Hi everyone,
We're looking for some advice please on the following:-
The driver entered this car park after a road traffic accident to assess and photograph damage to the vehicle. They were not parked in an actual space and were there for less than 14 minutes to do the assessment.
The PCN was issued to the registered keeper on 21/12/2025 but the registered keeper was on holiday from 25/12/2025 until 19/01/2026 and didn't read the notice until 20/01/2026 (it did not arrive before 25/12/2025) at which point an appeal was started with CEL.
The grounds of the appeal were that this was because of an emergency situation because of the RTA and also that the PCN wasn't seen by the registered keeper until 30 days after it was issued.
Photos of the damage to the vehicle and boarding passes showing the registered keepers absence were sent to to the appeal to CEL.
CEL declined the appeal and a further appeal was submitted to POPLA. The POPLA appeal was also unsuccessful, please see the attached POPLA decision file.
I don't have any photos of the car park at the moment but it is relatively new with approximately 20 parking spaces.
Do we have a case here or should we just have to pay the PCN?
Thanks for your help.
