Free Traffic Legal Advice

apologies in advance for how long winded and badly written this is

i received a PCN from ParkingEye for allegedly parking for too long in a hospital patient only parking space, im a member of staff with a permit, and in this car park the bottom 3 levels are for patients and top 3 levels are for staff, during this period work was going on and the most upper level was closed off and spaces so limited.

on a number of occasions i parked in patients and just extended the time on the screens in the hospital and other times moved my car after the 4 hours allowed. on this specific day of the fine i cannot remember whether i did either of those things.

 i received the fine after i was on long term sick leave as my father was suddenly diagnosed with terminal cancer i appealed the ticket but i wasn’t able to defend myself well or provide evidence of my permit as i didn’t have access to my work emails not that that would have helped. they denied my appeal so i appealed to POPLA at which point i THOUGHT they came back to me saying ParkingEye cancelled the notice but i think i may have mixed this up with another fine as i was under a lot of duress at this time (my dad passed away that week). i’ve since received a letter from DCBL for £140 debt collection and it blindsided me! i emailed the hospital parking site to help me but they came back and said i parked illegally because the cameras did not catch me going up to the staff levels so i possibly couldn’t have gone up i don’t even remember if that’s true or not because i’ve gone up with my husbands car before into staff levels and never gotten a ticket and ive parked in patients before too and also not gotten a ticket.

do i just pay up because i did park in the patient level (i fully thought i was allowed because of this unclear email from the damn hospital) and the hospital have said they can’t do anything about it as it’s too late 👍🏽

appreciate any help i’ve read through this forum and i’m sorry if i’m repeating just not sure where i stand because i don’t have anything to defend myself at all basically

Not much you can do at present - but I would keep on at the hospital / HR dept / trust CEO if required!  Assuming this is on NHS land, they contracted Parking Eye and should be the master in the arrangement, penalising your own staff when the carpark is out of order seems particularly viscious.

You can ignore the scary looking letters from DCBL, they are powerless and just trying to frighten you into paying.  Eventually you will receive a letter of claim, and then a court claim.  As long as you defend it, for which advice can be provided, it will almost certainly be discontinued before a hearing.

If you can, post up the original PCN and any original or POPLA appeal and correspondence.  Come back if / when you get a letter of claim as that is usually worth a reply.