Free Traffic Legal Advice

I am the partner of the registered keeper of the vehicle.

• Upon entering the car park on the 21st April 2025 at 10:27:35 (a match day) the driver found a space, parked up, and went to the cinema.
• At around 12:58 the driver received a validation ticket from Cineworld and redeemed it.
• At 13:05:34 the driver left the premises in the vehicle. This puts the stay at 2 hours and 38 minutes.
• On 10th May, the registered keeper received a PCN through the post. The parking charge issue date was the 6th May. The registered keeper appealed on the 10th May upon receiving the PCN.
• On the 23rd May the appeal was rejected.

I do not have images of the parking signs, but the website lists the same rules seen on-site: https://www.vangardeshopping.co.uk/parking/

• Maximum stay of 4 hours between 9am and 6pm.
• On match days the maximum stay is 2 hours between 9am – 6pm. https://www.vangardeshopping.co.uk/parking-on-match-days/).
• Customers can extend their parking up to a maximum of 6 hours by producing a receipt from one of the stores.

Any advice on next steps would be greatly appreciated, or if any further information is required please let me know and I will try to provide as best as I can. I have attached the images below, they are previewing absolutely massive for which I apologise.
Link to all images on Imgur: https://imgur.com/a/YVqtXQz

That notice was issued too late to be able to recover the charge from the Registered Keeper, if Horizon do not know who was driving. What exactly was submitted as an appeal, and in what capacity?

Hi thanks for such a quick response. The appeal sent by the registered keeper included the image of the validation ticket attached in the original post and their explanation that the driver had gotten the ticket from Cineworld staff and validated it at the machine outside of the Cineworld venue. It is possible that during this explanation the registered keeper identified the driver, but I am not certain as they can't remember the exact verbiage - the appeal was done via Horizon's online portal. If the notice was issued too late how would I go about arguing this?

@BadFridays, you don't appear to have fully comprehended that Horizon had no idea who the driver was unless the Keeper blabbed it it to them, inadvertently or otherwise! If the Keeper simply referred to the driver in the third person, then that is not a problem. However, if they gave away the "golden ticket" advantage by throwing away their PoFA 2012 defence, they have, figuratively speaking, blow both feet off with a single shot!

Whilst there may be some defence in the fact that there is a validated permit that allows parking beyond the limits on the day, this has been much much harder to deal with than if the Keeper had simply appealed without identifying the driver, as there is no legal obligation of the Keeper to do so to an unregulated private parking company.

A simple appeal on the lines of: "I am the Keeper. I refer you to the answer given in Arkell v Pressdram (1971)" would have been sufficient to get your POPLA code and have the assessor tell Horizon to cancel the PCN.