Hi all,
I’m looking for advice on whether there’s anything else I can do to fight a parking charge issued by Park & Control.
On 25 January, I took my son and two friends to the ice rink in Streatham. I parked in the APCOA car park there, which I’ve used many times before without any issues.
After the skating session, I went to pay for parking. I tried all three payment machines and each initially displayed a “network error” message. I then entered my registration number and arrival time manually.
Because ice rink users get 50% discounted parking, I tried scanning the QR discount code:
* the first machine froze completely,
* on the second machine, the amount suddenly changed from £3 to £2,003.
At that point I gave up trying to use the discount and simply attempted to pay the normal £3 charge. I inserted my card and the machine displayed: “Card read OK, remove card.” I removed the card and left, believing the payment had gone through. The whole process took around 10 minutes.
The next day I checked my banking app and noticed no payment had been taken. I immediately contacted APCOA through their website explaining the issue, but received no response.
A few days later I received a parking charge notice from Park & Control. I appealed, explaining the faulty machines and payment issues, but the appeal was rejected. I then escalated it to the IAS, but they also dismissed the appeal, despite the fact that Park & Control’s own evidence appears to show a significant gap in parking payments being processed around the time I was trying to pay.
I also contacted the Streatham ice rink/recreation centre, but they were unable to help. As a final step, I contacted Lambeth Council, although I haven’t received a reply yet.
I genuinely attempted to pay and even have a witness who was with me at the time. I wouldn’t normally contest a parking ticket if I had simply forgotten to pay, but in this case the machines clearly appeared to be malfunctioning.
Does anyone have any advice on what I can do next, or whether this is worth continuing to fight?
Thanks,
Jakub
