Had to go to Hereford for work last week, found a car park behind the client, hopped out and had a look at the parking fees, went to cashpoint to take some notes out, returned to car park, discovered that the machine didn’t take notes, popped to the high street to break a note and returned to find that the parking dude had just ticketed my car, and was unable to cancel it once he’d submitted it. I’ve really only grounds of mitigation to appeal (that I had the funds to pay but not in the correct format, and had to leave the car to get change), but they’ve rejected it on the grounds of “it was parked without a ticket” – it seems entirely unreasonable that you can be ticketed whilst fetching the cash to pay for your ticket, but I appreciate that in black and white terms the car was ticketless when checked. is there any point in appealing this with POPLA, or shall I just suck it up?

NB – the car park does have RingGo but it will never, ever accept my card details despite there being sufficient funds (see “went to cashpoint to take some notes out” above) – I’d even tried RingGo in Worcester that very morning and had it rejected, so I didn’t try in Hereford.

What colour is the boathouse?

the car park does have RingGo but it will never, ever accept my card details

Not much help for you but I’ve never had a problem using Ringo (and similar), and I use it a lot all around the country.

I’ve never had any issues with RingGo either and I use it a fair bit with multiple different vehicles setup on the app.

I’ve not had a problem using other mobile parking apps, and I’m pretty sure I’ve used Mrs Pondo’s card with RingGo when we’ve been on holiday (when I call, it asks about parking a car she got rid of about five years ago) – I’ll investigate that further, as I know the apps really are quite handy*. 🙂

* When they bloody work.

Probably a difficult one for you to prove so if they haven’t already accepted your explanation as mitigation then not sure how you convince them. Did you have anything that can match up time of arrival and time of ticket issue being very short (assume it was less than 15 minutes or was the cash point/going back to break the note a much longer time)? If it was 30 mins+ it would be an easy excuse for people deliberately trying to avoid paying to use.

Mmm, probably not – I guess they may have CCTV but not sure how likely it is they’ll agree to look at that. It was a few minutes (car park to cashpoint to car park to shop to car park), maybe ten to fifteen, certainly not more than fifteen. Think I’ll just have to suck it up. 🙁

I’ve had Ringo work for me before, but it’s generally a bit rubbish TBH.

The app/service they use on the IOW (can’t remember what it’s called) is a shocker, it’s basically unusable and half the machines are normally broken. I think all car park ticketing outfits should be compelled to now offer both contactless and accept coins by default or else appeals like the OPs are granted by default.

So what is to stop the guy putting a fine on the car while you are at the machine paying if you do have the correct change in your pocket? What’s the grace period for acquiring the proof of payment and returning it to the car?

What’s the grace period for acquiring the proof of payment and returning it to the car?

Less than 15 minutes?

So what is to stop the guy putting a fine on the car while you are at the machine paying if you do have the correct change in your pocket?

I’d imagine that the guy would be able to look at all the people at the nearby ticket machines and wait to see if any of them return to the car.

It’s hard for them to give you a chance if you’ve pissed off out of the car park altogether to get some change.

10 mins is the law.

Is it?!? That’s worth investigating…. 🙂

Personally, I wouldn’t waste any more of your time or anyone else’s on it, accept you have to pay ( seems quite valid to me) and move on.
Next time, when you check the machine to see the rates, see what forms of payment it accepts ( i don’t know of many that take notes – other than the pay on leaving type).

Doesn’t the parking charge notice state the start and finish time of any vehicle observation?

Tbf there really should be a 5/10mins leeway in order to get hold of correct monies together to pay the robbing wizard sleeves.

Tbf there really should be a 5/10mins leeway

Let’s go for 10 minutes, and make it the law.

I’d imagine that the guy would be able to look at all the people at the nearby ticket machines and wait to see if any of them return to the car.

I’m sure he would be able, but would he? I saw a picture of a fine notice placed on the part of the windshield so that it blocked the purchased ticket. Then 3 more fines were placed on top of the original, despite their policy being you can only be fined once for the same offence.

I’d let it go.

I got a ticket under similar circumstances. Stupid machine only accepted coins, so I went across the road to the bank to get change.

On the way out, a little old lady tripped over the kerb outside, fell over and landed in the road on her head.

She was in a real state physically, and more than a bit confused, so I stayed with her, tried to keep her warm (it was February) and calld an ambulance.

An hour and a half later, it turned up. The ambo’s took her off and I went back to the car.

Of course I found a ticket.

