Premier Park Options

[ElGrifo]

Hi All

I've just had an appeal rejected by Premier Park

I parked in a Premier Park managed car park to visit a local business. I didn't have any cash so attempted to pay via the RingGo app, I entered the car park code and the address that came up was different to the one on the car park signage.

I phoned RingGo and spoke to one of their advisers who couldn't find the a car park with the signage address on it and after speaking to her technincal team advised that it wasn't a car park they managed so I couldn't pay the parking charge. RingGo asked me to take photos of the signs before I left so they could look into it further.

After I had finished on the phone I took some photos of the signage and left the car park. This all took 22mins.

I emailed RingGO the photos about an hour after leaving the car park and received an email back from them four weeks later advising that it was an error on their part and that their records were wrong.

I received a PCN from Premier Park 9 days after my aborted attempt to park and appealed on the above basis providing images of the signage and my correspondence with RingGO.

Details of Premier Park rejection below:

Thank you for your appeal against the above Parking Charge Notice (PCN). We have carefully considered your appeal, however on this occasion the appeal has been rejected for the following reason;

No record of a payment could be found to authorise the time your vehicle spent on site. We note the comments made and the evidence provided, however, we must advise that this does not authorise you to remain on site for 22 minutes without making a payment to authorise your stay. We would advise that you should have exited site directly when you first believed that you would not be making a payment for the correct site via RingGo, rather than remain on site to call RingGo. The signage on site clearly details the payment methods and the relevant site number needed when making a payment via the pay by phone service, RingGo. Therefore, we can confirm that this PCN has been issued correctly.

I have subsequently appealed to POPLA awaiting a decision.

Anyone else had this issue?

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[Jlc]

I have subsequently appealed to POPLA awaiting a decision.

Unfortunately, POPLA will agree. They are only concerned whether the charge was correctly issued, not whether it's actually due.

These are only ever won at court - where, quite simply, you could not comply with the contract on offer and left.

I emailed RingGO the photos about an hour after leaving the car park and received an email back from them four weeks later advising that it was an error on their part and that their records were wrong.

Are PP aware of this?

[ElGrifo]

Thanks

Yes Premier Park are aware of this I forwarded a copy of the email I received from RingGo with my appeal.

[ElGrifo]

