You had until Tuesday 22nd October to submit an appeal. That's three days away.
Hi again,
As expected the NHS Trust CEO Martin Hodgson has not replied yet, so i am glad i had submitted the appeal in time. (I used what was suggested below by userB789) I have however heard back from UKPC as pasted below (correspondence sent to me via email today):
Thank you for your recent communication concerning parking charge reference [REDACTED].
We have carefully considered your appeal based on the information provided and the evidence supporting the parking charge. In this instance having completed our assessment, we consider the parking charge to have been correctly issued, as the vehicle was parked on site without displaying a valid pay
and display ticket.
Our appeals process is now concluded, you may now choose one of the following options:
1) Pay the parking charge detailed above at the reduced rate of £35.00 to UK Parking Control Ltd. PLEASE REFER OVERLEAF FOR PAYMENT OPTIONS
AND ADDRESS DETAILS.
2) Make an appeal to the independent adjudicator POPLA (Parking on Private Land Appeals) using the verification code provided above. Please note that if you wish to appeal to POPLA, you will lose the right to pay the discounted rate of £35.00, and should POPLA reject your appeal you will be required to pay the full amount of £65.00. If you opt to pay the parking charge you will be unable to appeal with POPLA. Appeals to POPLA must be made within twenty-eight days from the date of this letter. To appeal with POPLA, please visit
www.popla.co.uk. If you are unable to access the internet, you may
appeal by post – this must be done using a POPLA postal form which may be obtained by contacting POPLA by phone (0330 159 6126) or post (PO Box1270, Warrington, WA4 9RL).
By law we are also required to inform you that Ombudsman Services (
www.ombudsman-services.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.
3) If you choose to do nothing the parking charge will automatically increase after thirty-five days from the date of this letter to £65.00 and the matter will be passed to our debt recovery agent, at which point you will be liable to pay an additional charge of £70, in accordance with the terms and conditions of parking, and further charges will be claimed if court action is taken against you. Any unpaid court judgement may adversely affect your credit rating.
Yours sincerely,
Appeals Department
UK Parking Control Limited
I guess off to POPLA we go
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So, in this case, the initial appeal to UKPC, assuming PALS doesn't get the PCN cancelled is an easy one to defeat... as long as the unknown drivers identity is not revealed. There is no legal obligation on the known keeper (the recipient of the Notice to Keeper (NtK)) to reveal the identity of the unknown driver and no inference or assumptions can be made.
The NtK is not compliant with all the requirements of PoFA which means that if the unknown driver is not identified, they cannot transfer liability for the charge from the unknown driver to the known keeper.
Use the following as your appeal. No need to embellish or remove anything from it:
I am the keeper of the vehicle and I dispute your 'parking charge'. I deny any liability or contractual agreement and I will be making a complaint about your predatory conduct to your client landowner.
As your Notice to Keeper (NtK) does not fully comply with ALL the requirements of PoFA 2012, you are unable to hold the keeper of the vehicle liable for the charge. Partial or even substantial compliance is not sufficient. There will be no admission as to who was driving and no inference or assumptions can be drawn. UKPC has relied on contract law allegations of breach against the driver only.
The registered keeper cannot be presumed or inferred to have been the driver, nor pursued under some twisted interpretation of the law of agency. Your NtK can only hold the driver liable. UKPC have no hope at POPLA, so you are urged to save us both a complete waste of time and cancel the PCN.