LIDL - Parking Eye

[johnny p]

A quick Lidl shop and I'm rewarded with a PCN.
Please can someone advise on my opening salvo? As usual, they want me to identify the driver... obviously I will not oblige them.
Anything else I need to say?
Many thanks! John

[b789]

Plan A. Were you a customer? If so, see the store manager and show a receipt and get them to get it cancelled. They are usually obliging.

If that doesn’t work, you will need to show the Notice to Keeper (NtK). Ideally, fill in this form please:

https://gullibletree.com/tools/pcnform_main.html

[johnny p]

This case concerns a Parking Charge Notice (private parking firm) issued by ParkingEye Ltd, relating to an alleged contravention on Friday, 14 August 2026. The notice itself is dated an unspecified date, and I first became aware of it via received initial notice.

The notice appears to have been issued as By post (ANPR/camera). Driver identified status: NO. Equality Act considerations: No. The location is stated as LIDL Edgware Car Park.

A preliminary Protection of Freedoms Act (PoFA) assessment indicates PENDING: Enter the notice issue date to calculate deemed delivery and timing. Route applied: Not specified. The notice is treated as given on Not available.

Current stage:
- Notice responded to: No
- Debt recovery letters: No
- Letter of Claim: No
- County Court claim: No

Please can I have advice on the strongest next steps and defence points for this case.

---

NtK attached

[b789]

Plan A remains the best option. As you were a genuine Lidl customer, take the PCN together with the receipt, Lidl Plus record or other evidence of the purchase to the store manager and ask them to get ParkingEye to cancel it. Lidl are generally quite amenable to cancelling charges issued to genuine customers, particularly where this appears to concern whatever registration/authorisation system they operate at the store.

If Lidl will not get it cancelled, then there are still some potentially useful PoFA points.

The one that immediately stands out to me is paragraph 9(2)(c). PoFA requires the NtK to describe the circumstances in which the parking charge became payable and the other facts that made it payable. Yet ParkingEye have not actually told you what they allege happened.

Their NtK simply states that the charge became payable:

“By not gaining the appropriate permit/authorisation or by remaining at the car park for longer than permitted…”

Those are two completely different alleged contraventions. Was the allegation that the driver failed to enter the VRM into the Lidl terminal, failed to obtain some other authorisation, or overstayed a permitted parking period? ParkingEye do not say.

That is particularly conspicuous because their own ANPR evidence shows the vehicle was only within the site for 42 minutes. They cannot simply give a menu of alternative contractual breaches and leave the recipient to guess which one is actually alleged. Paragraph 9(2)(c) requires them to describe the circumstances which caused this particular parking charge to become payable.

There is also the usual paragraph 9(2)(a) point. PoFA requires the NtK to specify the “period of parking”. ParkingEye have instead provided two ANPR timestamps showing the vehicle passing cameras at 10:10:43 and 10:53:14 and called the resulting interval “Time in Car Park: 0 hours 42 minutes”. Those observations establish when the vehicle passed the cameras; they do not establish the period during which it was actually parked. I would include that point, although POPLA has historically been rather accommodating towards operators on the ANPR/period-of-parking issue, so I would not make it the sole ground.

Importantly, do not identify the driver. If ParkingEye want to pursue you as registered keeper, then they have chosen to rely upon Schedule 4 PoFA and it is for them to demonstrate that they have complied with all of its mandatory conditions.

If Plan A fails, I would therefore send ParkingEye a fairly short keeper appeal concentrating principally on the paragraph 9(2)(c) defect, with paragraph 9(2)(a) as an additional point. There is no need to give them the full POPLA case at this stage. If they reject it, we can then develop those points properly for POPLA and add signage, landowner authority and whatever evidence ParkingEye subsequently produces.

Here is an appeal draft you can use:

I appeal as the registered keeper. The driver has not been identified and no admission is made as to the identity of the driver.

ParkingEye seeks to rely upon Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 but the Notice to Keeper does not satisfy the mandatory requirements of paragraph 9.

In particular, paragraph 9(2)(c) requires the notice to describe the circumstances in which the requirement to pay the parking charge arose and the facts that made it payable. Your notice does not identify the alleged contravention. It merely states alternative possibilities, namely failure to obtain appropriate permit/authorisation or remaining longer than permitted. Those are different alleged breaches and the notice does not state which is alleged to have occurred.

Further, paragraph 9(2)(a) requires the notice to specify the period of parking. ANPR timestamps showing the vehicle entering at 10:10:43 and leaving at 10:53:14 record only movements past camera positions. They do not specify any period during which the vehicle was actually parked.

The notice also departs from paragraph 9(2)(e), which refers specifically to the driver's "current address for service", whereas your notice substitutes the different expression "current postal address".
ParkingEye has therefore failed to establish the statutory conditions necessary to transfer any driver's liability to the registered keeper.

Please cancel the Parking Charge or provide a POPLA verification code.

[johnny p]

I have submitted your recommended appeal. Let's see where we go next. Thanks for your help thus far!

[johnny p]

Hi @b789

Attached is the reply from Parking Eye. Please can you advise on the next step?

Many thanks!
Johnny P

[b789]

@johnny p, did you try Plan A yet? If so, what did they say?

[johnny p]

@b789 No I didn't. We don't have the receipt so I assumed that it would be a waste of time.

Having said that, I'll go there this weekend and see if I can convince them to help with this.

Thanks – and I'll come back to you.

[b789]

Why don’t you use the Lidl app? Every purchase receipt is electronically stored there.

[johnny p]

Good point - will do