[grob]

I thought it might be useful to let people know the outcome of my parking fine appeal with POPLA (parking on private land appeals).

My appeal was successful so I did not have to pay the £60 parking fine that was issued to me.

I was issued a fine parking fine for not paying for parking while using an Instavolt charger in a retail park.

POPLA found in my favour because the parking operator did not prove that they had authority from Instavolt to issue a fine for parking in a bay that was marked as operated by Instavolt.

My advice for anyone in a similar situation is to appeal to POPLA and ask the parking operator to provide evidence from the charging operator that they have the authority to issue a Parking Charge Notice (PCN).

Cheers Gareth

 

[srichards]

That's interesting then if the charging bays are actually under the jurisdiction of someone else! What a total pain though to have to do that.

 

[mad_rich]

If you haven't already, it might be worth sticking a note on the affected listing on Zap Map to warn/ prepare others.

 

[b789pilot]

[Pedant mode ON ]
It's not a "fine" but an "invoice" from the company authorised to operate the car parking on behalf of the owner. So many of these "fines" are paid because the recipient thinks they are indeed "fines" and don't want to pay the surcharge if they're late paying it. It's a money making machine that plays on peoples ignorance or fear.

Anyone who is ever issued a PCN by one of the multitude of ex-clampers should read this before they do anything else: Fight unfair private parking tickets

They should then join this forum and follow the advice given there: Parking Tickets, Fines & Parking
[/Pedant mode OFF]

 

[WalkingBootWeather]

That's interesting then if the charging bays are actually under the jurisdiction of someone else! What a total pain though to have to do that.

Don't say that, it will encourage ICE cars to use these bays if they think they can't get fined for using them. (As far as I know Instavolt don't fine non-EVs from occupying their spaces, or issue overstay penalties)

 

[Drewby80]

Instavolt lease the spaces that are adjacent to the charge point, therefore the land owner doesn’t actually have jurisdiction to police the parking in those spots.

Once the charge point operator has signed the lease they are instavolts spaces I think any parking operation would struggle to make a PCN stick under these circumstances.

I have never been in your situation but I suspect you could just write to the company that issued the PCN and request that they cancel the ticket because the terms of instavolts lease state that provision and access must be granted to the spaces for the purpose of charging.

 

[srichards]

Is the leased space thing true of all the charging network operators or just Instavolt?

 

[Drewby80]

Is the leased space thing true of all the charging network operators or just Instavolt?

I can’t comment for others but I looked into how the instavolt arrangement worked before I have a friend who owns a petrol station that wanted a rapid charge point and he asked for my advice.

The instavolt system works like this:

They install the charge point FOC and pay to lease the spaces adjacent to it.

The terms of the lease state that they own maintain and operate the charge point and the land owner has to ensure free and unencumbered access to it.

I suspect that the likes of polar have similar arrangements in pub car parks and that when access was restricted to the points during COVID that the land owner was in fact in breach of contract by doing so.

I’m sure it would be fairly easy to find out what the t’c & c’s are for each operator though should you ever need to.

Instavolts contract details are on their website.

 

[charleschas]

have similar arrangements in pub car parks and that when access was restricted to the points during COVID that the land owner was in fact in breach of contract by doing so.

Possibly, but the bollards used by a local Toby during this period are used overnight when the inn is closed primarily to prevent traveller access.
Given the way travellers tend to 'spread' I wouldn't expect the charge points to be accessible in those circumstances either - so arguably the bollards maintain access!

 

[richtrash]

I can’t comment for others but I looked into how the instavolt arrangement worked before I have a friend who owns a petrol station that wanted a rapid charge point and he asked for my advice.

The instavolt system works like this:

They install the charge point FOC and pay to lease the spaces adjacent to it.

The terms of the lease state that they own maintain and operate the charge point and the land owner has to ensure free and unencumbered access to it.

I suspect that the likes of polar have similar arrangements in pub car parks and that when access was restricted to the points during COVID that the land owner was in fact in breach of contract by doing so.

I’m sure it would be fairly easy to find out what the t’c & c’s are for each operator though should you ever need to.

Instavolts contract details are on their website.

Couldn't use the Instavolt chargers at Banatynes Spa in Banbury while due to Covid lockdown, think that was done to stop travellers setting up home in the car park.

 

[YoWombat]

The terms of the lease state that they own maintain and operate the charge point and the land owner has to ensure free and unencumbered access to it.

I guess such terms would mean, for example, that McDonald's shouldn't then be using the spaces as extra collection points. At least not in a way that encourages ICEing.