Reply With QuoteI'd pay the centre £10 to have it dismissed then once it's gone away take it up with the centre again if I still felt like it.
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Hopefully some of the knowledgeable members on here can provide some assistance with this.
On Good Friday 15th April my wife took the kids to their swimming lessons, as they do every Friday, and duly filled out the paper parking permit from the book of permits we buy from the leisure centre. This was at 6.15pm.
As they got through the door, our son noticed a blackboard with the message that paper parking permits were no longer valid and parking had to be paid for using a new app. This was the first they'd heard about it and they go every Friday.
After talking to the receptionist, my wife retrieved the permit along with the remaining blank permits and was given a refund for them. The receptionist retained the permits. My wife then downloaded the app and paid for an hour of parking from 6.30pm.
The kids did their swimming lessons, got changed and they all left as usual and were back home by 7.45.
Two weeks later a PCN letter arrives demanding £60 for failure to pay for duration of stay, courtesy of Gemini Parking Solutions. The letter gives no indication of location and both pictures of her car could be located anywhere. We were scratching our heads for 15 minutes trying to work out where it was. It was only when we realised the day and date and the penny dropped it was the swimming pool. The offence was staying in the car park for 77 minutes but only paying for an hour via the app.
We appealed it on the grounds that there was no prior notice, she'd filled in a previously valid permit at 6.15, got told to dismiss that and buy a ticket from the app, which she finally did at 6.30pm and you can't retrospectively pay for a ticket starting in the past. She exited the car park at 7.32pm. This was two minutes after her e-permit ended but of course they clocked her entering the car park at 6.15pm so added that time on as well.
The other thing to consider in this is that she was charged £1 for that hour, but since then has been told that for members of the centre, parking is only 75p with no time limit, within reason. That rule was in force at the time of her offence and we've members for years, so I used that in the appeal as well. "At no point have we ever tried to get away with non-payment or tried to defraud the parking company. It was a genuine mix up due to humans being human. She should only have paid 75p for her parking that evening anyway.", etc., etc.
I thought, 'Surely they can't persist with the charge once they understand the circumstances?'. But of course, they're a bunch of thieving crooks so today they've emailed back rejecting the appeal. This leaves me with an option to appeal to POPLA (Parking On Private Lands Appeals), but this will forfeit the early payment discount and instead of £60 we'll be liable to pay £100.
When my wife asked about it at the centre this Friday, the receptionist said they could have the ticket dismissed, which costs the centre £20 and my wife would have to pay £10. What's that all about? It sounds like the parking company has the centre by the short and curlies and will happily dismiss heavy-handed applications of the rules and disproportionate fines, for a fee.
I'm seething and my heart says, go to appeal because surely the charge is so ridiculous it can't be upheld. It's a matter of principle. On the other hand, we pay a tenner and get on with our lives.
I was wondering if there was some legal requirement that the PCN has to state the location of the offence? There was literally nothing on the letter, just GLL Waltham Forest, which could be any one of 20+ locations.
What would fellow TZers do?
I'd pay the centre £10 to have it dismissed then once it's gone away take it up with the centre again if I still felt like it.
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Pay the tenner and move on, it sucks, but not worth the grief.
Cheers..
Jase
MSE website has template letters for POPLA, use one of those and appeal.
But with £10 option available - do that and move on.
My swimming pool uses the same company and system. I still have some paper permits left and didn't know you could get a refund, so many thanks for that information. I think if I was in your situation I'd pay the £10 and pursue the matter through appeal.
With my pool the new system operates through a phone app called Y-Pay. As a member I pay 75p for 3 hours parking. It used to be 50p for 2 hours with the paper permits. The app is easy to use though...so that's a positive. The new system works on ANPR meaning they no longer have to employ human permit inspectors...so I guess some poor guy is now unemployed and Gemini's profits are up!
I would fight it. But then I am fairly vindictive in these cases.
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
Grace periods is interesting
https://www.parkingcowboys.co.uk/popla/
For £60 or £100 I'd fight it but for £10 I'd move on. It's not right but the sum is pretty trivial and, for me, life's too short to worry about the price of a couple of pints.
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My wife dropped by the pool today, explained the situation and they've cancelled the charge with no fee so win win.
If it had been stuck at £60 I would have fought it tooth and claw. Bastards!
I haven't had the courage to ask if she remembered to pay the 75p parking while she was inside contesting the PCN
Glad you got it sorted. Common sense prevailedOriginally Posted by Onelasttime
My wife dropped by the pool today, explained the situation and they've cancelled the charge with no fee so win win.
If it had been stuck at £60 I would have fought it tooth and claw. Bastards!
I haven't had the courage to ask if she remembered to pay the 75p parking while she was inside contesting the PCN
Honestly, what a bunch of thieving opportunistic gutless parasitic barstewards they are, they make rats in a drain look honourable!
Government needs to sort these thieving scum bags out.
Absof***inglutely!!
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Sounds like you need to 'drop the kids off at the pool' through the letterbox of Gemini Parking Solutions!
Last edited by vulcangascompany; 3rd May 2022 at 23:49.
They actually changed the law to facilitate it.
https://assets.publishing.service.go...ng-charges.pdf
Last edited by David_D; 3rd May 2022 at 23:55.
Pay the £10, it is a massive swiz but these things drag on and on and ultimately victories I’m afraid are usually of the pyrrhic variety.
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When my wife won our parking appeal it felt anything but pyrrhic. It cost us £12 to have it fought on our behalf by some chap on Facebook and saved us £120. Felt nice to deprive these scumbags of their ill gotten gains. Well worth it.
Of course if you read the thread you'd see that happily the OP had his cancelled by the actual business. If only more businesses took the same approach to these issues instead of ceding all control to these unscrupulous companies.
Well stone me, another PCN was delivered today for Friday 22 April, the week after the original PCN.
The app clearly shows my wife had paid for 2 hours and was well within the duration limit, so WTF???
Looking at the app again, I noticed she's accidently inputted a 0 (zero) instead of an O (capital letter) in her registration number. The two are together in the first four characters.
Back to the centre tonight to explain and have the charge dropped and then a quick edit of the details in the app and we should be OK. Although there will still be last Friday's PCN to follow.
Un-f***ing-believable
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