Author Topic: NSL / Stansted Blue Car Park — rejected at first stage, now at POPLA. POFA "not relevant land" + prohibitory-signage cha  (Read 392 times)

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Stansted Airport NSL Appeal.


POPLA Code -

Vehicle Registration Mark -


Dear Assessor,

I make this appeal as the Registered Keeper of the above vehicle.

The vehicle driver is not known to the parking operator and I understand that there is no legal requirement for me to reveal the driver to an unregulated parking operator.


I am appealing on the following grounds and I would like the parking operator to rebut each appeal point;


Appeal Point One - The land at Stansted Airport is not 'relevant land' for the purposes of PoFA - both the road way and car park which makes up the 'Blue Short Stay Car Park' fall firmly inside the statutory area which makes up Stansted Airport.

I have included the Airport site plan taken from the Government website relating to a recent Stansted Expansion planning application - its providence can be proved at the following web address;

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/64d0fc30e5491a00134b5946/Design___Access_Statement_-_checked.pdf

Scroll down to page 6 - the 'Blue Car Park' is in the bottom right corner of the statutory area.

This land is clearly under statutory control and subject to the Stansted Airport Byelaws.


Appeal Point Two - Stansted Airport Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary of Manchester Airport PLC and is both an Airport Authority and Highways Authority under the Airports Act 1986 and therefore falls under statutory control - even the parking operators own documents specify that they are working on behalf of Manchester Airport PLC - this also means that the land is already subject to statutory control meaning that PoFA 'keeper liability' cannot be invoked on their land.


Appeal Point Three - That the operator is clearly in breach of their own Code of Practice since the Code expressly prohibits the use of wording (in the NtK) which implies that PoFA can be used in situations where it is not available to the operator - the operator is clearly ignoring this rule on commercial grounds - they realise that by mentioning PoFA they are more likely to encourage payment from NtK recipients who are not familiar with the true legal position - the operator then further maintains reliance of PoFA in further correspondence in a further attempt to hoodwink recipients into paying their charges - as a result the operator is also in breach of their DVLA Agreement since the operator is required to agree to follow the Code in order to access keeper records - my details have therefore been obtained in breach of the DVLA Agreement.


Appeal Point Four - The signage and road markings at the location appear to be contradictory in nature - this is in direct conflict with the Code of Practice which states that signage and markings must not be contradictory in nature - the operator claims that the area is 'no stopping' yet the road markings are double yellow lines - the Highway Code allows brief stops on double yellow lines for dropping off and picking up etc - if the operator wishes to enforce a 'no stopping' zone then they would have to use 'double red' lines as per the Highway Code.


Appeal Point Five - The wording of the Notice to Keeper is not compliant with many of the requirements of PoFA Schedule 4 Paragraph 9(2) - in particular the notice does not state the wording required by 9(2)(b) - the notice must notify the keeper that 'the driver is required to pay the parking charge' and 'that the parking charge has not been paid in full' - the notice does not state either of these things - additionally, 9(2)(e) requires that 'the notice state that the creditor does not know the name and address of the driver and invite the driver to pay the charges or nominate another driver' - the notice fails to set out the required statement and never presents the required two limbed invite to the keeper - additionally, the notice fails to set out any of the requirements of 9(2)(f) and no 'warning to the keeper' is ever mentioned - as such the notice is totally non-complaint.



Conclusion - The land is not relevant land for the purposes of PoFA as it is land which is already under statutory control - if this is in doubt then I would request that the Assessor seek the assistance of a senior POPLA Assessor / Coach as the 'statutory area' has previously caused POPLA some problems in the past.




Best wishes,


xxxxx xxxxxxxxx
« Last Edit: July 01, 2026, 08:01:32 am by InterCity125 »
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I would also add a picture of the airport plan and mark up the blue car park.

Thank you so much! I will let you know how it goes.

Hi,

I have received an email from POPLA that they have received comments from the Operator regarding my appeal and I have 7 days to respond. Do I need to do anything - please advise. I have attached a copy of the operator's comment. They have also uploaded some evidence, please let me know if you'd like to see any.




Thanks

We cannot access the other documents.

Please post the their prima facie case?

From that horrible wodge of text it seems that they completely ignore the “not relevant land” point that you made.
It’s the problem with multiple appeal points - they answer the ones that are easy and simply ignore the ones they can’t.
So if the operator and POPLA have denied your appeal, you need to wait for the Letter of Claim, to which you will respond that you deny the claim and will defend it.
You will then need to construct a defence, and courts don’t tend to ignore defence points they don’t like in the way that operators and POPLA do.

It’s all normal, it’s what they do. The parking operators and POPLA just spout rubbish hoping you will be intimidated into paying. If you don’t pay and defend, it’s usually the case that they give up, usually prior to having to pay the court fee.

Note that the following extract from POPLA is simply untrue.

Quote
NSL Limited are members of the British Parking Association Approved Operator Scheme (AOS) in accordance with the requirements of the Protection of Freedoms Act. In respect to the comments regarding the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 and the Notice to Keeper, we must advise the keeper that the act covers the principle of 'Keeper liability in specific circumstances, we believe that all those requirements have been met and the registered keeper of the above vehicle remains liable to Pay the Notice in line with the aforementioned Act. Furthermore, the Notice to Keeper meets all the requirements of the Protection of Freedoms Act and those of the British Parking Association's AOS. We note the keeper has advised someone else was driving the above vehicle however, to transfer liability for the PCN to that person, the keeper must provide their full details; alternatively, if the keeper chooses not to then as previously mentioned the liability remains with the vehicles registered keeper.
The requirements of PoFA 2012 are not met if the land is not “relevant land”:
Quote
3(1)In this Schedule “relevant land” means any land (including land above or below ground level) other than—

(a)a highway maintainable at the public expense (within the meaning of section 329(1) of the Highways Act 1980);

(b)a parking place which is provided or controlled by a traffic authority;

(c)any land (not falling within paragraph (a) or (b)) on which the parking of a vehicle is subject to statutory control.
« Last Edit: July 14, 2026, 01:53:30 pm by jfollows »

Apologies if I wasn't clear - the image I posted above was the Operator Evidence and Summary that NSL have submitted to POPLA. POPLA have bot conducted their assessment yet, but they are asking me to add an comments I have on the evidence that NSL have now submitted.

Here is the email from NSL :



And here is the NSL Operator summary/evidence that I can see in the POPLA portal - I posted this earlier too. I will post the evidence that NSL have submitted to POPLA in the next message.



Based on this do I need to do anything e.g. write up any comments to POPLA ?

Apologies, I misinterpreted your post.

You should rebut every point the operator makes with which you disagree, and having it as a wodge of text doesn’t help you, but you should essentially quote their text followed by your rebuttal. So I suggest as in my example when they say that they comply with all the requirements of PoFA 2012, which you should quote and then explain why they don’t comply.

And so on for each other point in the wodge of text you disagree with.

Essentially if you don’t rebut their falsehoods, you’re assumed to agree with them.

Personally I’d split the points into numbered points, and address each of them separately.

Thanks and apologies I am asking for too much. can you please help me list out the points I should rebut and then I will figure out how to respond.

First of all, please split that horrible wodge of text into separate numbered points, along the lines of the one I’ve already done for you.

Then you have a numbered list, and you may get advice on each of them from contributors here.

They don't address any of the POFA points which were raised.

Nor to they address the contradictory markings.

Simply stating that the notice complies with POFA does not make it compliant.

I can come up with something if you give me a couple of days.
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Thanks. If you are able to come up with something by Friday, I will wait. I really appreciate your help.
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