After parking in the rooftop park of the Gateway Shopping Centre in Trowbridge (Boots, New Look and Next), my wife received a parking charge notice from Smart Parking. At the time she parked there, she went looking for a machine, and found one with a cover saying "not in use". She went further and found a second, identically covered. She assumed all the machines were out and without walking the full area of the car park trying to find another machine, went about has business in Next for about 30mins. The charge would have been 80p. I appealed the charge to SP on their website (as her). They unsurprisingly rejected it. Two points here: 1) in the appeal text submitted online, I referenced Ref Prendi - v- Camden - Case 2100346960 "...the Enforcement Authority cannot expect motorists to tramp [around] trying to find a machine in working order". 2) In their reply letter, they say that all 4 of the original *council* machines were covered, and that there were another 4 SP machines, *of which only two were working*. Let me repeat: Of 8 machines total, 4 were covered and marked "not in use", and 2 of the remaining 4 were not working. My wife then appealed to POPLA who have rejected her appeal: Summary from POPLA: Given that the majority of the machines at the site were not working or were covered the appellant deems it reasonable of her to have assumed the paring[sic] charges were on[sic] in place on the date of contravention. The appellant states that as there were no signs pointing out where or how to pay she deems the parking charge to have been issued unfairly. The relevant sections of the response (they also state the signage meets requirements - which we must accept): Even if a motorist presents extenuating circumstances setting out reasons why they did not keep to the parking conditions, POPLA cannot allow an appeal if a contract was formed and the motorist did not keep to the parking conditions. While I appreciate the appellant’s comments and have no reason to doubt her version of events the terms and conditions of the site, require payment to be made when parking. On review of the signage in place at the site I am satisfied that the operator does clearly offer a cashless payment option for motorists at this site. Fundamentally, it is the motorist’s responsibility to check for any terms and conditions, and either adhere to them or choose to leave. The appellant chose to stay, therefore accepted the terms and the parking charge that the operator subsequently issued She's very annoyed about this because fundamentally, she wasn't trying to get away without spending 80p! Her "fault" appears to be not noticing and pursuing the cashless payment option (she didn't see any signs offering this, but does accept she may have missed them). Should we pay up or push on?! I presume the next step pushing on would be writing to SP telling them we intend to challenge?

Hi there! I would like to ask for some advice. I found a similar case (same place, same issue) to mine in this forum and would like to know what was the outcome. Or I'm looking for some solution from someone more clever than me. I parked my car in the St Stephens car park in Trowbridge end of May. I purchased my free three hours ticket (still have the ticket) and put on the dashboard in a visible place. Shutting the door moved the ticket further down and fell under the windscreen wiper (not fully visible, but definitely there). I had an hour meeting at Nandos (I'm a manager there) and when I was leaving I realised I got the yellow bag with a parking charge. I appealed straight away. UKPC rejection response came three weeks later. I appealed with POPLA risking my parking charge to be £100. POPLA closed the case today with another rejection. Im a manager at Nandos, work in Trowbridge restaurant quite often. I am fully aware of the rules of that particular car park. My girlfriend is from Trowbridge, we visit the cinema and town shops and we always use this carpark. Why wouldn't I purchase a free ticket and risk a parking charge if I know the rules? I could pay the £100, but I don't think I have been treated fairly in this case. I just don't feel I did break the rules of that car park. Don't think it's okay. My question is: - What shall I do next? - Do I need to be worried if I decide not to pay? - How likely is me to go to court? thanks for the help, it means a lot

Good morning people, I was hoping you could help me in regards to a parking charge I received back on the 27th of July. The car park I used is free for the first 3 hours, but you have to get a ticket. I had done this, went to have some lunch on return to the car had a parking notice on the windscreen from UKPC. I found this very odd as I'd got a ticket as soon as we had arrived. Once in the car I noticed that the ticket had fallen next to the gear stick. It must have been blown by the wind when we were getting my daughter out of the car (this took a little longer than normal as she was Having a meltdown) the ticket was just a paper one, no adhesive. I immediately sent my appeal explaining the above, (I now know I shouldn't have done this) I received an automated response that i very quickly scanned and the only part I took in was how they'd respond within 35 days. With that I put it to the back of my mind. On Saturday the 14th of October I received a letter from a debt recovery agency telling me I owe them £160! I do find this totally unfair considering my appeal was obviously ignored. I still have the original display ticket that had blown out of my windscreen. And the original parking charge ticket. I emailed BPO with all the information and have received a response today saying , Thank you for your e-mail. I can confirm UK Parking Control Ltd are members of the BPA and an Operator under the Approved Operator Scheme. Please be advised that unfortunately if UKPC can provide copies of the rejection letter they sent we cannot advise there to be a breach of the Code of Practice. Are you able to provide copies of all correspondence you have sent and received from the Operator? Please also detail any dates of calls made to the Operator so we can contact them with a timeline if necessary. I look forward to hearing from you. Kind regards, Gemma Dorans AOS Investigations Team Any help from you guys would be gratefully received. Many thanks