Parking Eye taking me to County Court, appeal rejected too late - what now?

[TonyWilliams]

On April 8th 2023, I took my girlfriend to a restaurant, here in Liverpool and we used the dedicated car park next door run by Parking Eye, I don't have the exact times or the ticket but 18:00 - 18:30 I would of purchased my ticket and I placed it on the dashboard, I have a paper-trail of the £5.50 contactless payment too. We had a meal and went to a bar for one drink. I remember saying to her lets give ourselves extra time to get back to the car in time for the ticket as my girlfriend has chronic fatigue so may need to rest for a minute on the way back. We got back and the car park was shut??? The shutters were down, no security or anything so I had to leave my girlfriend on her own while I ran a few laps to find another way in and there wasn't any alternative entrances. There was a number on the shutter but that was invalid, I tried finding Parking Eyes number online to contact a human which proved to be impossible. We waited round for someone to enter/leave so we could get my car back but no one did and I was very close to us walking to a bus stop getting the bus home THEN coming back in the morning for my car. Then I thought I'd try the restaurant we were at, next door and the owner/manager actually had a fob, he told me they locked the shutters at 7pm. I got in the car, he waited at the entrance for me to leave which was very good of him we left 20:55 according to the PCN. There WAS NO sign outside stating the car park shut at 7pm or had any opening hours 7am-7pm infact it said "parking tariffs apply 24 hours a day 7 days a week" and Google states it's open 24/7. There was one reviewer that said there is a sign on a small black board stating the car park shut at 7pm but its barely visible and INSIDE the car park. There are tons of reviews on Google stating that they car park shut on them at 7pm too, some people have been LOCKED inside. One stated the fire exits were locked and they had to contact the police. So we were lucky.


Anyway, fast forward - I actually got a PCN in the post from them. Generally the advice has always been if you ignore private parking tickets they can't do anything, will proceed to threaten you but eventually the ticket will go away unless it's a council issued ticket. Other people have driven into this car park and due to the condition left, only to receive a PCN which got rejected. Anyway I was contacted by post from Northampton County Court about preparing my defense. I sent an email to Parking Eye about why I "overstayed" my welcome hoping they would at least understand and drop this case but they stated they "couldn't".

I'll admit it that I SHOULD of been much quicker with dealing with this as It's been over a month and I should of done this 14 days after the initial court letter was received, I'll hold up my hands as I am to blame for this. I have really bad ADHD which makes these tasks really difficult to get done on time and I work scattered / long hours which is one reason I was slow in getting a response back to them and unfortunately these things can take time as it's not a case of ringing a number and explaining to someone what happened in your appeal. I was off work last week so spent a day writing up a cover letter, printing reviews, researching my appeal to send it the court and got knocked back today being late.


What are my chances in winning this case now, am I screwed? Any help would be massively appreciated as they now want £275 from me.

For Google reviews search "Beetham plaza Liverpool car park review" and check the reviews.

https://en.parkopedia.co.uk/parking/...g=202309022100

https://www.parkme.com/lot/132003/be...iverpool-16-uk

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co...d-car-26996795
Any help would be apricated.

Here are the two letters.

https://ibb.co/NVDYdpL

https://ibb.co/B4QVBTg

[des8]

It is going to cost you more to have that judgment setaside than it will to pay it.

An application to setaside a judgment costs £275 with no certainty, whereas Parking Eye only require £205

If you pay the £205 within 30 days of it being issued it will not affect your credit record.

[Captain Fizz]

Your appeal was of course rejected by Parking Eye, its a money making scam. Make sure you post on Google. Was it a dedicated car park for the restaurant? if so, make sure you tell the restaurant you will never use them again and post all over their review pages too ... and on a regular basis at that.