Hi, I would appreciate a bit of advice as to whether I should pay the charge or tell the company to take me to court.
I parked in a private car park in February. I have used this car park before, I didn't realise the charges had gone up, it used to be £4 for 24 hours, now £3.80 for 3 hours and £4.50 for 24 hours. I paid £4, stayed about 8 hours, didn't realise my error till I got a charge for £100 (which would be reduced to £60 if paid within a certain time period). I appealed as I think this is unfair to charge £100 over a mistake of 50p. No joy, then appealed through POPLA.
The company have stated about the court case when the motorist was found at fault, and that the charge is a justifiable protection of interests. Looking at that court case, it was a free car park, high turnover, city centre, maximum stay of 2 hours. This car park is obviously different (you can stay up to 24 hours), and they could see I've made a mistake from what I've paid (I haven't paid for 3 hours and over stayed on that), just made a mistake.
I don't know whether to tell them to take me to court or to just pay the fine as I've exhausted the appeal process. One final point, I was struggling with health issues at the time, anxiety and depression, so brain rather foggy (my husband was driving but he didn't see the ticket as you don't have to display it, number plate recognition). I was back at the hospital A&E the next day to speak to the mental health liaison team (where they prescribed me a couple of days worth of diazepam to calm me down).