Popla Reviews 

I appealed a parking charge to POPLA in good faith, providing photographs and a clear explanation of why I believed the bay markings were unclear and that I had not caused obstruction.

Despite submitting evidence, my appeal was unsuccessful. I felt that the operator’s version of events was largely accepted, while my explanation and supporting photos were given little weight. The decision focused heavily on the operator’s signage and photographs without fully addressing the context I provided.

As an individual challenging a parking company, the process felt imbalanced. The wording of the decision gave the impression that the operator’s submission carried more authority than a customer’s reasonable concerns.

The experience has left me disappointed in what is meant to be an independent appeals service. I came away feeling unheard and financially strained after trying to resolve the matter responsibly.

1 star is far too high a rating. Like others are stating these people are paid by the parking companies and therefore work for them.

All I wanted was an advocate organisation to help me get through to the parking supplier they did not do this.

I was on a site where the only way to pay was by the app. I was 5 minutes over the time, but thought I should pay anyway, because I am an honest human.

I could not down load the app, the parking provider had no way of paying by phone or cash. I was stuck there for 35 minutes trying to pay for my parking, which was £15.

I went home and emailed the parking company immediately explaining my issue and asking if I could pay the £15 another way. They told me to contact POPLA who did not take my plight into consideration, sent me a link that did not work so I could pay the parking fine, a fine I would not have had if the company had more than one way to pay. I complained they told me to go away. Their defence was others had managed to pay that day, and therefore calling me a liar stating I should have paid. These people are not fit for purpose. I am contacting my local MP today as the parking company are now sending me demands for £170 and are refusing to speak to me. If nothing else I wan to see POPLA overalled and run by a Government advocacy department

After reading the reply from POPLA on my review I feel that I must reply.

I could not pay for the parking as the App would not work. I had no other way to pay. POPLA said other people paid by the App on that so I was lying. They didn’t use the word liar but implied it. The face that I tried numerous times to contact the parking company was not taken into account.
They may be a different company but are in no way impartial they are paid for by the parking companies. POPLA is not fit for purpose. What if someone did not have a smartphone with them? That is discrimination. Something needs to be done about these people.

Blue badge holder still had fine and popla turned it down wadte of time cheaper to pay fine

Useless organisation and assessor

Yes I was unsuccessful, but the fact you didn't even cover any of the KEY points I raised shows the bias nature of your organisation. Not one! Shame on you.
And I can't reply to ask them about it either.

All the points raised were their terms and conditions.
Wouldn't be surprised the assessor Mr Macrae and his chumps are all in bed with the parking agencies.

Just do you job. Pathetic

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Reply
There is no recourse - he didn't cover points I raised just confirmed the T&C's from the company.
This equals dereliction of his duties plain and simple.

Booked online vue cinema for my kids in Ozone Leisure Park / Oxford (there was/ is no warning about car parking on their website) the cinema is in a shopping centre so parking my car in the shopping centre car park around 7pm and mid December it is dark and there is not enough light and half of the car park is flooded. (Go check or look at car park cameras)
No staff advised that l should put my palate number on the machine to get 4 hours free parking When l asked! not clear to see no signs… (please go check don’t make decisions from your office)
I have tickets and the invoices of what we bought there that day and time all is clearly says that we were a customer… but they made me paid £100 penalty for parking my car in the car park. Because we miss the put the plate number. I am sure l am not the first one and not going to be the last ! If we all get together and make official complain. I am sure there will be a lawyer who will hear us…

It's fraud. I provided full evidence but popla waste of time. May be they also part of the business. If you understand.

A very terrible service and I wonder how they are still operational.
Very biased review by the reviewer.

Like all the comments on here POPLA are the most useless and corrupt organisation there is and the is a lot of competition for that!

I am a NHS worker and I was asked to cover at Bideford Community Hospital. And in the past I have been told I can park anywhere on site as long as I write my car registration in the logbook at either of the two reception areas. Which i did.

I parked up and did my shift, and returned to my car and discovered I was issued a PCN. I contested it with Total Parking Solutions and was told I was parked in a pay and display space.

I appealed with POPLA who are clearly NOT independent of any parking company and have absolutely no integrity. I will be asking them how many people actually get the support of this organisation as from the reviews its none. Shame on them and the people who actually chose to work for this shambolic organisation.

⭐☆☆☆☆

Very unfair experience with MET Parking. I parked at a Pizza Hut car park intending to eat there, only to discover the restaurant had permanently closed. I remained for around 11 minutes while deciding where to go next, yet I later received a £100 charge.

The first letter I received was already demanding the full amount, as the “discount period” had supposedly expired. No reasonable grace period was applied and no understanding shown that the business was closed.

Extremely disappointing , stressful experience.

Fraudulent company performing illegally. Do not pay a single penny to these fraudsters. They will deliberately fraud everybody out of money if they could. Have a back bone and tell them to fork right off. Ps don't bother with your automated fraudster response. the reviews forking speak VOLUMES

I’m extremely disappointed with POPLA and the way my appeal was handled.

