Free Traffic Legal Advice

Hi all

I’m the registered keeper and have received a ParkingEye PCN for 3 hours 45 minutes at South Mimms Welcome Break services. The driver stopped because they were extremely tired and needed to rest/sleep for safety. After sleeping, they had no idea how long they had been parked and left straight away, after refuelling at the BP garage.

There were no clear signs about a 2-hour limit, and the ANPR photos on the PCN are very poor. I've blacked out the reg plate on the images themselves and below the images.

Is it worth appealing, and if so, what’s the best way to draft an initial appeal?

Thanks in advance for any guidance!

https://ibb.co/d4MZqm8F
https://ibb.co/xSMF3SVf

Ok will do, thanks for replying

Amazing, thank you so much @b789.

I'll submit my appeal verbatim as you suggest and will you know when I get a response.

I’ve received a generic response from Parking Eye. You can see that here:


https://ibb.co/d4Q3t0SN

https://ibb.co/S7dCcrSN


I assume I can ignore this and see if they provide a POPLA code after 28 days.

Neither of the images open.

You can respond to that phishing exercise with the following:

Re: Parking Charge Notice [ref]

Dear Sir or Madam,

I refer to your letter dated 28 November 2025.

First, your assertion that I “stated that [I was] not the driver of the vehicle at the date and time of the breach” is entirely false. I said no such thing. My appeal made it perfectly clear that I am the registered keeper, that I dispute the charge, and that there would be no admission as to the identity of the driver and no inferences or assumptions could be drawn.

Your attempt to rewrite my appeal into something it never said is, at best, sloppily incompetent and, at worst, deliberately mendacious. It gives the distinct impression that nobody at ParkingEye has actually read my appeal and that you are simply spraying out boilerplate bluster in the hope that keepers will be bullied into naming a driver.

For the avoidance of doubt, I will not be identifying the driver. There is no legal obligation on a registered keeper to disclose a driver’s identity and you have no entitlement to that personal data.

You then recite selected snippets from Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, as if parroting paragraphs 9(2)(b) and 9(2)(f) somehow cures the other defects in your Notice to Keeper. It does not. Keeper liability can only arise where an operator has complied with ALL the mandatory requirements of Schedule 4, not just the ones it finds convenient to quote after the event. Your NtK is not fully compliant with all of those requirements; partial or “substantial” compliance is insufficient in law. Consequently, you cannot transfer liability for this charge from the unknown driver to me as keeper.

My position is therefore unchanged:

• I deny any liability or contractual agreement.
• I will not be naming the driver.
• You cannot rely on Schedule 4 PoFA to pursue me as keeper.

You must now either cancel this charge or issue a POPLA code without further prevarication. Any continued attempt to misrepresent my appeal, to misstate the effect of PoFA, or to pursue me as if I were liable despite your own non-compliant paperwork will simply form part of a formal complaint to your client and the relevant regulatory and supervisory bodies.

Yours faithfully,

[Name]
Registered Keeper