Free Traffic Legal Advice

Have you checked their website for evidential photos? Go as though to appeal (but don’t do so yet) and if they have any evidential photos, they must be available there.

As the Notice to Keeper is not fully compliant with all the requirements of PoFA, they cannot actually hold the Keeper liable. The only way they’d know the drivers identity is if the Keeper blabs it to them, inadvertently or otherwise. The Keepr must only ever refer to the driver in the third person. No “I parked here or there”, only “the driver parked here or there”.

Did the driver or a passenger have a blue badge or a protected characteristic as defined under the Equality Act?

Appeal, only as the Keeper with the following and if possible, attach a copy of the blue badge but redact it and only show the validity date:

I am the keeper of the vehicle, and I dispute your 'parking charge'. I deny any liability or contractual agreement and will be making a complaint about your predatory conduct to your client landowner.

As your Notice to Keeper (NtK) does not fully comply with all the requirements of PoFA 2012, you are unable to hold the keeper of the vehicle liable for the charge. Partial or even substantial compliance is not sufficient. There will be no admission as to who was driving, and no inference or assumptions can be drawn. MET has relied on contract law allegations of breach against the driver only.

The registered keeper cannot be presumed or inferred to have been the driver, nor pursued under some twisted interpretation of the law of agency. Your NtK can only hold the driver liable.

Furthermore, your signage fails to comply with the Private Parking Single Code of Practice (PPSCoP) Section 4.1, which states:

"The parking operator must ensure that at least one sign containing the terms and conditions for parking can be viewed without the driver needing to leave the vehicle, in order for drivers with a disability to be able to make an informed decision on whether to park at the premises."

There are no signs with terms that can be viewed from within the vehicle, meaning that a driver with a disability was unable to make an informed decision before parking. The vehicle was parked in a disabled bay, and all occupants, including the driver, are Blue Badge holders. A copy of a valid Blue Badge is attached.

Additionally, your NtK fails to specify any "period of parking", as required by PoFA 2012 Schedule 4, Paragraph 9(2)(a). A single timestamp does not constitute a period of parking and does not evidence that the vehicle was stopped for more than the minimum consideration period before leaving. No contract was formed.

MET have no hope at POPLA, so you are urged to save us both a complete waste of time and cancel the PCN.