I received a parking charge even though I had paid for parking in good faith using the RingGo app while physically at the car park. The app showed my exact GPS location and listed the site as a valid payment location under Euro Car Parks. The tariff matched the signs in the car park, and I paid immediately.

Weeks later I received a PCN from a completely different operator, Britannia Parking, claiming I had not paid. I provided evidence from RingGo confirming the location was listed correctly, along with proof of payment and screenshots showing that both RingGo and Euro Car Parks still identify the exact same physical location as theirs.

POPLA dismissed the appeal on the basis that I had “paid for the wrong car park,” even though:• The location I paid for matched my exact GPS position• The tariff matched the signage• The supposed “correct” car park they claim I paid for is no longer even a car park and has been a hotel for years

This situation clearly involves conflicting and misleading information between parking operators and official payment platforms, yet POPLA simply sided with the operator based on signage alone, ignoring the practical reality of how modern parking apps work.

I did not try to avoid payment. I paid immediately, in good faith, using an official system that directed me to that exact location. Instead of recognising this, POPLA chose a rigid, technical interpretation that punishes motorists for errors and conflicts entirely outside their control.

The process feels heavily weighted in favour of parking companies, with little consideration for fairness or reasonable consumer behaviour. It’s extremely frustrating to go through the entire appeals process, provide clear evidence, and still be told you must pay despite having already paid for parking.

A deeply disappointing and stressful experience. They can catch me in court because I ain’t paying it

I went to fill up at the Costco petrol station , after filling up my car would not start. I called for the recovery service who took over 3 hours to attend . Days later I recieved a penalty notice for overstaying at the car park. I appealed through Popla sent them all evidence of recovery report, they rejected my appeal. My car broke down I was unable to drive out of petrol station what was I to do . Seems very unfair I have to pay a fine for something out of my control.

Had I visited this site before I submitted my appeal to POPLA, I would probably have thought I had wasted my time. But I didn't. I received a PCN for an alleged infringement on a hospital car park. My appeal to the PCN issuer was unsuccessful, but I felt they had failed to address the points in my appeal and so the next stage was to take the appeal to POPLA. Whilst I found the process appeared to be somewhat stacked towards the PCN issuer, in that they suggest they cannot consider evidence outside that which had previously been submitted, it felt that the PCN issuer was able to do just that when they submitted their evidence in support of their PCN to POPLA. The evidence the PCN issuer submitted to combat my PCN appeal WAS flawed.
In your submission to POPLA, you should avoid being emotive. You have to stick to cold facts, be clear and concise. Above all ensure you supply enough evidence with the initial submission. If I could offer one suggestion to POPLA ... Allow all the information that has been considered in the appeal to be visible throughout the process. It was only because I had copied everything down, I was able to refer back to it when the PCN issuer contested my appeal. It was not available otherwise.
Yes my appeal was successful.

I consider contacting this organisation a waste of time, as there seems to be no genuine attention to the issues raised. It appears that their main interest is collecting money rather than resolving cases properly. There are also concerns about possible collaboration with parking operators who engage in abusive practices

I've appealed to POPLA over a dozen times with decisions that have both Successful and Unsuccessful, so my review is not based on one decision, and I am not merely a disgruntled customer.

In almost every outcome I have had, both successful and unsuccessful, the reasonings have been complete nonsense.

Some assessors make up their own rules and completely ignore the Private Parking Single Sector Code of Practice and the law including the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, and general Contract and Consumer Law. They ignore established decisions in case law.

They are unfit for purpose, and unable to do the job required. They cannot even uphold their own rules!

A few of many examples:
- POFA 2012 Requires a stated Period of Parking on the Notice to Keeper.
- POPLA assessor decides the manually taken pictures on the online portal with timestamps showing an elapsed time of 1 minute and 3 seconds, is acceptable.

- PPSSCoP Requires a minimum 5 minute consideration period to be exceeded before issuing a PCN.
- POPLA assesor decides the vehicle is not parked in accordance with the terms and conditions so no consideration period applies. HOW CAN YOU READ THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS WITHOUT STOPPING AND GETTING OUT TO READ THEM? THAT IS THE ENTIRE POINT OF THE CONSIDERATION PERIOD!

- POFA 2012 Requires the Creditor to be identified. The legal entity the debt is owed too.
- POPLA - IDENTIFIES THE CREDITOR INCORRECTLY proving my point about it being ambiguous. They identify the creditor as the tradename of the true creditor. The tradename is also an unrelated registered company. Therefore, POPLA has identified a legal entity that is not the true Creditor, as the Creditor.

- Contract Law: Under basic contract law principles, acceptance of payment forms part of the contractual agreement. In a recent case the overnight HGV parking tariff of £33 was accepted while the vehicle was already on site, yet no valid parking space was available. The operator therefore accepted payment for a service it did not provide.
- POPLA: Instead of considering whether the operator had breached the contract by failing to supply the paid-for service, POPLA’s decision focuses exclusively on the alleged breach by the driver. This ignores the fundamental legal position that both parties have contractual obligations.
A contract cannot reasonably be enforced against one party where the other party has failed to perform its own primary obligation.

