NCP ANPR PCN - Cambridge North Railway St Car Park - late? ***Won at POPLA***

[Quentin Craddock]

Received a PCN for unpaid parking at Cambridge North station.  There were mitigating circumstances but I pointed out to National Car Parks that the PCN was invalid as it was issued way in excess of the 28 day deadline for issuing after an alleged offence (12 September/26 November).  Received the following reply from NCP:
 

Thank you for your appeal received on 6th December 2021 regarding the above detailed Parking Charge Notice.

 

We have reviewed your case and considered the comments you have made. Your appeal has also been considered in conjunction with the evidence gathered by our Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras, which record your entry and exit times. Our records show the notice was correctly issued as payment was not made for your parking session. 

 

 On Railway Land managed by NCP, we currently enforce under contract law. We are not allowed to use the provisions of The Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 (POFA) & Keeper Liability as Railway Land is exempt from this. Therefore timescales defined in POFA are not required to be met but there is an expectation that if an operator does not make use of Keeper Liability provisions, they are expected to adhere to the DVLA’s guidelines and contractual requirements to issue the Parking Charge Notice (PCN) no later than 7 months after the parking event.

 

 You now have 14 days from the date the letter is received to pay at the discounted rate of £60. If after 14 days payment hasn't been made the charge will increase to the full rate of £100.

 

 Therefore to make payment please visit www.gaparking.co.uk/pcn. Once full payment is received the case will be closed.  

 

You have reached the end of our internal appeals procedure. NCP will not assess further appeals in relation to this matter. However, in line with our Accredited Trade Association (ATA) membership we are required to provide you with an Independent Appeals Service. If you wish to appeal your case further you can now only do so to Parking On Private Land Appeals (POPLA) provided by Ombudsman Services on instruction of the British Parking Association. All information on how to appeal to POPLA is provided on their website; www.popla.co.uk you will need the following 10-digit verification code to submit your appeal; 4383481111.

 

 Please note that should you wish to appeal to POPLA you must do so within 28 days from the date of this letter. If POPLA reject your appeal you will be liable for the full amount of this PCN. The discounted amount will not be reinstated under any circumstances. POPLA will also not asses a case that has been paid prior to the appeal being received by them. By law we are also required to inform you, Ombudsman Services (www.ombudsman-services.org) provides an alternative dispute resolution service (ADR) that would be competent to deal with your appeal. However, NCP have chosen not to participate in their ADR service and as such should you wish to appeal further you must do so to POPLA as detailed above.

 

Best regards,

 

National Car Parks 

 

Has anyone else had a similar issue with NCP?  Their reply seems a bit one sided (no further appeal information allowed) and arbitrary (they choose which arbitration process appellants must abide by)

[honeybee13]

Hello, welcome to CAG.

 

Welcome also to the world of PPCs [private parking companies] where they have their own set of rules.

 

Please start by giving us the details requested in the forum sticky and we'll advise you.

 

 

Best, HB

[Homer67]

NEVER appeal to the PPC, rookie mistake. I hope you didn't declare yourself as the driver as their NTK was way out of time to create Keeper liability?

[dx100uk]

they dont own the land and can't enforce railway byelaws anyway - ignore them until/unless you get a letter of claim.

 

don't appeal next time as you blow all your protections under pofa 2012 by revealing you were the driver.

 

 

[Quentin Craddock]

Thanks for your help with this.  Sent an appeal to POPLA re the late issue of the PCN without much expectation and received the following reply:

 

Thank you for submitting your parking charge appeal to POPLA

An appeal has been opened with the reference xxxxxxxx

 

NCP ANPR Rail - EW have told us they do not wish to contest the appeal.

This means that your appeal is successful and you do not need to pay the parking charge.

 

Yours sincerely

POPLA Team 

 

Result - and they didn't even request the original parking charge which I was happy to pay. 

 

Always worth appealing.

 

[dx100uk]

well done

 

can you pop up your popla appeal stuff please so we and others have ref upon how you succeeded?

 

 

[Quentin Craddock]

Sure - the reply from POPLA stated the operator (either Greater Anglia Railways or NCP) had withdrawn their appeal as "Due to our current circumstances working from home we are unable to complete our evidence pack at this time therefore we withdraw this appeal."

 

Strange rationale but welcome.

[dx100uk]

it's a speculative invoice and was never anything to do with GAR at all, would only ever been them if you were issued with a PENALTY CHARGE NOTICE (a FINE) and latterly being taken to a magistrates court for non payment, but as PCN were decriminalised moons ago...again can't be GAR.

 

its popla bpa ipc...the ole boys network of old clamping firms that were outlawed in 2012 by POFA.

 

they most probably have no direct contract with the land owners GAR, so don't want everyone finding that out.

likewise on most railway land privately run car parks.

 

its one mass scam.

 

look at the recent g24 threads, 10'000 of speculative invoices and payments are being refunded because of one similar mistake that an MP has found out.