Charlbury Station parking charges

Mon 5 Sep 2016, 12:19 (last edited on Mon 5 Sep 2016, 12:22)

Hilary: I take it you were issued with a Parking Charge Notice by Apcoa (not a Penalty Charge Notice) -- see my post on 23 August for my understanding of how these differ.

If so, as I understand it, Apcoa will need to have given you a Popla code and told you how to appeal to against the parking notice. You need to appeal to Popla within 28 days of receiving the code, so make sure you do this and as soon as you can.

Also look at the relevant threads on pepipoo.com and also moneysavingexpert.com, both of which are far more expert than me and will give you advice on an individual basis on how to appeal through POPLA in the case of unjustified parking charge notices. I gave the links in the earlier post.

I'm not a lawyer, but I would have thought that given the circumstances it would be fairly certain that you would win at the Popla stage. If you have legal expenses insurance with your motor insurance, you could also ask them for advice.

I'm not sure why you are trying to contact Gwr about this, except it would be useful for you to get written confirmation from Gwr that the train was late and that they paid for a taxi for you. You could also ask for the name of the taxi firm, to provide proof that it arrived back to Charlbury after midnight. It could be that you could also be due a refund from Gwr, and perhaps you could also ask them to pay the Apcoa invoice! I have had responses from Gwr Customer Complaints in the past. The page is here: https://www.gwr.com/help-and-support

None of this will not stop Apcoa trying it on; but a Parking Charge Notice is really just an invoice which you are declining to pay. Refusing to pay won't give you a criminal record; this only happens if a Court demands payment & you decline.

Apcoa's contract is with Network Rail, not with Gwr. Gwr does presumably have to agree with Apcoa about the particular levels of parking fees and grace periods for the individual station car parks, but it is Popla that deals with appeals in the case of a Parking Charge Notice -- or the Magistrate's Court in the case of a Penalty Charge Notice.

I hope this helps.