I wanted to share a quick and positive outcome in case anyone makes the same mistake I did. I was working in Manchester for a month (I'm from Leeds) and visited the Peel shopping centre in Stockport. As most retail parks in Leeds give you at least 2 hours free parking I wrongly assumed it would be the same in Manchester and didn't purchase a ticket. Even though it's very close to Stockport city centre, I used the retail park and visited various stores.
When I got back to Leeds I received a PCN from Ocean Parking. Looking back at the evidence there was a lot of signage but I guess because in my mind I presumed it was free I wasn't looking out for any signage and so didn't see any of the very blatant signs.
I decided to appeal to the Director of Retail Parks and Development at Peel Retail & Leisure. I was honest and attached my PCN and receipts explain that I was new to the area and assumed wrongly that it was free parking.
The Director immediately sent a note to Ocean Parking to cancel my ticket. It was incredibly kind of him to do so.
I could share his name and email address here but am not sure of the protocol. His details are easily found. If the administrators can let me know and I'll drop here if given the go ahead, in case the same happens to anyone else.
