Parking in two spaces

[iandsm]

I post this in case it may help some members. I received a parking charge notice for my car and appealed but this was rejected so I paid up. It struck me that as I use the same car park and sometimes others where there is no actual charge but there are regulations on how one parks, supermarkets, shopping centres etc I should seek clarification on how those who drive longer vehicles that will not fit in one space may or may not be penalised. I attach a copy letter which confirms that I would be ok to park the camper in two bays lengthwise. At least as far as this compan, UK Parking Control Ltd are concerned. I suspect that others would probably treat longer vehicle the same but should they not this letter may help in the case of an appeal.

Good afternoon,

Thank you for your email.

We received your appeal on 20th November 2025. A letter was sent on 27th November 2025 stating that the parking charge had been issued correctly. Please see the attached PDF copy of this letter.

If you were not satisfied with our decision you had the opportunity to appeal to POPLA, information on how to do this is provided with our appeal response.

UK Parking Control signage complies fully with section 18 of the British Parking Association Code of Practice and we reject the suggestion that it is vague or misleading. Entrance signage advises motorists that terms of parking apply, and that notices within the car park should be checked to identify the full terms and conditions. These notices are numerous and placed appropriately throughout the car park. It is ultimately the responsibility of the motorist to ensure they identify the terms of parking, and then decide whether to park their vehicle, or leave the site if they are unable to meet those terms.

We appreciate the need to accommodate the length of the vehicle and are sympathetic to long wheel-based vehicles. These vehicles can be parked vertically over two parking bays.

As payment has been made, the matter is settled.

Thank you.

Kind regards,

Complaints Department

 

[colinm]

As you say, this applies to one company, and the letter would help anyone in dispute with this company, but other companies are not bound by this.
I'm always wary on this if using park and ride car parks, as they have similar rules.

 

[trevskoda]

I just never pay as it would cost them much more to go through courts, and then the judge may allow you to pay say £10 a week which you stop doing after forst payment, then they have to go through it all over again costing them dosh, i dont even answer there letters, bin em.

 

[Boris7]

I just never pay as it would cost them much more to go through courts, and then the judge may allow you to pay say £10 a week which you stop doing after forst payment, then they have to go through it all over again costing them dosh, i dont even answer there letters, bin em.

I’ve had a couple of these and never paid.

 

[Wooie1958]

Just before christmas i was in the car on the local retail park waiting for wifey going up and down the same Dunelm isles time after time after time then coming out with nowt and i saw a young girl in a brand new 75 plate electric mini turn up and she managed to park diagonally over 4 spaces but you have to take into account that the whole time she was attempting to park she was on her phone.

As she got out if her car ( still on her phone ) i said to her ..................................... " be careful how you park, the parking attendants are pretty keen on here ".

Her answer was " W.T.F. HAS IT GOT TO DO WITH YOU " and walked off.

5 minutes later the parking attendant turned up, looked at her car then turned to me and said .................. " are they taking the piss ? "

He took several photos from every angle then issued a ticket.

Wonder what she did with the ticket when she got back.

 

[TJBi]

As you say, this applies to one company, and the letter would help anyone in dispute with this company, but other companies are not bound by this.
I'm always wary on this if using park and ride car parks, as they have similar rules.

Always worth reading the rules carefully. Do they say that vehicles must be parked within marked spaces or within a single marked space?

 

[trevskoda]

When the carpark attendant comes over to you here this stops any hastle dead.

 

[YeoBlade]

Just before christmas i was in the car on the local retail park waiting for wifey going up and down the same Dunelm isles time after time after time then coming out with nowt and i saw a young girl in a brand new 75 plate electric mini turn up and she managed to park diagonally over 4 spaces but you have to take into account that the whole time she was attempting to park she was on her phone.

As she got out if her car ( still on her phone ) i said to her ..................................... " be careful how you park, the parking attendants are pretty keen on here ".

Her answer was " W.T.F. HAS IT GOT TO DO WITH YOU " and walked off.

5 minutes later the parking attendant turned up, looked at her car then turned to me and said .................. " are they taking the piss ? "

He took several photos from every angle then issued a ticket.

Wonder what she did with the ticket when she got back.

Should have been 4 tickets

 

[Thistle]

@iandsm
A shame you paid, you didn’t need to, these pcns are just speculative invoices from unregulated parking companies most of which were formerly operating as thugs with wheel clamps

If this ever happens again first seek the excellent free advice from the ftla.uk site they will tell you exactly how to deal with these scammers

 

[gasgas]

I just never pay as it would cost them much more to go through courts, and then the judge may allow you to pay say £10 a week which you stop doing after forst payment, then they have to go through it all over again costing them dosh, i dont even answer there letters, bin em.

I don't think they would go to court but what they might well do is to pass the 'debt' on to a debt collection company. The debt collection company gets on to you but adds their 'fee'. You tell them to go boil their socks, you don't have a contract with them. They then pass the inflated fee on to another debt collection company and so on ad infinitum until debt collection company number ten gives up.

