POPLA appeal declined

[Mdixon424]

Hiya,

I'm new to the forum and need some advice if possible.

I went to out of hours at my local hospital. At the back of the hospital there are no ticket machines, I was in a bad way and wouldn't have been able to make the 10 minute trip to find a machine anyway.

They asked me for my car registration on entry, again due to not being quite with it I forgot to provide this before leaving.

2 weeks later I then got a "ticket reminder" through the post from parking eye. I was 23 minutes from start to finish, I appealed due to my circumstances with evidence of my trip to out of hours. The appeal was declined.

I then appealed to POPLA with my case, including the fact there are no ticket machines at the back of the hospital, which was actually backed up and evidence by parking eye providing a copy of the map of the site with the listed machines and signs.

Unfortunately on the 8th day (only given 7 days to provide further comments) i learned that the out of hours and back of the hospital is not actually part of the hospital at all and you are not required to have a ticket. Instead they send your registration details off to say you visited to prevent the ticket.

I sent this information to POPLA but they declined to include the information due to it being past their deadline.

I'm now having to pay £70, which I can but I'm so annoyed that I shouldn't actually have the ticket in the first place and thought I'd check for advice on here prior to paying the fine.

Any help much appreciated, thank you

[charitynjw]

Hi & welcome to LB.
Could you post up pics of the postal notice to keeper & if applicable the notice to driver? (Windscreen ticket)
Front & rear, redact personal info but leave all times & dates visible.
Also pics of any site signage. (If the alleged contravention was during evening/nightime hours, were the signs illuminated or prominent?)

[Mdixon424]

Thank you for your response. It's not letting me upload the photos as the size is too big, I've tried to crop them down but it still won't let me upload them.

Unsure how to make the files smaller on my phone?

[Mdixon424]

Managed it, hopefully big enough to view

[Mdixon424]

That'll be a no then. Not sure how else to post them? 50% of the original size is still too big and 10% you can't view it. Even tried converting to jpeg.

[ostell]

So you post them on another picture hosting site and then put a link on here. imgur seems to work

[Setmefree3]

If you are using an iPad or iPhone there is a free program called image size. Works well.

[Mdixon424]

Managed to upload via imgur...see link

http://imgur.com/gallery/JIxdpeA

The first is of the reminder notice i received - didn't receive the first reminder and nothing stuck to the car window as it was caught on camera.

The second was screenshot from a video I took around the back of yhe hospital confirming no ticket machines. It says "patients and visitors only" next to the parking bay.

The 3rd photo and sign says "staff permit holders & kingfisher and patient visitors only" as you enter the back of the hospital. The out of hours I attended was in the kingfisher ward.

[ostell]

Not visible... page does not exist

[Mdixon424]

Sorry, think it's working now?

[charitynjw]

From what I can see, & from the signs you've posted, there are no signs which display terms/conditions of parking which state any amount of money chargeable upon a breach of those T&C's.
The site signage seems to restrict parking to only certain types of visitors.
If that is so, then you can only be pursued for *trespass, not breach of contract, & only the landowner (or someone with the landowner's authority) can do so.
It is unlikely that the parking co have been given this, but.......

*It is unlikely that anyone will do this, as they would have to quantify damages caused by same, which would be so minimal any claim would probably be thrown out of court.

[Mdixon424]

Thank you for your response. So I could take it to the court or will I be better off just paying it if it's going to take a lot of time to contest it

[charitynjw]

Thank you for your response. So I could take it to the court or will I be better off just paying it if it's going to take a lot of time to contest it

At this stage I would do very little. (Just get my ducks in a row.)
Private parking companies can be litigious, some much more than others.