Parking fine despite land owner permission

[Derbycheese]

Hi,
In 2022 I received a PCN for parking at a venue where you usually have to pay to park. I was performing at an event there and provided my car reg so that i'd be exempt from paying during the event and displayed a "parking pass' on my dashboard provided by the venue themselves. A week or so later a PCN arrived. I asked the venue to contact the parking firm to cancel the charge. Eventually I received an email from the venue stating that the charge had been cancelled.

A month or so later I received a further letter from the parking firm stating that I still owed money. I sent a letter to them explaining the situation however they replied basically saying - "tough".
The letters continued for months and I ignored them. I now have a date for a court hearing. It seems crazy that even though I have an email from the venue that the charge had been dropped and that the company will stop sending charge/penalty notices that they are still going ahead with the hearing.

I obviously don't want to go to court but refuse to pay up given the circumstances that I had prior permission and arrangements to park there from the land owner. I wonder if it could be argued in court that because I had prior permission, I didn't actually enter into a 'contract' with the parking company and therefore their fine isn't legal or enforceable?

I'd be really grateful for any opinions on that thought or indeed any suggestions about the best angle to take this from. Any advice generally would be great on how to get this sorted.

Many thanks,

[des8]

Do you still have access to that email from the venue advising that the charge had been cancelled?

You have a date for the court hearing, so presumably you have filed and served a defence?
Have you yet filed and served your witness statement?

[Derbycheese]

Thanks for your reply.

Yes I still have the email form the venue manager saying the fine had been cancelled. We have a court date now for the hearing and have sent all the forms, statements etc to the court. We now just have to send a copy of our defense documents to the parking company no later than 14 days before the court date.

[des8]

If you have filed your defence and witness statement with the court you need to serve copies on claimant.

If you have made a strong defence it is possible the claimant (or their solicitor) will discontinue at the last minute (or might just not attend)

Not having seen the NTK, not knowing the wording of the claim or the full content of your defence, I don't think we are in a position to advise how to conduct your defence in court.
In any case the judge will take charge of the trial and if your lucky he will draw the right conclusion