Thread: railway station penalty parking notice

I parked at the railway station car park at Altrincham and accompanied my son to purchase a train ticket for him. Upon return about 15 minutes later I found a brown envelope taped to my windscreen with a yellow piece of A3 paper headed Penalty Parking Notice. The sum of £30 was demanded within 7 days for being a non rail user parked in the free car park. The notice warned that if payment was not made within 7 days there would be further charge involving details being requested from DVLA and that a maximum penalty of £1,000 could incurred. The notice did not have the name or signature of the person who issued it. It only had a date but no wordings or mentions of date of issue or date of the contravention. I tried to seek advice from the station staff but they all claimed that they could not provide any information. This was extremely upsetting and worrying so I wrote to the address on the notice which was the Debt Recovery and Prosecution unit of Northern Rail based at Bradford explaining my situation. They replied about a week later demanding that I would need to send them the rail ticket to prove that I was a rail user or pay the outstanding amount of £30. It was uncleared that the £30 was a fine or charge and they did not clarify in their reply. I replied stating that it would not be possible to find a used rail ticket after a week has gone by and that there were no information in the station or on the penalty notice saying that the rail ticket would need to be provided as proof of being a rail user. I would like to know if the onus of proof is on me even through this was not stated at the time when the penalty parking notice was issued. The notice was issued according to Byelaw 14 of the Railway Byelaws but it stated that a penalty will incur if the parking charge was not paid at the station. The fact is that the car park was free and there were no parking ticketing machine or charge information. Most of the signs around the car park warn of having to park in marked bay and a few stated that the car park is for rail user and a fine of £50 may be liable if the rules were breached. I replied to their letter saying that I would not be able to produce the rail ticket because it had not been kept and I did not feel that I should pay the £30 as they demanded in their letter as an outstanding amount. They threatened legal proceedings with additional cost of £100 if I did not pay up within 10 days from date of their letter of 2nd October. Should I pay up or do I have good ground to beat this, bit worry about going to court.

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It might be worth your while going to PePiPoo: Helping the motorist to get justice and posting your story there. They have a number of members who should be able to advise you as to the legalities of your situation.