3. Euro Car Parks on behalf of Sainsbury's Brighouse - Overstayed maximum time period allowed.
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Euro Car Parks on behalf of Sainsbury's Brighouse - Overstayed maximum time period allowed.
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Hi all.

I apologise in advance for any formatting errors, any advice on how to fix them would be appreciated as I can't figure it out using the preview.

I hope you can help me appeal a Parking Charge Notice To Keeper I've received and that I have followed the forum guide correctly.

On 8th March 2025 at 14:55 the driver parked in the car park for Brighouse Sainsbury's which due to its convenient, centre-of-town location, was also used to frequent some nearby charity shops. This took slightly longer than anticipated and therefore when returning to Sainsbury’s to buy some shopping, the 90 minutes free parking at the car park was elapsed but the driver, having forgotten the arrival time thought they could quickly grab some shopping and leave the car park. The driver then shopped during what should have been a quick shop but due to difficulty finding some items and asking for help from store colleagues to find them then took until 16:48 to pay and then after walking to the car park the driver left at 16:55 having walked to the car park from the front of the store.

I as the registered keeper then received the attached Notice to Keeper on the 22nd March 2025.




The driver has collected the following evidence from around the area today to aid in my appeal.

The driver has a reprint of the receipt from the driver’s shopping which shows the time and date of the shopping being at 16:48 8th March 2025, and the value of the shopping which was £21.78.

The driver completely acknowledges they have overstayed the maximum time allowed, are there any applicable grounds with which to appeal as to my admittedly untrained eye, the NTK looks PoFA compliant?

This is the sign on entry to the car park from a 30mph road off a mini-roundabout



These signs below are repeated around the car park and are all identical. The driver could not find any that were damaged and all are under streetlamps.






Unfortunately, the only pictures of the layout of the car park are these Streetview images, but please trust the driver when they say they are completely representative of the car park as it was when the driver parked.

Entry


Left Side


Right Side


One issue the driver could find was complication of the issue as a second PPC is also in operation, with the following signage displayed all around the car park.

Horizon PPC Ad



Horizon PPC Details/





The driver has approached Sainsbury’s in-store manager in an attempt to get this squashed from their side, though they have told the driver that they cannot as this would incur a charge for them. The driver has not yet demanded the Parking Charge be cancelled by Sainsbury’s corporate customer service or via an email to the CEO or similar, but is not above this.


Help drafting an appeal case and course of action to POPLA should the case get that far would be greatly appreciated also as the driver is not in a position to pay anything, either on principle or financially, particularly given the fact that the driver recalls the car park was not full.
« Last Edit: March 26, 2025, 09:34:52 pm by Owzmos »
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Re: Euro Car Parks on behalf of Sainsbury's Brighouse - Overstayed maximum time period allowed.
« Reply #1 on: »
Hi,

Sorry to be a pain and bump this post but if anyone could provide some advice for me that would be greatly appreciated!
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Re: Euro Car Parks on behalf of Sainsbury's Brighouse - Overstayed maximum time period allowed.
« Reply #2 on: »
Why hasn't the Keeper gone straight to the corporate level of Sainsbury's yet if the local manager fobbed them off? Hopefully they didn't blab that they shopped elsewhere first as you have explained.

Whatever the outcome of Plan A, a plan B appeal to ECP and a Plan C appeal to POPLA are not likely to bear fruit. However, you can be assured that a Plan C county court claim is the mot likely end scenario and is over 99% likely to end with a discontinuation if the advice if followed.

All depends on whether the Keeper is up for the fight.
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Never argue with stupid people. They will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience” - Mark Twain
Re: Euro Car Parks on behalf of Sainsbury's Brighouse - Overstayed maximum time period allowed.
« Reply #3 on: »
Thanks for your reply, the keeper is up for the fight  as they have not the financial means nor willingness to hand over the money.

Regarding why higher up the corporate chain hasn't been contacted, that is the step that had already been decided on but the keeper wanted advice as while they've had experience getting PCNs to go away through pre-written templates at appeal stage by themselves, the ECP PCN seems to be much more competent.

To ensure you have all the facts, unfortunately when talking with the local manager and a shop assistant to try and get it cancelled, it was questioned how it had taken 2 hours to get the minimal sum of shopping paid for and the keeper stupidly let it out that that is not what had happened.

The keeper knows and fully accepts that this may jeopardize the whole process but is up for the fight regardless, if only to tie up ECP and their subcontractor's time to help others.
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Re: Euro Car Parks on behalf of Sainsbury's Brighouse - Overstayed maximum time period allowed.
« Reply #4 on: »
Go hard on Plan A - regardless of what has been shared before - focus on the fact that the driver was a customer. Surely they don't want to lose a customer for life over a 30 minute car park overstay!?
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Re: Euro Car Parks on behalf of Sainsbury's Brighouse - Overstayed maximum time period allowed.
« Reply #5 on: »
Hi everyone, thank you for your advice.

I sent the following to Sainsbury's CEO and Customer Service.

Quote
To whom it may concern,

I have received the attached Parking Charge Notice (PCN) Number [Redacted] from Euro Car Parks due to an overstay by [Car Make and Registration Mark] of the maximum time allowed to be parked at your Brighouse store on Saturday 8th March by 30 minutes, staying a total of 2 hours.

The driver was shopping within the store at the time the overstay occurred and unfortunately in the process of attempting to find particular cleaning items, which took longer than planned and was ultimately unsuccessful, they exceeded the maximum time the car was allowed to be parked. The driver had assumed that in keeping with most other Sainsbury's car parks such as the store I frequent most locally in [Local Store with 2 hour parking limit], cars were allowed to be parked for 2 hours.

Please also find attached my receipt from this date to support my claim.

Given the fact that the contravention was an honest mistake from a customer, who was in the store at the time the free parking lapsed, and the magnitude of the parking charge is so great in proportion to the cost of renting a space in the same car park for the time period of the contravention using the space rental option available, surely a goodwill gesture can be made to cancel the parking charge notice as it is the first and only time this contravention has occurred.

Yours Faithfully,

[My Name]

Not my best work at the end but I wanted to make it known that trying to extract £50 to £85 for a space in the same car park which commands £4 for 2 hours when booked through another method is ridiculous.

I received the following in reply.

Quote
Dear [My Name]

Thank you for your email which has been received and read by Simon Roberts. He has asked that I investigate your complaint and respond personally on his behalf.

As a gesture of goodwill, I have cancelled the PCN  and no further action will be taken.

However, can I kindly request that you familiarise your self with the terms and conditions of our car parks prior to use.

Once again on behalf of Sainsburys, I am truly sorry for any upset and inconvenience this matter has caused you and if I can be of any further assistance in this matter or any other then please contact me on the details below.

Kind regards

Taking the problem up the chain does work as you all said.

Thank you for all your help, though may I ask, why was the PCN PoFA Schedule 4 compliant and POPLA likely to be unsuccessful? Genuinely curious, or is it a case of it isn't compliant, POLA are who they are and ECP always give a blanket No as part of their MO?

Thank you again for your time.
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Re: Euro Car Parks on behalf of Sainsbury's Brighouse - Overstayed maximum time period allowed.
« Reply #6 on: »
Plan B is never successful but is required to obtain a POPLA code to be able to do Plan C. However, unless the PoFA failure is clear cut and one that doesn't tax the assessors mind too much, there is a high chance that a POPLA appeal will be unsuccessful too.

Plan C with any ECP PCN is always successful as long as it is defended correctly.

PLan A, as you have seen, is quick and often the easiest way to get these PCNs cancelled.
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Never argue with stupid people. They will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience” - Mark Twain
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