Received Premiers Parks 'Evidence' from POPLA this morning

The Appellants vehicle entered the site at 12:21 and exited at 12:43. We are unable to trace a paid parking session for this vehicle registration. Please see ‘Other Evidence’. The Appellant states “ I attempted to pay the parking charge via RingGo as indicated on the car park signage as i had no change. The car park number and address stated on the car park signage were different to those on RingGo's records (the number was the same but the address was different). The car park sign indicated the Royal Gate House Car park, RingGo's records had the car park as White Lion Street. I opted to speak to an customer service representative at RingGo to make sure that I had the right car park. After consulting their technical team the representative advised that the Royal Gate House car park was not covered by them and the White Lion Street car park must be another location. I was advised that I was unable to pay for the car park via RingGo and that I should take photos of the signage so they could look into it further. This all took approx 20mins. As soon as it became evident that I would not be able to pay for parking via the method stated on the sign I left the car park. “ This car park is monitored by Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras which take a time and date stamped image of the vehicle on entry and exit, measuring the length of the time the vehicle remained on site. This is then cross-referenced with the data from the payment machines, pay by phone service and the virtual permit system. The main requirements for parking in the car park are that the full, correct vehicle registration is entered when purchasing a parking session or registering for a virtual permit, and that the full duration of the stay is covered by either payment or permit. Payment with coins is made by entering your full registration number, press the green tick button, insert the coins for the amount of time the vehicle will be parked, press the green tick to confirm the amount of time paid for is correct, and then take receipt. Motorists are also able to pay by phone, using RingGo. The instructions are shown on all the signage, as is the site number “9178”. RingGo is an independent company and is not part of Premier Park. RingGo facilitates the payment of parking fees on behalf of the operator of the specific on-street or off-street location. We are unsure why the Appellant would not have proceeded with this parking session if the correct site code had been entered. The same site code is clearly shown on all of the signage on site. If in any doubt, the Appellant could have also text “RingGo help” to pay for the parking session or gone online at myringgo.co.uk. If the Appellant felt there was an issue, he could have also contacted Premier Park to discuss the query. The contact number is clearly shown on the signage. We can confirm that we did not receive any calls regarding this vehicle. When entering onto a managed private car park, a motorist might enter into a contract by remaining on the land for a reasonable period. The signage at the site sets out the terms and conditions of this contract. Therefore, upon entry to the car park, the driver should have reviewed the terms and conditions before deciding to park. 13 Grace periods – according to the British Parking Association Code of Practice 13.1 If a driver is parking without your permission, or at locations where parking is not normally permitted, they must have the chance to read the terms and conditions before they enter into the ‘parking contract’ with you. If, having had that opportunity, they decide not to park but choose to leave the car park, you must provide them with a reasonable grace period to leave, as they will not be bound by your parking contract. 13.2 If the parking location is one where parking is normally permitted, you must allow the driver a reasonable grace period in addition to the parking event before enforcement action is taken. In such instances the grace period must be a minimum of 10 minutes. 13.4 You should allow the driver a reasonable period to leave the private car park after the parking contract has ended, before you take enforcement action. If the location is one where parking is normally permitted, the Grace Period at the end of the parking period should be a minimum of 10 minutes. If the motorist remains in the car park for a period longer than is “reasonable” for the purposes of Section 13.2, we would consider this parking also. As the appellant remained on site for 22 minutes, we would consider this more than reasonable and class it as parking. The Appellants vehicle was parked on site for 22 minutes with no payment made for the vehicle parked. Therefore, a whole period of parking not paid for Parking Charge Notice was issued. It is the responsibility of the motorist to ensure that they have read and parked in compliance with the terms and conditions of the site. On this occasion, the Driver did not. We request that the Appellant's appeal be refused.

[Redivi]

Does the evidence include a witness statement from the land-owner that Premier has authority to manage the car park ?

If so, we would very much like to see it
Long term regulars will know why

[ElGrifo]

Hi Redivi

They attach a copy of the Parking Service Agreement with the landowner.

[nosferatu1001]

Can you please share it? Host on an external site and paste the IMG links.

[ElGrifo]

Link to Car Park Agreement

Car Park Agreement

Link to Signage Images submitted by Premier Park

Car Park Signage

[ElGrifo]

Latest correspondence from RingGo, too late to add to my Popla appeal though.


​I do apologise for the delay in replying, I'm sorry to hear that you have received a fine and that Premier Park have rejected your appeal. I can confirm that RingGo are a seperate company that processes the payment for parking in Premier Park locations on behalf of Premier Park, the tariff prices and location information are provided to us by the parking operators (in this case Premier Park).
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On the day that you phoned there was a confusion between the location name on the sign and the location name that was on our system, due to the agent you were speaking to raising this with another team member for support this did take some time which you were on the phone to us for. As we were unable to confirm which was correct without speaking to the account manager for the parking operator, you advised that you would move the vehicle to a car park that you were confident was correct so we then asked you to email us with the photos that you had taken of the signage in order for us to query this. Upon further investigation the Account Manager then contacted Premier Park for confirmation and we received the reply of:
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'The signage is correct but would like you to rename the zone from White Lion Car Park to The Royal Gatehouse'
​
I hope this information helps you with your appeal to POPLA and that you are successful, we do apologise for the inconvenience that you have been caused.

Can I read anything into their request for a change to the wording of the signage even though they wont admit it is misleading/incorrect?

​

[ManxRed]

Of course you do. If there was nothing wrong with it, then why did it need to be changed?

[ElGrifo]

Is it worth advising RingGo that I will be asking them to appear as a witness should Premier Park instigate court proceedings?