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Hi all
Hoping to benefit from the wisdom on these boards. Any help or advice would be much appreciated.
A PCN has been sent by Smart Parking addressed to my wife (who is the registered keeper of the car) alleging overstaying at Haven Banks car park in Exeter.
Aside from the level of charge, it seems misleading and deceitful to have a car park run on a pay and display basis requiring payment at a machine that issues tickets with a time stamp on them, but then try to charge people based on different time recordings made at the entrance and exit. If they want to charge people on the time they enter and exit the car park they should install barriers and ticket machine at the entrance and issue tickets with that time on them. Is the registered keeper better off putting them to proof that the driver didn't have a valid ticket displayed while actually parked?
Or provide the ticket, set out the facts and rely on that should there be some allowance for finding a space, getting in and out of the car park and getting the ticket? Can a PCN be challenged on technicalities before arguments are made?
Thanks for any thoughts
Cephalopod
Hoping to benefit from the wisdom on these boards. Any help or advice would be much appreciated.
A PCN has been sent by Smart Parking addressed to my wife (who is the registered keeper of the car) alleging overstaying at Haven Banks car park in Exeter.
- The PCN was via post, not on the windscreen.
- The driver's visit to the car park was on 10 Sept 2017, the PCN is dated 15 Sept.
- The PCN includes photographic evidence of the driver arriving at 10.00am and leaving at 1.12pm and issues a £90 charge for overstaying the 3 hour limit.
- The signs by the entrance are fairly scanty but there are a couple of big notice boards next to each ticket machine, with longish T&Cs (i've some photos I need to extract from my phone), though the driver didn't notice them at the time.
- By the time the driver had found a space, parked, quickly changed and fed their screaming baby, and queued to use the ticket machine it must have taken the driver 8 minutes to get a ticket, as 3 hours were paid for with a ticket which expired at 1.08pm. The driver may have been out of the parking space by then
- £90 for either a 4 min or a 12 min extra time in the car park is massively disproportionate.
Aside from the level of charge, it seems misleading and deceitful to have a car park run on a pay and display basis requiring payment at a machine that issues tickets with a time stamp on them, but then try to charge people based on different time recordings made at the entrance and exit. If they want to charge people on the time they enter and exit the car park they should install barriers and ticket machine at the entrance and issue tickets with that time on them. Is the registered keeper better off putting them to proof that the driver didn't have a valid ticket displayed while actually parked?
Or provide the ticket, set out the facts and rely on that should there be some allowance for finding a space, getting in and out of the car park and getting the ticket? Can a PCN be challenged on technicalities before arguments are made?
Thanks for any thoughts
Cephalopod
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