Are you the registered keeper of the van? If so, the below is relevant.
As Newquay Airport is subject to byelaws, it is subject to "statutory control", and as such, not relevant land for the purposes of Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act, meaning they cannot hold the keeper liable. You could therefore appeal along the lines of the below. If you are not the registered keeper (if it's a lease vehicle, for example), let us know as the approach will be slightly different.
Dear Sirs,
I have received your Parking Charge Notice (Ref: ______) for vehicle registration mark _______, in which you allege that the driver has incurred a parking charge. I am appealing as the registered keeper of the vehicle. There is no obligation for me to name the driver and I will not be doing so. I note from your correspondence that you are not seeking to hold me liable as the registered keeper, under Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 ("The Act").
Even if you were seeking to do so, as Newquay Airport is not "relevant land" as defined by The Act you are unable to recover the charge from me, the keeper.
I am therefore unable to help you further with this matter, and look forward to your confirmation that the charge has been cancelled. If you choose to decline this appeal, you must issue a POPLA code.
Yours,
Make sure this appeal is made solely as the keeper, do not reveal who was driving.
For a while Initial Parking used to claim the byelaws were just a 'draft' and hadn't been enacted, then for a while claimed they didn't exist at all. I have an open complaint with the British Parking Association about this. The wording of your PCN doesn't falsely claim that the Protection of Freedoms Act applies, which suggests the complaint may have worked... That said, if they do reject your appeal, I can support with a POPLA appeal.
If they do not know the driver they cannot send a Notice to Keeper because they have no legal powers to do so, only the airport owners can, not the private company.
This isn't quite right. They can't use the provisions of PoFA to recover charges from the registered keeper - they're perfectly entitled to write to the keeper in relation to the unpaid charge, they just can't rely on PoFA, nor claim an ability to do so (which they aren't). As for the airport owners, they can't issue a private parking charge and use PoFA to hold the keeper liable either, the rules around relevant land don't change based on who's seeking to recover the charge. They
could seek to prosecute for a breach of byelaws, if applicable, but they won't.
