Free Traffic Legal Advice

Hi all, I wonder if someone can offer me some advice please..

Today I received a parking charge notice from Smart Parking (it is dated 5th November 2024, which means it arrived a week later).
It informs me that my vehicle overstayed in a McDonalds car park on Saturday 27th October 2024 and I've been issued with a charge of £100, which will be reduced to £60 if payed within 14 days.

I do not dispute the amount of time the vehicle stayed in the carpark.  I do not know how long it stayed, but there's time-stamped photographs of my vehicle entering and exiting the carpark so I accept their word that it stayed for the time they claim.
The reason I think this charge is unfair is that the driver went to dine at said McDonald's with their spouse and two small children.  Admittedly, the driver did not really take much notice of any signs on entry (does anyone?!), but I don't think that is unreasonable, as the family, who are semi-regulars there) just innocently went into the carpark (which is specifically for McDonald's customers), parked up, dined there and left when they finished dining.  They were in the restaurant for approximately 1½ hours, which may seem to some people like a long time, but I'm sure families with small children will agree that things usually take a little longer when you have small children.
(They didn't do anything other than dine there. The car was parked there only for the amount of time they spent in the restaurant)


I obviously don't want to pay as I feel the charge is unfair and excessive.  And I'm worried that if I attempt to appeal, that the appeal will get ignored and the situation will escalate, costing me even more money in the long run (I did some googling and found that this was the case with some people).

So it looks like have 6 days left to pay the reduced charge or make an appeal?


Any help or advice would be very much appreciated.
Thank you in advance,
Lateman

thank you so much for your prompt reply.

before i upload anything though, should i delete, re-word and repost my query, as my post looks like it could imply that i was the driver?

thank you so much once again.  I'll do that now.
i might upload the notice tomorrow though, as i have to get up very early for work in the morning!

one more thing if you don't mind.. what happens if my appeal gets ignored and i get another demand for an increased charge?

ok thank you again.

oh, and yes, I am the registered keeper of the vehicle

To save me digging it out in the morning, here's the usual appeal template I use with Smart Parking:


Do show us the notice before sending anything though. You can redact barcodes if you wish - we need to see both pages, all dates, times and boilerplate etc., but redact your name and address, vehicle reg, and the PCN number.

here are (hopefully) both the pages of my parking charge notice

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

Grand - their boilerplate remains unchanged. Either mine or b789's appeals will do the trick. AFAIK they both have a 100% record with Smart.

I have just sent the appeal via their website, using DWMB2's template.  I'm now anxiously awaiting the response!

I don't need to post a physical copy to them also, in the case that something went wrong?
(I did get a screenshot of the appeal confirmation page though)