Appeal parking fine - breastfeeding

[FlyingHighFlyingLow]

I went to a shopping centre, 2 hours free parking then a code to pay on an app to extend if needed. Just before heading back to the car, baby (8 weeks) got upset as hungry. Baby is EBF, so I stopped to feed before heading back to the car. I logged into the app to extend and it wouldn't work. That's happened before and there is also a phone number for people without the app. Called that and it wouldn't recognise the location code, saying invalid. Previously that has worked but didn't on that day. So I had no way to pay. Fed baby as quick as possible, hurried to car. Now got a PCN through for overstaying 21 mins according to their AMPR cameras. Can I appeal as I was feeding and couldn't pay to extend?

I think the fact you couldn't pay to extend is very relevant, what you were doing isn't.

I once couldn't extend and I took a screenshot of the greyed out 'extend' button and the fine was cancelled - don't suppose you happened to do the same?

you can appeal and say you tried to extend but it wasn't working. Breast feeding is irrelevant really, but no harm in saying

Baby being breastfed isn’t really relevant, you couldn’t pay to extend if you were feeding the baby a bottle, if you were painting your toe nails or if you were having a row with your OH. The fact that you tried to pay and you couldn’t is the issue here. I dislike the notion of breastfeeding being a cop out clause for everything, sorry.

I have screenshots from calling the number, and the app has been fucked for weeks (still is) so I have some shots of that but not from that day. Wasn't sure if breastfeeding helped as protected.

I’ve appealed due to breastfeeding. Sex is a protected characteristic and they need to make reasonable adjustments.

You have a very good chance of being successful in appealing, and it won't hurt to mention the feeding - but the main point is that it's their system failure that has resulted in the fine being issued. I personally think including any humanising information you can is a good idea, and make your arguments polite and reasonable.

Lol breastfeeding doesn't entitle you to free parking. You may have had the right to feed in the car park, but that doesn't mean your car gets to be there for free.

The only relevant matter here is the app not working. Though if you've known it's not been working for weeks, I'm not sure it was wise to risk it.

Maybe waiting until you got to the car, feeding in a sling, or whist walking along (albiet impossible with a pram) would have been options.

The breast feeding is relevant as to why you couldn’t move the car when their system was found to be broken

breast feeding is irrelevant, and you would never get a parking fine overturned on that basis. The app not working is relevant.

No harm in trying

Good luck

I never expected free parking, in fact when the same happened 2 weeks earlier I tried the app (didn't work) and then the phone number (which did work). On this second occasion the phone number system also didn't work and kept claiming the location code didn't exist. I simply don't want to be charged £100 because of their screw up while on SMP because I didn't leave my baby screaming with hunger!

Is it a penalty charge notice or a parking charge notice?
Look it up on Moneysavingexpert - if it's a parking charge notice, you can apparently just ignore them as they have no legal rescourse.

This is poor advice. Parking charge notices issued by private companies are enforceable through the courts. This was established by the Supreme Court in Parking Eye v Beavis in 2015. Unfortunately, there is still a lot of "advice" on the internet that ignores this.

Shopping centres often don’t have much signal in parking areas, could it be that? As others have said what you were doing at time shouldn’t matter, you didn’t renew the parking ticket on time.

Yeah challenge it with screenshots etc, then try & forget about it - this stuff is so maddening.