Breastfeeding in a parking

[Irugi]

Good morning,
We went on holiday to Wales and the last day we parked in a private parking. We payed for 2 hours and a few days after that we were issued with a parking charge notice of £100 for overstaying 23 min according to the ANPR cameras. Taking into account minimum grace periods of 5 and 10 min, assigned to the start and end of the parking session respectively, we overstayed 8 minutes because we use the car to breastfeed our baby boy before driving back home, the journey was about 2.5 hours.
We have appealed to POPLA on a few grounds, one of them being sexual discrimination against a breastfeeding mother. We were advised to use it but we actually don’t know anything about laws. We were wondering whether we would have a case if we decide to take legal action against landowner and car park operator. Could you please advise us?

Thank you for your time and consideration.

The law protects you to enable you to breastfeed wherever you like. That doesn't make you exempt from paying parking fines because you overstayed in a car park to breastfeed.

You are not being fined for breastfeeding. You are being fined for not paying for the full amount of time you took up a parking space therefore potentially stopping a paying customer from using it.

Get a grip, seriously.

So you are not only so massively entitled you think rules don't apply to you, YOU want to take legal action against the parking company and the landowner for daring to fine you?

Fucking hell. I thought I'd heard it all.

Shite like this actually makes things harder for nursing mothers. Shame on you.

I do agree that you overstayed, however, I'm surprised that £100 penalty is legal - surely it should be proportionate?

We got a ticket whilst I was giving birth. We had parked in the 15 minute drop off zone and my baby arrived 8 minutes after we had parked. When my husband went to move the car we had a parking ticket.

On first read, I thought you meant you gave birth in the car! I was struggling to comprehend the jobsworth mentality of someone slapping a ticket on whilst that was going on.

It's not a parking fine though - its a private parking charge and may not be enforceable.

Look at the help on moneysavingexpert - you might be able to ignore it.

The OP isn't just saying she doesn't want to pay the fine, she's saying she wants to take legal action.

No way is this discrimination. You over stayed. You were not given the ticket because you were breast feeding. It's crap like this that makes it harder for other people.

Oh come on entitled shit like this makes it harder on other nursing mothers. Pay the fine you over stayed you deceived your too important to pay for the extra time using the car park and now you want to bully them in court hoping that the attention breast feeding stories get will force them to back down. What a joke you are.

Awful

Making the way even harder for BF mothers.

Entitled beyond belief

You should of gone back to you car earlier if you knew your baby needed feeding before you left. Your lack of organization is not their problem.

Of course you have to pay, don't be ridiculous.

Frankly this kind of shit gives breastfeeding mothers a bad name.

I once got back to my car in Ambleside and as I lifted him out of the pram DS did a nappy busting power shit everywhere. I got a ticket whilst cleaning him up. I followed the advice on MSE and ignored all their letters and they went away after 2 letters.

Of course you have to pay, don't be ridiculous.

Actually, there may be a number of legitimate reasons why she might not have to pay. Playing the BFing card is simply not one of them.

Pay the fine. It's your own fault.

I once got back to my car in Ambleside and as I lifted him out of the pram DS did a nappy busting power shit everywhere. I got a ticket whilst cleaning him up. I followed the advice on MSE and ignored all their letters and they went away after 2 letters

The law changed a few years ago. Ignoring all the letters is no longer good advice. Parking companies now have the law on their side.

The law changed a few years ago. Ignoring all the letters is no longer good advice. Parking companies now have the law on their side.

This. Ignore at your peril.. if its private land, as long as there are clear indications of what the fines will be if you don't comply with the parking rules, the fines are totally legitimate and can/will be pursued in a civil court.

The more I think about this the more unbelievable it is.

The law changed a few years ago. Ignoring all the letters is no longer good advice. Parking companies now have the law on their side.

Just wanted to reiterate this. You can no longer just ignore parking fines.

Being in the car doesn't mean that you don't have to pay for the parking time. You're not paying for the time that you leave the car unattended, you're paying for the amount of time your car is physically taking up the space. You could stay in the car for the whole length of time it was parked if you like and you would still have to pay.

You should have bought another ticket if you realised that you needed more time, sorry.

As an aside, when you see it written down it seems quite logical but many people don't seem to know this is the case! I remember when I was a teenager we had been out shopping for the day and stopped to eat a picnic in the car before going home. We'd got back to the car before the ticket ran out but then overstayed while eating the food. DM had no idea this would be a problem, we didn't get a ticket but we did get asked rather brusquely to leave by a parking attendant.