I now may have to pay an additional £100 to the £33 already paid for a parking space the parking operator never provided, and somehow POPLA genuinely believes that is acceptable. Very concerning!

- Objective Evidence: In the same recent case the operator provided photographic evidence which shows the vehicle stopped at the side of a widened section of the car park next to the HGV parking area, one picture shows a vehicle driving past without obstruction.
- POPLA: "The photos clearly show the vehicle causing an obstruction."

THEY OBJECTIVELY DID NOT!

Some assessors are okay and do apply the Code of Practice well, but most are so blatantly biased towards the Parking Operator it's laughable. They go to the extent of ignoring rules, or actually making rules up.

POPLA supports all of their assessors decisions, as long as they can give a reason. The reason doesn't have to be logical or comply with the law or their own code of practice, or make any sense whatsoever, but as long as a reason is given POPLA is cool with it. I'd assume they would atleast draw a line at prejudice or discriminatory reasons. But nothing would surprise me with them.

They call themselves independent. But objectively, they are not. It's pathetic and they need to be shut down, the sooner the better!

Edit: In response to POPLA's response - POPLA cannot call themselves consistent. The only thing POPLA is consistent with is being inconsistent. For example, I have previously had 6 cases with identical facts, 3 were accepted and 3 were rejected. The assessors gave conflicting decisions and reasons. It is literally a Kangaroo court. You could train apes to do a better AND MORE CONSISTENT job than the POPLA assessors.

Despite having photo showing I had paid because parking company said they had no record I lost appeal this has taken me to brink of despair I paid for my stay had evidence and now had to pay £100 for something I had already paid for I wish I had read reviews about this company before appealing.if you have a photo showing you have paid and this is not enough I don't know what is they obviously just side with parking company as I was in the right and had paid I thought I couldn't lose how wrong was I thinking that innocent people win .I paid a £1 for my parking ticket but then ended up with a £100 fine how can that be right

as you can see from all other comments, this is not a mediation service but rather a complice to the ripping off firm of APCOA, that together, steal money from people
they are not independent whatsoever,
I am surprised no one does anything about it, its illegal and immoral

An alarming number of motorists ( 94% ) report that appeals to POPLA are routinely rejected, even where evidence appears credible and reasonable. Many people enter the appeals process with a genuine expectation of fairness, only to receive decisions that overwhelmingly favour private parking companies.

POPLA was established to provide independent scrutiny. When outcomes are so consistently one sided, public confidence is inevitably undermined. An appeals body that appears structurally aligned with the very industry it is meant to oversee cannot credibly claim independence.

This is not a trivial consumer inconvenience. These decisions result in financial penalties, distress, and a sense of injustice, particularly for vulnerable individuals and those unfamiliar with complex parking regulations.

The British Government and the Department for Transport must take this issue seriously. There should be a transparent investigation into POPLA’s decision making process, its governance, its funding model, and whether appellants are genuinely being given a fair hearing.

Accountability and transparency are not optional in a system that claims to deliver justice. Without reform and oversight, POPLA risks being perceived not as an independent adjudicator, but as a procedural rubber stamp for private parking operators.

This situation demands scrutiny,

POPLA IS COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME! APOCOA IS A FRADUALENT PARKING COMPANY AND POPLA ALLOWS THEM GET AWAY WITH IT! I PAID MY PARKING BUT APCOA SYSTEM CHANGED THE REGISTRATION OF THE CAR, I ALREADY PAID BEFORE I REALISED, THIS HAPPENED TWICE ON DIFFERENT OCCASSIONS SO I COMPLAINED AND POPLA STILL SAID IT WAS UNSUCESSFUL! APCOA RIDE ON WITH YOUR FULL CHEST OF FRAUD, YOUR BEEN SUPPORTED FULLY BY POPLA

If I could give 0 stars I would. Been fined for entering a car park and leaving 11 minutes later WITHOUT parking due to having no suitable bays available to park in with my 8 month old baby. The car was never parked!! Been given a detailed outcome by assessor Michael And honestly it is an absolute joke. Michael finds 11 minutes unacceptable even though the car park was very busy, nose to tail in traffic and is a LARGE outdoor ONE WAY single road carpark. He stated only 5 minutes was allowed , even though he had the information about the layout, busyness and my baby being in the car. You could be waiting a good 3 or 4 of those minutes waiting on the car in front of you parking due to how terrible and narrow the car park road is. Never mind there being a good 10 cars in front of us when we first entered. Absolutely no evidence at all of the car parking because it never was and still managed to be fined £100. I provided pictures of the signage showing that none of the rules were broken. Absolutely shocking, I would advise against using this company, it will only make your situation worse and there is no way to appeal POPLAS decision. **EDIT. Poplas answer to this is unsatisfactory as I uploaded evidence showing that the rules were never broken as the rules do not state that you will be charged for entering the car park only for parking, which was never done. CCTV all over the place will clearly show this, but because the car park hasn’t sent this for obvious reasons, POPLA have decided that’s satisfactory but adequate time frames and evidence aren’t.