Recently I went to Derby and had a choice of parking on the street and pay at a meter, or go into a bulldozed building site and pay less. Which is what I did. The Robbrs-R-Us private car park had a APNR camera at the entrance to the site. The site was quite large so I drove round for a minute or two looking for a space. I found a space, parked and then looked round for a payment meter. I found the payment meter which was in the opposite corner of the fairly large parking area. I paid and got a ticket for 3 hours and went back to the camper and displayed it. I went and looked at the lights and the market, and heard a concert in a church. Knowing time was running out, I hastened back to the car park, crossed the car park which you recall was fairly large, got in the camper and drove out.
I got a ticket. 'You entered the car park at 15:03:27 and left at 18:04:32. £60 now, or £100 if you don't pay within 7 days.'
My parking ticket was from 15:06:49 to 18:06:49.
So in fact I had paid until after the time the APNR said I left.
See the discrepancy? The time it had taken me to a) park the camper after passing the camera and b) the time it took to go from parking it to the payment machine and c) the time from driving from the parking place back out past the APNR camera meant that in fact I was not PARKED for more than the time I had paid for.
So there are several points of interest here:
1) I was not PARKED for more than the time I had paid for. Luckily, knowing I was fairly close to the three hours I had paid for, I kept the ticket. I wrote to the robbers pointing out that their charges are for PARKING, not walking around looking for a payment meter, walking back to display the ticket and so on.
2) Parking is finding a place and bringing the vehicle to a halt. Driving round looking for a space, and then driving from the space back to the APNR camera is NOT parking.
3) I pointed out that they would have great difficulty persuading a court that a £100 parking charge is reasonable for overstaying by one minute and five seconds
4) In any case the ticket I had purchased allowed me to stay for several minutes after the APNR camera said I had left. I enclosed a photocopy of the ticket in my letter to the robbers.
5) If their charges are from when you entered the premisis until you left the premises then their site should have a big notice saying so. It only referred to 'parking' and not 'entering until you leave'. Here is one dictionary definition of parking: 'The action of bringing a vehicle that one is driving to a halt and leaving it temporarily, typically in a car park or by the side of the road.' So I was not exceeding the parking time that I had paid for.

Anyway that was about the 11th December. During the period of leniency when I could have paid £60 instead of £100 I was not at home so I never had that choice. Only the £100 notice when I returned and so I immediately wrote to them pointing out the difficulties they would have in collecting the money.
I am waiting to see if I get a response. I am off on a 3 month holiday on 6 January so it will be interesting to see if they respond before then. If they persist with the £100 claim, I won't be here to receive it, and they in turn won't be receiving the £100.

The ultimate conclusion, whatever the outcome, is this: Even if parking on the street costs more than one of these 'Parking Eye' robbers, I will use the street parking. Street parking doesn't usually have APNRs, and their fines are usually less than Robbrs R Us outfits.

 

[Thistle]

@gasgas
Assuming your appeal is rejected which I suspect it certainly will, I strongly recommend you go to and make use of the help given at the ftla.uk web site i mentioned previously

Once your two appeals fail the scammers will pass you onto to a bottom feeding debt recovery outfit
You can and should ignore all correspondence from them because they have absolutely no powers until you receive a letter before action which afaik you must respond to i.e by confirming you are willing to go to court.

This is all fully explained in the thousands of similar threads on the ftla site.

Do not stick your head in the sand over this, it may not go away until the point they have to pay the court fee and if you ignore everything you could end up with a ccj, use their freely given advice

 

[Rumour]

Parking Eye Vs Beavis. This was the case that changed everything. You may well have got away with it in the past and perhaps sometimes now, but that is no longer a given. The courts accepted that when you park, a contract is made. Breaking that contract is not wise. If they take you to court, it will be the small claims court. If you lose and as case law is now established it is likely you will, it costs them nothing. You pay the costs! So it is no longer wise the ignore the letters and certainly not wise to ignore any charge issued. If you then ignore the small claims court ruling, you can be slapped with a CCJ.

 

[trevskoda]

Most of above laws do not apply in n ireland which is handy, move here and you will be left alone.

 

[Geek]

Just before christmas i was in the car on the local retail park waiting for wifey going up and down the same Dunelm isles time after time after time then coming out with nowt and i saw a young girl in a brand new 75 plate electric mini turn up and she managed to park diagonally over 4 spaces but you have to take into account that the whole time she was attempting to park she was on her phone.

As she got out if her car ( still on her phone ) i said to her ..................................... " be careful how you park, the parking attendants are pretty keen on here ".

Her answer was " W.T.F. HAS IT GOT TO DO WITH YOU " and walked off.

5 minutes later the parking attendant turned up, looked at her car then turned to me and said .................. " are they taking the piss ? "

He took several photos from every angle then issued a ticket.

Wonder what she did with the ticket when she got back.

He issued a ticket? Shouldn't he issue four tickets?

 

[Sheepscared]

I post this in case it may help some members. I received a parking charge notice for my car and appealed but this was rejected so I paid up. It struck me that as I use the same car park and sometimes others where there is no actual charge but there are regulations on how one parks, supermarkets, shopping centres etc I should seek clarification on how those who drive longer vehicles that will not fit in one space may or may not be penalised. I attach a copy letter which confirms that I would be ok to park the camper in two bays lengthwise. At least as far as this compan, UK Parking Control Ltd are concerned. I suspect that others would probably treat longer vehicle the same but should they not this letter may help in the case of an appeal.

Good afternoon,

Thank you for your email.

We received your appeal on 20th November 2025. A letter was sent on 27th November 2025 stating that the parking charge had been issued correctly. Please see the attached PDF copy of this letter.

If you were not satisfied with our decision you had the opportunity to appeal to POPLA, information on how to do this is provided with our appeal response.

UK Parking Control signage complies fully with section 18 of the British Parking Association Code of Practice and we reject the suggestion that it is vague or misleading. Entrance signage advises motorists that terms of parking apply, and that notices within the car park should be checked to identify the full terms and conditions. These notices are numerous and placed appropriately throughout the car park. It is ultimately the responsibility of the motorist to ensure they identify the terms of parking, and then decide whether to park their vehicle, or leave the site if they are unable to meet those terms.

We appreciate the need to accommodate the length of the vehicle and are sympathetic to long wheel-based vehicles. These vehicles can be parked vertically over two parking bays.

As payment has been made, the matter is settled.

Thank you.

Kind regards,

Complaints Department

Parked vertically? Do a wheelie?