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#Post#: 105798--------------------------------------------------
Re: APCOA Parking - no permit - Bracknell Station car park - rai
lway byelaws
By: InterCity125 Date: January 14, 2026, 1:46 am
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I would start the appeal by questioning whether POPLA are
suitable to deal with a Penalty Charge Notice - POPLA normally
deal with Parking Charge Notices issued on private land which is
entirely different.
#Post#: 105800--------------------------------------------------
Re: APCOA Parking - no permit - Bracknell Station car park - rai
lway byelaws
By: Jackisback123 Date: January 14, 2026, 2:10 am
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[quote author=InterCity125 link=topic=9486.msg105798#msg105798
date=1768376779]
I would start the appeal by questioning whether POPLA are
suitable to deal with a Penalty Charge Notice - POPLA normally
deal with Parking Charge Notices issued on private land which is
entirely different.
[/quote]
The DfT thinks
HTML https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/railway_byelaws_parking_penaltie/response/1327763/attach/html/3/attachment.pdf.htmlthat<br
/>an independent appeal ought to be offered for byelaw breaches.
And POPLA agree
HTML https://www.popla.co.uk/faqs#535CHPaixoD1uJbAFGkV4d:
[quote]POPLA does have remit to consider penalty charge notices
issued for alleged breaches of parking conditions under bylaws.
You must appeal to the parking operator first and they will
refer you to POPLA and provide a verification code to you if
you're eligible to apply. Please check the response to your
appeal sent by the operator for more details.[/quote]
So IMO that's a non-starter.
This
HTML https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6565438/apcoa-saba-and-poplas-right-to-adjudicate-penalty-notices-issued-under-railway-bylaws?utm_source=community-search&utm_medium=organic-search&utm_term=%2214%284%29%28i%29%22thread<br
/>on MSE (not sure whether or not I'm allowed to link, so
apologies if not) includes a letter setting out what POPLA's
stance on PNs is - or at least was back in '18.
#Post#: 105806--------------------------------------------------
Re: APCOA Parking - no permit - Bracknell Station car park - rai
lway byelaws
By: InterCity125 Date: January 14, 2026, 3:04 am
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This is definitely more tricky than normal PCNs.
That is an interesting thread which you previously posted from
MSE - yes, the link works fine.
One thing I noticed from the original Penalty Notice is that it
was very generalised in its allegation - namely that 'there was
a breach of Byelaw 14' - There is no Byelaw 14 - section 14 of
railway byelaws is made up of many byelaws and they fail to
state the specific byelaw they are using to pursue the keeper -
this makes it difficult for the keeper to plead their case.
#Post#: 105812--------------------------------------------------
Re: APCOA Parking - no permit - Bracknell Station car park - rai
lway byelaws
By: DWMB2 Date: January 14, 2026, 4:30 am
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Given this is probably one of the last batch of 'Penalty'
notices we're likely to see, now that railway land (with the
limited exception of TfL sites
HTML https://www.ftla.uk/the-flame-pit/amended-railway-byelaws-from-26122025/msg102290/#msg102290)<br
/>is relevant land for PoFA, and now that train operating
companies have been advised to instruct their parking operators
to issue parking charge notices rather than penalties, I'm not
sure that the OP will benefit from much protracted discussion as
to the likelihood of success of various arguments.
I think the 2 key options I mentioned previously still apply;
ignore APCOA and any debt-collecting lapdogs and move on, or
appeal to POPLA with the intent of dragging the matter past the
6 month point.
#Post#: 106216--------------------------------------------------
Re: APCOA Parking - no permit - Bracknell Station car park - rai
lway byelaws
By: brg190 Date: January 16, 2026, 12:19 pm
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Thank you to all for your input, much appreciated. Much food
for thought!
#Post#: 106241--------------------------------------------------
Re: APCOA Parking - no permit - Bracknell Station car park - rai
lway byelaws
By: movano Date: January 16, 2026, 4:59 pm
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If a penalty charge is controlled by statute aren't Acpoa being
deceitful by giving the keeper an option to appeal via popla.
Popla is a civil rout not criminal and therefore not compliant
in byelaws.
#Post#: 106250--------------------------------------------------
Re: APCOA Parking - no permit - Bracknell Station car park - rai
lway byelaws
By: DWMB2 Date: January 17, 2026, 3:25 am
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In case it has got lost in the noise, I feel it worth
reiterating - we have never seen APCOA take a single case to
court.
#Post#: 106266--------------------------------------------------
Re: APCOA Parking - no permit - Bracknell Station car park - rai
lway byelaws
By: Gary Bloke Date: January 17, 2026, 7:07 am
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"and now that train operating companies have been advised to
instruct their parking operators to issue parking charge notices
rather than penalties"
- please could you point me to where this information comes
from? Thanks.
If APCOA etc are switching from penalties issued under byelaws
(criminal law) to PCNs issued under civil contract law, they
will need to change all their station car park signage to make
clear that a contract is being created and failure to pay for
parking would be a breach of that civil contract etc etc. That
change of signage will be expensive and will take a long time!
[Just to reiterate: Only a Magistrate's court can impose a
legally binding penalty. In such a court the defendant is
innocent until proven guilty. Fines are paid to the Govt, not to
APCOA, not to the TOC. The APCOA "penalty" is actually just an
offered contract, which means "pay us the £100 and we will then
promise not to prosecute you for alleged breach of byelaws".
Nobody has any legal obligation to accept an offered contract.
So nobody has any legal obligation to pay the APCOA fake
"penalty". You are perfectly entitled to go to court, which in
the case of APCOA will never happen because they don't
litigate].
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