reply to honeybee13, are the service area operators a private parking company? no, the service area is owned by a petrol sales company, shell, but they use/or did use a private company to monitor their service area, a company who fit a camera to monitor who uses the area, there was a notice stating parking was only allowed to customers of the service area, but where that notice was is not clear as i did not see it, i did read online that the company who monitored the cameras and issued the fines had gone in to administration, but i'm not 100% sure about that, when i received notice of the parking fine in 2016. i rang them up explaining that the police told me to park there and i left before it was open to the public, and they said under the circumstances i did not have to pay the fine, then four years later dcbl say they want £180 in fines and costs, i feel that hey are being unreasonable to say the least. . .

In 2016 I was driving on the motorway at 1am and a car drove in to the back of my car, police attended and told me to park in a service area until the morning as my car was damaged, I was shaken up and didn't want to continue driving and needed day light to see if my car was safe to drive, I got a fine from the service area operators, I rang them and told them what happened, IE the police told me to park there until daylight, they said no fine was owed under the circumstances, now four years later I get a letter from dcbl saying I owe £184 in fines and costs, the letter states that high court or bailiff action will not happen, do I ignore this letter, I've been told not to respond by letter or phone as that constitutes the start of contract to pay, N/B i was found to be totally blameless for the accident, my car was written off by the insurance company and the driver of the car that ran in to the back of me was found to be 100% at fault for the accident, The service area I parked in was closed while I was parked in it and I left at 6am before the service area was opened at 8am, RECAP . . .the police tell me park there, the owners say they did not want the fine due to the circumstances, dcbl say they want payment four years later,