter that would work? What are alternative (and hopefully more productive) ways of addressing this fine?

Photos of the ticket below:

https://ibb.co/HLW6Yfdw
https://ibb.co/JRGSR3KP
https://ibb.co/t0g8kcZ

Thanks in advance,

Thanks a lot for your detailed and definitely unique reply.

To satisfy my lack of understanding, because in this case the driver is parked with the owner's permission, would I get anywhere by explaining the situation?

Sorry for bringing up an old post. I want to post an update on the situation and ask another question.

To sum up what happened since my last post - the parking space app Your Parking Space has communicated with the space owner and the space owner agreed to sort the fine out - this happened within days after my original post here. In the months since, I have clarified this situation multiple times and the parking space owner has multiple times stated that the fine has been cancelled. However I keep getting letters from the Debt Collection Company, and contacting CPS they claim that the fine is still active. I don't know how to proceed from this in-between-land, and advice is appreciated.

As an add-on, as I said, I contacted the debt collection agency as well as CPS. The Debt Collectors could not tell me anything about the fine, and just said to contact the fine issuer, which was CPS. This is also what the parking space app provider, YourParkingSpace suggested to do.

Contacting CPS, after sending them an email I eventually had a phone call from a man named P. It was the most abusive phone call I have had in many years. P had found this thread, made me feel guilty about posting it and claimed that nothing else happened after I left the thread a few months ago, and I just ignored the matter. In reality the situation was addressed well within the initial 28 day period.

Furthermore, he claimed that I should have contacted CPS myself to deal with the matter, rather than through the parking space provider, which does not make sense because I got the service from YourParkingSpace and they are the first point of contact for issues.

He said other things too, which I can't fully recall, but one of them was questioning whether the parking space owner had the right to sublet his space. Also, he claimed to have sourced the additional details he needed from this thread and from my phone call, which was recorded by him. He also said something about the fine being passed onto them after an initial period of appeal - this may be the issue if fine was sorted by the parking space owner either after that period or with another authority.

My question here is what to do next and how to deal with this type of abusive approach from a company? Thanks in advance!

Thanks for your quick reply. I'll send them a Subject Access Request, as per Which.com explanation (link below) - do you recommend I use the ICO website, or send them an email directly?

Yes, I can get the contact details of the parking space owner. I've hesitated contacting him because the case has been such a headache and the last thing I want is an emotional meltdown. Regardless, other than asking for verbal clarification that the fine was dealt with, what else can I ask for?

I've added a small detail from my conversation with CPS - 'He also said something about the fine being passed onto them after an initial period of appeal'. Is there another organization that either I or the parking space owner could have been in touch with during that initial period or after?

FYI, it is certain that they are monitoring this thread because P pulled it up during the conversation and verified the PCN number from the photo I provided. Mind boggling to me that a legitimate company providing a service would do that though...

Which.com explanation of Subject Access Request:

I have asked multiple times to get some sort of evidence regarding the fine being sorted, but so far nothing has been received. I don't know whether I am being messed around with by the parking space owner, or by YourParkingSpace or by CPS. If the matter does move to court, do you know if my email log would be sufficient evidence?

Yes, I did receive a notice to keeper. It took me a while to find it, but here it is:

The notice does mention the Independent Appeals Service, www.theIAS.org as well as the IPC, www.theIPC.info Do you know if either of these two services are worth my while.

Thanks in advance!