Ha ha! Yes, I think you could well be right, ericsbrother!

I am very pleased to report that the letter I sent to the Grand Harbour Hotel has resulted in Parking Eye agreeing to cancel the Parking Charge Notice. I'm waiting on a response to the FOI enquiry I made to Southampton City Council and will post again when that comes through - you never know, it may prove useful in future. As always, my thanks to all of you who responded here.

Yep, I've done that - just waiting to hear back from her.

I was only trying to "set the scene", so my apologies for clearly upsetting you, ericsbrother, that wasn't my intention, and I do apologise if you feel I've been "wittering". I don't believe I've received any irrelevant advice thus far, though, so don't feel you've wasted your time.

In what way have I changed my "story" with each post, ericsbrother? I've never said anything other than I had afternoon tea with my colleagues, and that my then manager booked it up! I never said it was a corporate booking, I think you (perhaps understandably) assumed that. That's beside the point, however, I'm extremely grateful for all the information and advice given thus far, and fully intend trying to contact Mr Fish and/or Ms Adair.

Ericsbrother - she made the booking herself, it was an afternoon tea to send off a colleague onto maternity leave, not a corporate booking - we each paid an equal amount towards it. I have sent an FOI to the local council who I believe are the landowners, asking if they have any sort of contract with Parking Eye for that car park, and have written to ask the hotel if THEY have any sort of contract.

Gotcha, ericsbrother - I was thinking that my former manager may have the details of the booking still, which, I believe, carries the information that the parking is free for four hours.

Ericsbrother - I will see if I can get hold of my former manager - she's brilliant in most ways, so I'll ask if she can do something for me. Oh, and B2B - talk about obvious! She may have the booking info on her phone still - it was done with a Groupon voucher, I believe.

B2b?

I had thought of this, too, ericsbrother - she actually left in September, so I'm a bit stuffed on that. However, I will be writing to the manager of the hotel myself, and also to Southampton City Council, who appear to actually own the land.

Hi, Jazzman1 - what a coincidence! My argument, too, was that, as I was using the hotel's facilities, I would have been entitled to park for nothing, but, because I did not make the booking myself, my manager did it online, and because I only work with this employer one day a week, I think she simply forgot to tell me that I could do so. Also, I put far more than 2 hours worth of money in the ticket machine, whatever printed out on the ticket, and this was the basis of my appeal. My opinion is that they've already made £4.50 out of me which I didn't need to pay anyway.

Way to go, ericsbrother - I WAS going to send them a "holding" response, just saying that I was seeking further advice, but I'll hold off whilst I bombard Grand Harbour and perhaps Southampton City Council re land ownership and on what basis Parking Eye operate. Thank you so much for your help so far.

Grand Harbour won't forward me the email, or at least, the woman I asked tells me she is not authorised to do so.

Would it be reasonable to ask Parking Eye to tell me if they have a contract with the hotel? Or with the local Council?

I was lucky enough to correspond with someone who appears to be human, ericsbrother, so I'll try her again.