Free Traffic Legal Advice

To all,

I have recently recieved a letter from SMART PARKING - NOTICE TO KEEPER - PARKING CHARGE - with an amount outstanding of £100  (See attachment) and wish to get some advice from the wonderful community of people here.

Interestingly, the letter only shows a picture of the vehicle front and back and no evidence of parking?


"PCN Information

The Parking Charge has been issued to your vehicle. . . . , because between the period of 10:25 (10/01.2026) to 11:56 (10/01/2026) it was parked in a manner whereby the driver became liable for a parking charge at Cardiff International Sports Campus, Cardiff CF11 8AZ, paid for insufficient time (ANPR). This is supported by camera images of the vehicle entering and exiting the car park. The signage, which is clearly displayed at the terms and conditions set out in the signage, the Parking Charge is now payable to Smart Parking Ltd (as the Creditor).

You are notified under paragraph 9(2)(b) of schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedom Act 2012 that the driver of the motor vehicle is required to pay this notice in full. As we do not know the driver's name or current postal address, you the vehicle's keeper are now invited to either:

1. Pay the charge, or
2. If you were not the driver at the time of the event, please provide us with the driver's full name and current address using the contact details below and pass this Parking Charge to them. (Once this information is receieved, we will pursue the driver).

This Notice is given to you under Paragraph 9(2)(f) of Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 and is subject to our complaince with the applicable conditions under this Act. If within 28 days, beginning with the day after that on which the notice is given (which is presumed to be the second working day after the date of issue) the amount due has not been paid in full and we do not know both the name and current address of the driver, we have the right to recover any unpaid part of the notice from you, the keeper."


*I like the carefully worded: you the vehicle's keeper are now invited to either     


To give context.
I use this sports area often to take my small child to grassroots football there. Turning off the main road you drive along another road of the Sports area where there is 3 designated area's of paid parking, which guranteeded are full every Saturaday morning. What isn't designated parking and does not have any signage or yellow lines is a road directly behind Cardiff International Sports Campus where people do park freely, and on occassions I do myself.

I have hightlighted the photo on the attached as follows.

Red - paid designated parking
Green - behind the building.

I welcome all to comment, advise and point me in the right direction of how to tackle this matter.

Best regards,

https://ibb.co/0Rx03czJ
https://ibb.co/GQ526dqJ
https://ibb.co/szSFxKC

I think the active bit of those links have got ballsed up. Copying the text you can SEE, rather than the click link behind, gives these:

https://ibb.co/0Rx03czJ

https://ibb.co/GQ526dqJ

https://ibb.co/szSFxKC

Hi all,

I know everyone is pretty busy but does anyone have any advice of how to tackle the above?

Your notice only gives ANPR entry and exit times, which are not the same as a parking period. ANPR records movement past a camera, not when the vehicle was actually parked.

I think this would be a very difficult argument to run in many cases. The legislation requires the parking period to be 'specified' - it would in my view be a very prescriptive interpretation that found that an operator must define the precise time the vehicle became parked and ceased to be parked. If their evidence can show that, on the balance of probabilities, a vehicle was parked for at least the consideration period, and define the period during which this happened, I imagine many judges would take the view that they had complied.

In this case, the vehicle was on site for 31 minutes. On that basis, you would potentially need to successfully argue that, on the balance of probabilities, the vehicle spent 26 minutes driving around.

I'm not saying the argument is impossible, but it's not a case of just saying "If they're using ANPR they haven't specified a period of parking and therefore the notice isn't PoFA compliant".

GSV imagery is from 2019 so it's not possible for us to examine current signage.

What you may need to do is to take some pictures from the access road which you say you parked on.

Also the signage at the entrance to the facility.

We cannot advise UNTIL we see the relevant signage.

Hi alls,

Any advice with the above?