Peak District National Park - Missed payment -Notice of charge

Hi all

I am a little confused by this one, as it's a national park I'm not sure if this falls under the PCN title, the websites are all .gov.uk but doesn't mention PCN anywhere, just "Notice of charge and intention to prosecute" under the Byelaws for car parks: National parks and access to countryside act 1949

Car was parked, didn't pay due to no mobile signal and parker admittedly forgot to pay once home, they are aware of the signal issue and allow 24 hours to make payment. Parkers mistake but the charge is £60 reduced from £100 if paid 14 days. I have tried the 1st recommended solution on Money Saving Expert Forum of emailing to ask for it to be cancelled but they told me in no uncertain terms to shove it. Parker is aware they messed up here so if the advice is to pay it, they get it. they will, but, they'd rather know for sure what is the best next step. I did post this on MSE and they advised me to come here as it's an unfamiliar letter.

I am the registered keeper

Details for the invoice:

Date of Notice Issued: 21/07/2026
Date vehicle was first seen in contravention: 18/07/2026
Time vehicle was first seen in contravention: 11:19:43
Car Park: Hurst Clough Car Park
Reason why Notice was issued: 5, Parked in car park without clearly displaying a valid pay & display ticket, permit or parking clock.
Issued by: Peak District National Park Authority

The letter was sent via post and is stated at 12:00.

Thanks in advance for any help and if I have missed anything please do let me know.

Pics of letter attached






Signage


Thanks for reading!

It looks that this is not the usual Parking charge notice and possibly needs to be moved to another area of the site.

Interesting case.

They don't call it a "Penalty Charge Notice".

No mention of any independent appeals body or Traffic Penalty Tribunal.

Hard to know what this is in law.

However, it will cost them around £10k to pursue to Magistrates Court and they will never recover any of that cost since any fine will go into the public purse.

I suspect that there are numerous procedural issues with this notice / document.

They mention "the charge" on several occasions but never refer to it as "a penalty".

This makes it a Parking Charge Notice in all but name.

I had a quick look at your original post on MSE as you haven't posted the entire document here.

As others noted, I see that same issues with what they claim - in particular that, "For the purpose of proceedings it shall be presumed that the registered keeper of the vehicle was the driver at the relevant time of the alleged offence and accordingly that acts or omissions of the driver were those of the registered keeper." - that is absolute BS - if you read the byelaws then you'll see that 5.1 would require that the person who parked the car be identified - no mention of the keeper being liable - they are claiming keeper liability PURELY because they have no idea who the driver was - they cannot just change the liable party due to inconvenience.

They have six months to act on this - they'll likely do nothing.

Sorry, had posted the docs but malformed URL which I've now fixed. Very interesting take. MSE folks now suggesting to pay after reading the docs.. I like your view point though.

Next step is to write back to the operator (Peak District National Park) and ask them to specify precisely whether this is a Parking Charge Notice or a Penalty Charge Notice.

When they reply, we can ask why they have not included details of the external appeals protocol.

I do not see any route to liability on this one.

Even if you were summoned to Court, you would just ask them to show the evidence that you were the driver - they won't be able to prove this - case over.

Byelaws available here:

https://www.peakdistrict.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018/104814/PDNPA-Byelaws-Car-Parks-2024.pdf

Looks similar to the ones that used to get sent for Railway Bylaws before they changed the rules at the end of last year. 

Looks similar to the ones that used to get sent for Railway Bylaws before they changed the rules at the end of last year.

I agree that it does look like a railway issued penalty notice at first glance.

However the notice fails to follow any of the protocols required for either a private parking charge or a penalty notice - no mention of external appeals process - no mention of membership of any trade body etc.

It will be interesting to find out how they even accessed the keeper details without being member of an ATA??

Let's see what they come back with when the OP asks them to clarify a few things.

For me, this is just a speculative invoice.

Thanks all, I did raise the query with them so hopefully I'll hear back tomorrow

Well, still no response from them! It does say to email them again if they don't respond in 48 hours, I've done this twice.

The declined appeal has this info in but nothing received by post as yet either:

As your appeal was submitted within the 14 days of the Notice being received then we are able to reoffer
the discounted amount of 60% of the full Charge £100.00 if payment is received within 14 days of the
date of this letter. Please note that the discounted rate will not be available after this time, and payment of
the full rate will be required. Payment at the appropriate rate will complete the Notice, details of how to
pay are given with this letter.
If you are not satisfied with the decision in this letter and wish to make a further appeal, with new or
additional information against the Notice of Charge and Intended Prosecution, please wait for a further
letter which will be sent to the owner/keeper of the vehicle as registered with the DVLA. If you are the
driver, but not the owner and wish to make formal representations, you are advised to contact the owner
who can respond to the Notice on your behalf. Making a further appeal means there will be no discount
offered, should the further appeal be rejected.[/quote

Can you show us the actual document?

Sure, screenshots as I've cut out any personal info, the remainder is just the ways to pay

This is very peculiar.

The wording (and the discount offered) appear to confirm that it is a Parking Charge Notice but then they clearly use the word 'fine'.

The appeals process is also incorrect as they should inform you of the process at the time of the rejection.

Chase them again with those awkward questions - they are clearly in trouble here.

We also need to find out how they accessed DVLA data.

Would any details show up if the poster did a data access request to the DVLA?

Yes, but my thinking is that it will be better to go to the DVLA with something more substantial than an Access Request.

DVLA are notoriously good at the 'fob-off' but a suggestion of illegal access of data would have to be investigated - on that basis we need to find out the EXACT nature of the NtK the OP was served with.

If it turns out that it is a Parking Charge Notice (which to me it is) then the OP can ask DVLA how and way data was released to someone who is not a member of an established trade association - ie, one of the hard rules.