Private car park - non payment - Premier Park - Centenary Square Multi Storey Car Park 1

I the registered keeper received this notice on the 18th Aug, though it says the issued date was the 11th, upon seeing the website, it states there's only 2 days left to pay the discounted charge.

The driver arrived in this car park on the 5th August at around 4pm, paid for 3 hours of parking until 7pm, after going out and coming back at around 11:45pm, the driver paid for parking until 12am while trying to figure out how to pay for parking until 11am the next day as the machine nor app would allow this. After fidgeting around in the app, once 12am came, the app said the parking was free, nor was there an option to validate a session for free. The car park is closed between 12am-6am, and the car would still be parked after 6am up until 11am, the driver attempted to pay for a session between 6am-11am in advance, but there was no option for this at the machine, nor in the app. Surely the driver is not expected to wake up in the middle of their sleep to pay for the parking after the free period has already expired, while they were still parked.

There are no pictures of the signage accessible at the moment, and as the car park is underground, GSV does not provide much help, though it is still linked. https://maps.app.goo.gl/9PfkcxE49zyvHUhf9

Quite a strange predicament this as you seem to indicate that payment was made from 1145 to 0000hrs.Therefore if you have this evidence in your possession this would then indicate that the PCN would have started at 0000hrs but then is parking free from 0000hrs until 0600hrs as it is closed.I suspect then if the car park opens at 0600hrs the clock starts again. I can only assume that from the information provided without seeing the signs there may be a case of frustration of contract.
The appeal by the RK only needs to be made it will probably be rejected but that will start the process. As the PCN times just gives a catch all situation.

So to clarify this point, the driver having entered at 23:47 sounds about right. 6 minutes had elapsed before payment for parking until 23:59 was made, as the driver didn't want to incur a Parking Charge Notice for non-payment between having entered at 23:47 and the remainder of that day.

As there is only one day left before the charge increases, I would like to submit an appeal now.

Here is the draft:

"The driver entered the car park at 23:47, as outlined on the Parking Charge Notice.

As the driver knew the vehicle would remain in the car park until at least 11am the next day, they attempted to make payment for this, but were unable to as there was no option in the app, nor the machine to pay in advance.

Despite this, the driver still made payment from 23:53-23:59 so as not to be in breach of contract while they were parked trying to figure out how to pay for parking until 11am the next day. (Please see the evidence for this attached)

Once 00:00 6th Aug had entered, the driver continued attempting to make payment for parking until 11am, however noticed that the parking is now free, this made sense along with the fact that the car park remains closed until 6am.

I do not believe that the driver was in breach of contract between the hours of 00:00 and 06:00 on the 6th Aug, and given that the driver attempted to make payment for parking up until 11am, but your own systems did not allow, proves totally unfair that a Parking Charge Notice has been issued.

Is the driver expected to wake up in the middle of their sleep to pay for parking while the vehicle is already parked?

On these basis, please cancel the Parking Charge Notice.

Thank you"

Please advise if this okay

As you need to make an appeal prior to any further appeal,you can submit this for starters. It will give breathing space before going down the road ultimately to court proceedings if that is going to be considered.Whether they will say it is not unreasonable to get to the car park is another matter.

Yeah, I’d submitted it, thanks

What do you mean by the last sentence about it being unreasonable getting to the car park?

Dear Mr           

 

Thank you for your appeal against the above Parking Charge Notice (PCN). We have carefully considered your appeal, however on this occasion the appeal has been rejected for the following reason;

                                                                                                                         



Whilst we note the comments and reason for appeal, we can confirm that the vehicle remained on site for 11 hours and 24 minutes with no payment made to authorise your stay. We must advise that this car park is run by Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras which take a time and date stamped image of the vehicle on entry and exit, measuring the length of time the vehicle remained on site. This information is then cross-referenced with the data from the payment services. Due to no payment being found, we can confirm that this PCN has been issued correctly.
 

We have considered this PCN and found that it does not fall under the category of Annex F the Appeals Charter of the Single Code of Practice.

 

You have now reached the end of our internal appeals procedure and therefore you now have two options; you can either pay or appeal to POPLA - you cannot do both:

 

You can pay the total amount due as shown above via the following payment options;

Call us on: 01302 513232
Pay online: www.pcnpayments.com
Send a postal order: Premier Park Ltd, PO Box 624, Exeter, EX1 9JG
 

Or, you can appeal to an Independent Appeals Service, POPLA (Parking on Private Land Appeals) using the POPLA reference code provided above. Please note, should you decide to appeal to POPLA and your appeal is subsequently rejected or you withdraw your appeal, the option to pay a discounted amount will no longer be available (if applicable) and the full amount of the PCN will become due. Please note, if you pay the PCN prior to appealing to POPLA, your appeal will be withdrawn as you will have accepted liability in full.

 

If you decide to appeal to POPLA, you will need to visit their website, www.popla.co.uk where further details of how to appeal (either online or by downloading the relevant forms) can be found. If you are unable to access their website, please call us for further information on how to obtain the forms. Please ensure your POPLA Reference Number, as noted above, is quoted on all correspondence to POPLA. You have 28 days from the date of this email to submit an appeal to POPLA. If you appeal to POPLA we will suspend recovery activity on the PCN and the charge will not increase until the appeal has been determined.

 

By law we are also required to inform you that Trust Alliance Group (https://www.trustalliancegroup.org/) provides an alternative dispute resolution service that would be competent to deal with your appeal. However, we have not chosen to participate in their alternative dispute resolution service. As such should you wish to appeal then you must do so to POPLA, as explained above.

 

If you do not make payment or submit an appeal to POPLA within the relevant timeframe, the outstanding PCN may be passed to our appointed debt collection agency for further action. All costs associated with this process will be added to the amount outstanding.

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Do we take it further?

You need to appeal to the next stage they only want someone’s hard earned income. If POPLA decides to back them it is not binding. One stage at a time.

We need to see the signage in the car park - we can't advise on arguments around whether or not a contract was formed and/or breached without seeing the signage, which contains the terms of said contract.

We need to see the signage in the car park - we can't advise on arguments around whether or not a contract was formed and/or breached without seeing the signage, which contains the terms of said contract.

I'll need to figure out how to obtain the signage information as going to physically see it and take pictures would cost me more than the "fine" itself.

Standby.

The original PCN is not POFA compliant as it fails to convey the information required by Schedule 4 Paragraph 9(2)(e).

Never reveal the driver.

The original PCN is not POFA compliant as it fails to convey the information required by Schedule 4 Paragraph 9(2)(e).

Never reveal the driver.

Does this mean that it should be a straightforward appeal at POPLA?

I am going to register the appeal today if you advise so.

I'm not familiar with the appeals process for Private Tickets, so any heads up would be appreciated.