I naively tried to appeal to the better nature of the company issuing the fine, and lodged a dispute. It was rejected as the ticket had been ‘correctly issued’,

So the moral of that story is don’t stop to help those in need 😄

I’ve put it down to experience, and hope that by some form of karma, I’ll get a reward. Or else the parking enforcers will suffer some terrible fate because no-one stops for them.

Sound, cheers folks. Think I’ll just cough up and herang the council for the harshness of their parking subcontractors. 🙂

Better than getting ticketed by the same parking attendant who I’d asked for change to park my motorbike in that there London once 🙄

I would not roll over. Who owns the carpark? Recent comment ^^^ suggests council ownnership. Call, email and write to them; be clear, forceful, direct but never aggressive, hostile or insulting.
Some of the comments above are laughable – just pay up and move on; right, great advice when they’re not the one liable for the possible fine/penalty.

with regards to your card not being accepted, mine works credit card was because it was registered at the company address.

I got burnt recently by Ringo after I had stupidly put the wrong reg number on my account and not checked it. it had been like that for a couple of months, so didn’t realize until I got ticketed for it

I just decided to suck it up and chalk it up to experience, a painful lesson though

Think I’ll just cough up and herang the council for the harshness of their parking subcontractors

I had misread the parking board at Hereford leisure pool put the wrong amount of money in and got ticketed. It was completely my fault. I emailed them and explained my mistake and they let me off.

Yeah but Frank he parked with no ticket for longer than the legal amount of time allowed before being issued with a ticket , so what would your legal argument be? Try not to make it laughable though please 🙂

Been in a similar boat, the way I see it is that its my risk to go and get the correct change. If I get a charge, then that’s my bad for not being more prepared – without being argumentative, but not all cash machines take Notes and you’ve probably driven past many cash machines / local shops on the way.
I’ve been lucky enough that when I’ve had to go and get change, that I’ve never had a fine, but if I did, then I’d accept it was down to my bad planning and move on.

I got burnt recently by Ringo after I had stupidly put the wrong reg number on my account and not checked it. it had been like that for a couple of months, so didn’t realize until I got ticketed for it

I just decided to suck it up and chalk it up to experience, a painful lesson though

I did that too, but contacted Ringo. They told me to appeal to the council and gave me a reference number. It was all cancelled.

Next time I’m parked up without a ticket and get a fine I think I’ll try using the same excuses as the OP. I’m sure they’ve never been used before… Hmmmm!

Last time I fought a parking ticket, I checked the council’s advice for parking wardens which included the need to observe the vehicle for 10 minutes before ticketing to allow for unloading and going and seeking change for a ticket machine. It probably varies by council and over time, but it might be worth looking for a similar guidance document.

I’d appeal, to the council in the first instance (I think POPLA will only get involved after you’re appealed directly?). Worst case scenario is that they say no so it can’t hurt to try.

The way I read the OP’s original post is that they have already challenged the ticket and been rejected.
Which was the main reason I suggested they would be wasting their time trying to get it overturned.

I always thought the default from a private parking company was to reject any claim so you pretty much had to appeal. Different with the council, though. I think they actually have a human that reads the claims

I’d appeal, to the council in the first instance (I think POPLA will only get involved after you’re appealed directly?)

Surely POPLA don’t get involved with Council tickets (the clue is in the name 😃) if that is indeed what it is? Not really clear from OP.

The way I read the OP’s original post is that they have already challenged the ticket and been rejected.

Yes, apologies, I misread.

Surely POPLA don’t get involved with Council tickets (the clue is in the name 😃)

Aha, you’re quite right. Go here instead. https://www.trafficpenaltytribunal.gov.uk/

Looking at the grounds for appeal on there, I think you’re into the realms of “compelling reasons” in which case the Tribunal can only recommend the Council waive the PCN rather than tell them to do so.

Have you got google location services turned on in your phone? You might have a timeline trace of your (phone’s) movements – arrival at carpark, walk to bank, carpark, shop, car..

And in today’s “I Did Not Know That”: the 10-minute grace period also applies if you’re late back to the car.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-delivers-on-parking-promises-to-help-local-shops

Hereford local here.

Which car park was it? Council or private?

If it was council then the parking enforcement officers are unlikely to ticket you if left for a short time. Any tickets they give out that are appealed against results in quite draconian measures taken against them. That’s from knowing an enforcement officer, it’s all about targets and being held responsible for the tickets they issue.

In the harsh but fair section, if you didn’t have change to pay for the parking ticket, and all other methods of payment were either not working or you couldn’t use, then you should have left the car park and found one that you could pay for.

Assume the OP still needed to park for a while after they’d been ticketed, so did you still buy a ticket or not bother once you’d got a ticket?