Parking Eye Ltd – letter „before county court claim“

[MMD]

On 20 March 2020 the registered keeper received a fine for parking on a newly built car park next to a railway station. They had been building the new car park for months but never put up any signs at the entrance when they would start charging. It was dark in the mornings when arriving and in the evenings when leaving so no obvious signs were visible. I emailed them and asked in January 2020 whether the car park is charging now but never received a reply. The 20 March was the first day the keeper parked there, the last day before lockdown. The letters Parking Eye sent afterwards were ignored as they were deemed unfair when they didn’t inform anyone when the car park was actually in use now. It wasn’t clear if the machines were working as they were covered up with a hood for a long time. On 20 March I emailed them again and still no reply. Now on 31 August iahte keeper received a letter „before county court claim“ asking to pay £100. Is there any action I can take to defend this? I still have copies of the emails I sent.