so shall try contact the garage tomorrow and if they don't agree shall go with your recommendation.
Agree to what, exactly? At the moment,
you are the one in receipt of a parking charge from a private parking company, which you currently have not paid, and which Smart are unable to recover from you as the registered keeper. On that basis, there is nothing for the garage to reimburse you for, as you have not currently suffered any loss. If you pay, then the garage subsequently refuse to reimburse you, then you'd need to sue the garage to get the money back, and they're likely to argue that you voluntarily paid the charge when you were not required to, and that they therefore owe you nothing.
You could ask them to pay it directly, but that requires you to trust that they will - given that they couldn't even be trusted to park your car in a suitable place, that seems like a gamble.
You could provide the name and address of the business with whom you left the car, and tell Smart Parking that they should ask the garage who was driving, but there too you risk the matter becoming protracted.
I can understand the desire to make the garage pay, as it is their incompetence that has caused this. However, if you submit the appeal suggested, there is a near certain chance that Smart Parking will cancel the charge, and you can simply get on with your life, and choose an alternative garage for future repairs (and perhaps leave a negative Google review if you are so minded).
