hi like

LFOZ89 I too have received practically the same letter as yourself for very similar circumstances and considering appealing like yourself. You have not posted an update to your situation and I wondered if you were successful or not.

Not a fine. Just cowboy clampers chancing their luck. Bay markings on the oaks or any private land have no relevance in law.

Hi

received a letter from UKCPS dated 16th September 2014 stating my car was observed out of marked bay areas

on 13th August at 20:05 hours and that a parking ticket had been issued but as I have not responded to the ticket fixed to the vehicle

I no longer qualified for the reduced payment and I was now being charged £ 100.

I know I have 28 days to respond so I have until 14th October to appeal

(at the time I received the reminder I was on holiday and only returned on 21st September).

I know I was at the Colesium car park that night as I went to the cinema with my daughter

- I cannot recollect exactly where I parked that night due to it being so long ago

but I do recall it was very busy and parking was at a premium.

Upon talking to my daughter and my husband, we all agree that no ticket was present on the windscreen of the vehicle.

I know member LFOZ89 received a reminder letter practically under the same circumstances

and had success in them cancelling the charge as a "gesture of goodwill"

and I had planned to send the same letter as I have seen that not parking in marked bay areas on private land held no legal grounds.

I may also like to add that until I received the letter I was not aware the Colesium car park at the back of the Vue cinema

was a patrolled car park area.

I have since returned and found that although signs are present unless you are about 3ft away from the sign to read it

then you would not know monitoring of parking was present.

There are no big signs on entering the parking area (like the signage at Sainsburys which are clear and well distributed)

and the A3 size signs are only present on about 5 - 8 lampposts on the car park

- the signs could have been for anything like "Collesium does not take responsibility for car safety" etc, etc

that you often see posted by car park owners and as a driver trying to find a parking space you would not be able to make the difference.

Member "Ericsbrother" has asked me to start a new thread on this to help me out

as I feel I have been duped as I consider myself to be a careful driver,

never parking in a way that would endanger another person or hinder another parked vehicle.

Hope you can help as I really cannot afford to pay the outrageous £ 100 charge they feel would compensate

a vehicle being parked "out of marked bay" in a free car park.

Hi EricBrother I have done as you requested and posted a new thread - was just going to copy and paste the letter this person wrote but maybe you have a better way to help me out of this ugly situation - not what you want to find when you come back off your holidays

Moved into Private Land parking forum.

OK, you can respond by arguing several points.

firstly, no ticket attached to vehicle at the time so Para 9 of the PoFA applies and

they are timed out from claiming from the keeper of the vehicle.

As the keeper of the vehicle you put it to them to provide "strict proof" that such an event did occur

as the driver at the time has witness evidence that counters this assertion and

if they cannot they should cease and desist from contacting you again or risk a civil tort for harassment.

Secondly, in any case no contract could have been formed due to inadequate signage at the site in question.

Leave it at that for the moment and bash them at appeal to POPLA if they reject your appeal.

Hi Eric thanks for the good advice will put a letter together but just a quick question what is a cival tort ?

Civil tort- a wrong done to you that is remedied by a county court claim for damages or compensation. Not a criminal offence.

Thanks have sent off my reply letter just waiting for a response will keep you posted.

podmoma,

They will reject your appeal but will have to issue a POPLA code. (That costs them money. ... Not you.)

Minimum size of sign is 450mm X 450mm.

There must also be a sign readable from the drivers seat at the entrance to the car park.

Hey just to keep you updated on my appeal - received a letter today stating that after reviewing my parking charges UKCPS has decided to cancel. They state that "this is a one time gesture of goodwill" and wont be repeated if I re-offend.

My initial response to the first letter was based on two arguments (1) I had not entered into any contractual agreement as I had not seen any signs upon entering the car park and therefore under the requirements of a contract the terms had not been satisfied plus taking into consideration bay markings on private land had no bearing in law.

A note to other car users - UKCPS have now erected signs on the entrance to the car park at the Colesium plus more signage at eye level to the driver all around the parking area.

My second argument consisted in the fact that I had found no parking ticket on the car and demanded that they produce evidence of not only the ticket being issued but in situ on the car plus evidence the car had been parked "out of marked bays".

This site has been invaluable in putting my appeal together and it is well worth the effort in appealing - if I had not done my research I may well have been one of the many naïve people who believed they had to pay (and many people probably do as they do not understand they have a great chance to get the fine squashed).

Many many thanks

They save themselves £27+vat so once it is obvious you have a decent chace of beating them it is not in their interests to battle. there are plenty of mugs out there who will pay up ot write a completely pointless appeal and then pay up when they lose.

Hi Pod,

I have updated the thread title for you.

Thanks for updating, this may help others in the future.

Ditto the last sentence of above post.

Well Done !!