Free Traffic Legal Advice

Can you post a copy of the PPN?
with personal details redacted but leave dates.

Has the driver been identified in any appeal?

A reminder is as useful as a poke in the arm with a sharp stick. We need to see the original Notice to Keeper (NtK) will ALL dates and times visible.

It's a pity you did not come here for advice before appealing to both Horizon and POPLA. However, you are where you are.

You can safely ignore all debt recovery letters. Debt collectors are powerless to do anything except to try and intimidate the low-hanging fruit on the gullible tree to pay up out of ignorance and fear.

Come back when you receive a Letter of Claim (LoC) and we will advise on how to beat this and not have to pay a penny to Horizon.

An update on the PCN. I have received a Letter Before Claim for the Horizon PCN from Gladstone Solicitors. I paste the content below. I would really appreciate any advice on dealing with this please.
I still believe there was a system error as there shouldn’t have been a parking fee if I had entered the wrong number plate given it was ANPR. I had tried numerous times after the PCN, entering a wrong number plate it never returned an amount to pay. Very puzzling.
Thank you!

Content of letter:
We act on behalf of Horizon Parking Limited and are instructed to commence legal proceedings against you to recover unpaid parking charge notice(s) as detailed above (full details of them having been sent to you by our client already). If in the next 30 days the amount due is not paid in full, or a valid legal reason for non-payment is not provided, we will commence court proceedings against you without further notice.

The amount due includes £70.00 claimed by our client for the time/resources spent facilitating the recovery of the unpaid parking charge notice(s) pursuant to its ATA's Code of Practice and the Terms and Conditions of the Contract, which was entered into upon the driver of the vehicle entering the Relevant Land. The amount is a pre-determined and nominal contribution to our client's losses as a direct result of your non-payment.

We refer you to the Pre-Action Protocol for Debt Claims (paragraph 7) (the 'PAP') and the Practice Direction for Pre-Action Conduct (paragraphs 13-16) contained in the Civil Procedure Rules ('CPR'); regarding the Court's powers to impose sanctions for any failure to comply with the Practice Direction or the Protocol.

If you dispute the amount due you should respond via the reply form. In accordance with the PAP, which obliges the parties to act reasonably and proportionately. This can be completed on our website www.gladstonessolicitors.co.uk or alternatively, you can request a paper version (see overleaf). Before completing the online reply form you will be required to create a login, you will need your reference to do this.

Warning regarding the issue of Court Proceedings
If you fail to pay the amount due or provide reasons as to why you dispute the debt within 30 days, our client reserves all its rights, including the right to commence Court proceedings which will incur further costs and interest (as detailed below), which will be added to the value of the claim. Following which, a County Court Judgment ('CCJ') may be entered against you.
If a CCJ is obtained in default, this will show on your credit record immediately and if payment of the CCJ is not made within 1 calendar month of the date of entry of the Judgment, the CCJ will not be removed and will be applied to your credit record for a period of 6 years.
This may affect your ability to obtain credit in the future, or result in higher rates of interest being applied to any credit you are able to obtain.

Please Contact Us
Our team is ready to try to work with you to resolve this matter without the need for Court proceedings so it is important you contact us upon receipt of this letter.

Thank you. I can't quite find a similar case where the reason for disputing the PCN is that a car park with ANPR should not have generated a payment amount if a wrong vehicle registration was entered, which is making me a bit pessimistic. In any case I'm planning to respond to the Letter Before Claim with the following:

On 16 March 2025, my vehicle entered the car park at The Galleria Hatfield. I paid £3 by card. Evidence of the payment is enclosed. Your client has confirmed that it located and mapped this payment to my vehicle. This is therefore not a case in which the parking tariff was unpaid or deliberately avoided.

Your client’s position is that only “XX22” was recorded rather than my complete registration. However, “XX22” was entered as a search term, not as the registration against which I intended to purchase parking. I had parked at this car park on numerous previous occasions and had consistently followed the same process. I entered “XX22”, after which the ANPR-linked terminal identified and displayed my vehicle. I selected the vehicle shown and the system calculated the amount payable by reference to its recorded entry time. Because this process had worked successfully on previous visits, I reasonably understood that entering “XX22” searched the live ANPR records and allowed me to select my full registration. I did not knowingly purchase parking against an incomplete registration.

On the date concerned, the terminal generated a tariff and accepted my payment without warning me that the vehicle had not been correctly identified or that the transaction was invalid.

There is therefore a genuine factual dispute as to whether the terminal:
- identified my vehicle but failed to retain or link the full registration correctly;
- accepted payment without retaining the vehicle selected on screen; or
- accepted a partial search without adequately warning that the parking session had not been linked to a complete registration.

The fact that your client has found and mapped the payment supports my position that the payment related to this vehicle and parking event.