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I've been issued with a parking ticket due to short-changing the machine - can I appeal?
During holiday in Cornwall we visited Falmouth, where the car park charge was £1 for one hour or £2.20 for two hours. I witnessed my wife put £2.20 in to the machine, which produced ticket that I placed on dashboard without checking. We arrived back after about 90 minutes to find a parking charge notice. When I examined the ticket it had registered payment of £2.10 with expiry time of one hour. The penalty was £100 reduced to £60 if paid within 14 days. I set out the facts in an appeal letter, but this was rejected. I sent second letter enclosing a cheque for £10 saying this was more than adequate compensation for alleged non-payment of 10p. My cheque has been returned, saying charges are not negotiable. I have an opportunity to appeal to POPLA but I am concerned that they are not independent. What would you do next?
Asked on 2 November 2013 by RF, Cardiff
Answered by
Honest John
The problem here is that your wife actually made a mistake and put 10p short into the machine. Probably because the machine did not accept her last 10p coin. Something like this happened to me recently. I simply cursed my forgetfulness and paid up. You could take it all the way to the small claims court. But this is not a case of the car parking enforcement outfit's machine failing. It is of your wife failing to make sure her last 10p had been accepted.
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