I have just recieved a PCN for a car park on private land attached to a pub. It’s free parking if you go in the pub , we did pop in but not for the whole time.
I have parked in this car park once before , it’s near a park I was going to with my children. It wasn’t busy. You pay on an app . The first time I went, no issues.
The second time , I went on to the app to pay as I was walking to the park - put in all my details ,, selected an hour , clicked the Apple Pay , did the double click … I did have children running ahead , questions being asked , holding everyone’s bags etc . We then went into the park . We were there for a while and it was coming up to the hour so I checked my app , I couldn’t see my parking to see how long was left - but it was raining - my screen was jumping all over the place … so I just bought another hour.
We headed over to the pub and went inside , sat down , had a drink ( paid cash though so I can’t even prove this ) the children didn’t like anything on the menu so we ended up popping over to a cafe opposite.
I left the car park 5 min before my parking ended.
Now I have a ticket because I parked from around 12 - 13:55 . Looked on the app history and there is the hour I paid for ( 13:00 - 14:00) , but no record of the first hour . I definitely selected it , double clicked to pay but it must not have gone through .
It would have cost 90p for that hour and they are charging me £100. I get that it is my mistake , but it was genuine - I did go into the pub during that time but I have no proof. I thought I had paid , I clicked Apple Pay but it obviously didn’t go through but I didn’t realise that - if I was going to try and get free parking why would I pay 90p for one hour but try to get another hour for free to save 90p ?! I am the sort of person that pays for an hours parking in a car park , when I’m driving in to collect someone , as I won’t risk it .
Have I got a leg to stand on ? Do these people actually take any consideration to human error and have a heart to see that it was clearly genuine ? I could understand if I had paid for an hour and came back 3 hours later , or just not paid - but why would I try and get a free hour first and then go to the trouble of going on the app to pay for the second hour to save 90p ? I have all parking apps on my phone , with a lot of history - I always pay for parking .
I know people will say you can ignore it , they can’t be enforced etc but that’s not an option - the car is a motability car for my son , in his name , so all documents etc go to him - he is autistic and he opens post addressed to him as it’s a novelty and now he’s worried he’s in trouble , so I will pay it if I have to but it is really going to be a struggle . I absolutely can’t pay it within 14 days at the lower amount so it’s going to cost me £100 .
It is Euro Car Parks.
Thank you in advance.