Did you receive your ticket for parking on privately (non-council) owned, off-street land, for example in a retail park, at a leisure centre or in a pub car park?
Were you in a council operated car park?
If your ticket was received in a car park operated by a local authority, or on their behalf by a contractor or service provider, it is likely that the council operates in the same way as on-street and, therefore, the appeal process is similar to on-street. Please visit this page for information on on-street situations.
Where the local authority does not operate its off-street and on-street in the same way, they may regulate the use of its off-street car parks by local Parking Places Orders and any appeal against a ticket issued to you should be addressed to the local council’s parking office only; the National Adjudication Services are NOT available in those cases.
Were you in a car park operated by a private company?
A car park operated by a private company (not on behalf of a local authority) such as those at retail parks, shopping centres, leisure centres, railway stations or other car parks intended for use by the general public is likely to he on private land.
What are the regulations for parking on private land?
The Protection of Freedoms Act makes clamping and towing away on private land without lawful authority illegal as of October 1st 2012. For more information please read our FAQs for parking on private land
Appealing a ticket
If you wish to appeal the ticket you should find out who has issued it and what that company’s appeals process is. The operator's name and contact details should be printed on the ticket and on the car park signs. It may also be worth writing to the company/individuals that own the piece of land who may have contracted out the operation of enforcing the parking.
If you decide to appeal and this is subsequently rejected by the operator you may take your appeal to POPLA, the independent appeals service which launched on October 1st 2012.
POPLA may only consider appeals against a parking charge notice issued on or after the 1 October 2012 by a member of an Accredited Trade Association (ATA). At present the only ATA in place is the Approved Operator Scheme (AOS) administered by the British Parking Association (BPA).
All members of the BPA's AOS have signed up to this service and you can check whether your tickets has been issued by an AOS member by checking the list of members here. For more information on POPLA visit their website
If you wish to seek legal advice then contact a solicitor. An alternative option is to contact the Citizens Advice Bureau or your local Trading Standards Office who can offer advice.
The BPA cannot help directly with a parking ticket and should only be contacted if you wish to lodge a complaint about the working practices of a member of the BPA (please see below for information on how to do this).
What can I do if I have a complaint against an organisation I believe is a member of the BPA?
- Firstly, follow the operator’s own complaints procedure in order to resolve the issue.
- If you feel the issue has not been resolved satisfactorily, check the list of our members to find out whether the company is a BPA member. If they are, please write (by post or email - details below) detailing the nature of your complaint and enclosing copies of any correspondence you have had with the company as well as any photographic evidence.
- Your complaint will be logged in-house and, if there is a breach in the BPA’s Code of Practice, the company will be contacted either by phone or in person. We cannot enter into individual correspondence or act on your behalf but each letter or email we receive is taken seriously and any issue of non-compliance is investigated.
- We operate a scheme of sanctions in response to breaches of the Code. If a member accumulates 12 points or more in a year, they will be expelled from the BPA. Further details of the scheme of sanctions can be found here
- Please ensure you submit the following information to allow us to investigate and deal with your complaint properly:
- Name of the operator
- Date incident occurred
- VRM/reference number
- A brief recounting of the incident
- Copies of any and all correspondence that has taken place between the driver and the operator
How to contact us
Email aos@britishparking.co.uk use our Contact form or write to the following address: -
The Compliance Manager, British Parking Association, Stuart House, 41-43 Perrymount Road, Haywards Heath, West Sussex RH16 3BN