PCN for Hospital Parking on Good Friday. Options

[Oypla]

On Good Friday I had an appointment at Coventry University Hospital and had gone about everything as you normally would when in a Hospital car park. Upon leaving, I went to the car park machines to pay for my time spent there and all of the machines displayed a message saying 'pay at exit', or something along those lines. When getting to the exit, there was no way of paying at the exit and not only this, but there were no manned guards around to receive advice from or to make a payment to, presumably because it was Good Friday, a bank holiday, so I feel like I explored all possibilities in trying to pay for my time in the car park. I went to the machines which said pay at exit, I attempted to pay at exit but there was no way of doing so, so I looked for a manned guard to take payment or advise me on what to do but like I said there wasn't any around as a result of it being bank holiday.

My assumption was then that the car parking wasn't under normal parking restrictions due to it being bank holiday as there was hardly anyone around anyway in a car park that is typically rammed full, and, we were not the only ones to do this, several other people drove off without making a payment and I assume they had similar reasoning to myself.


Anyway, I received a PCN through the post for my actions (1) , which I sent off a written letter appealing against (2) , and I have today received a letter of rejection through the post (3+4) + .

I wanted to know if I have any leg to stand on in a second appeal, and if so, if anyone could help me draft up an appeal to send of. Or should I just cough up the ridiculous £60-£100. I feel hard done by given the circumstances of what I described above so of course my preference is to appeal, but if it would be meaningless, it would perhaps be best to save myself a further £40?

Any and all help is appreciated.

Thank you

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[The Rookie]

Very familiar with the hospital, as you say there is no way to pay at exit.

Your appeal would be on frustration of contract, your ability to comply with your side of the contract was frustrated as they made no method of payment available to you and in fact gave you instructions which you could then not comply with and where already committed to leaving the car park.

First port of call MUST be the Patient Advisory Liaison Service (PALS) at te hospital itself, Walsgrave are pretty good, they will surely have hundreds of similar cases so some others should hopefully have gone to them by now and they should get this cancelled readily, after all its the hospitals failure here (their machines not the Car Parking Pratnershp's).

[Oypla]

Very familiar with the hospital, as you say there is no way to pay at exit.

Your appeal would be on frustration of contract, your ability to comply with your side of the contract was frustrated as they made no method of payment available to you and in fact gave you instructions which you could then not comply with and where already committed to leaving the car park.

First port of call MUST be the Patient Advisory Liaison Service (PALS) at te hospital itself, Walsgrave are pretty good, they will surely have hundreds of similar cases so some others should hopefully have gone to them by now and they should get this cancelled readily, after all its the hospitals failure here (their machines not the Car Parking Pratnershp's).

Thank you for getting back to me.

I will head over to the hospital to contact PALS tomorrow, thank you.

Updates when I find out more.

[Oypla]

I went to the hospital direct and spoke with PALS. I described the situation with them as I outlined above and then they said leave it with me and we will see what we can do, which I straight away thought this isn't going to come to anything. Anyway, I didn't hear back, so I must've rang them everyday to inquire about the progress and every time I was practically dismissed.

I received a phone call yesterday and they essentially said that there is nothing they can do, which is pretty much what I figured I would get back from them after my first meeting with them when I went to the hospital direct. They told me to pluck some heart strings in the appeal and look for sympathy given the circumstances of the visit, which I don't believe will really affect anything because it doesn't include any sound factual information. They wished me the best of luck in the appeal and that was that, now here I am.

I was now wondering if there was anyone that could help me in forming an appeal because I believe the actions of the parking enforcement is incredibly unjust because as I described in my initial post, I tried to pay, I looked for other options but there was nothing; machines said pay at exit, I was unable to pay at exit because there simply isn't any way of doing so, and there were no manned guards around presumably due to it being bank holiday. I was looking over their rejection and it didn't actually address any of the points I made in my appeal, they simply said they're rejecting me because there are tariffs at this car park, yeah, I know that coulndn't pay, SO I TRIED, to uphold my end of the deal by exhausting all options available to me but there simply was NO way of paying.

Any and all help extremely appreciated.

[Umkomaas]

Contact your MP and ask that he/she intervenes. Remind him/her of the Sir Greg Knight Bill which has received Royal Assent and is now part of UK law.

Get in touch with your local press and give them all the details. They might love to run a story.

Make sure you get your POPLA appeal in, to include signage (do you have your own photos - you need them as the signage purportedly is the the contract between the driver and PPC), landowner authority to operate on the site,, frustration of contract etc.

[Oypla]

Contact your MP and ask that he/she intervenes. Remind him/her of the Sir Greg Knight Bill which has received Royal Assent and is now part of UK law.

Get in touch with your local press and give them all the details. They might love to run a story.

Make sure you get your POPLA appeal in, to include signage (do you have your own photos - you need them as the signage purportedly is the the contract between the driver and PPC), landowner authority to operate on the site,, frustration of contract etc.

Thank you for getting back to me.

Is there a basis or a structure that I should adhere to in my appeal as I have never wrote one before so I am unsure of what to include to ensure that it is a success. Sadly I didn't take photos of the event when I was there as I didn't deem it necessary because I wasn't expecting to receive a PCN for it as I believed that normal restrictions were lifted, given the details that I included in my first post.

Would it also be worth contacting my local MP prior to writing the appeal. Politicians are typically a waste of time so I'm unsure if this would be a worthwhile route to explore in the success of my appeal?

[Oypla]

Is there anything else that I can include in my appeal?

This post has been edited by Oypla: Fri, 31 May 2019 - 09:58

[Oypla]

In my appeal I'm going to mention:-

the Sir Greg Knight Bill and reference how that is applicable to me.
how I exhausted all my options in attempting to make payment.
the fact that they made NO reference as to WHY they rejected me in the rejection letter other than saying there is tariffs in the car park (which we all know).
the fact that I am over 70 years of age and make regular visits to this hospital and have never once skipped payment, or had the desire to, so why would I THIS time?
reference the fact that it was bank holiday so my assumption was that tariffs were lifted because of what I explained above and the fact that no guards were around.


Is there anything else that I can include that will aid my appeal, and sadly I didn't take photos on the day because I didn't see the need to because like I explained I didn't feel that I was doing anything wrong because I felt as though I exhausted all of my options in trying to make a payment.

All help is appreciated, thank you.