Popla Reviews 

Do not bother appealing to this company. When speaking with them a manger actually called me a liar when trying to explain what happened. Saying he gets fed up hearing weird and wonderful excuses all day.
After nearly three years I had a court date which was thrown out a couple of days before the hearing.
Re - Reply,
Obviously it was not a 'weird and wonderful ' excuse as the courts threw it out.
However it still does not excuse the rudeness of your staff (especially managers).

Despite successfully disputing the only evidence submitted by the car park operator regarding my parking permit notbeing in force, POPLA still sided with Civil Enforcement. The process is definitely not supportive of ordinary people disputing these invoices and does not offer sufficient guidance so it is only when you read the Decision that ypu discover what additional info they are after. My only options now are to pay a fine for parking at work despite being authorised, or go to court. Disgraceful.

I have given POPLA one star for now, although I will happily reconsider that rating if its complaints process results in a proper review.

My appeal was rejected using wording that was not supported by the parking operator’s own evidence. The assessor treated entering the car park as the point at which a contract was formed, while the operator’s documents repeatedly said the terms applied when parking. That distinction was central because the vehicle used the McDonald’s drive through and did not park.

I submitted a formal complaint on 9 July and was told it would be reviewed within 7 to 21 days. I am genuinely disappointed that I have had to use the complaints process at all, as the error should have been obvious from a basic check of the evidence before the decision was issued.

An independent appeals service is only useful if the evidence and its own decisions are properly checked. I hope the complaints team now does that.

***Update following POPLA complaint response***

POPLA have now responded to my complaint, and unfortunately it has only made my concerns worse.

These are the facts as I see them:

The vehicle did not park. It used the McDonald’s drive-through.

Horizon’s own evidence repeatedly framed the contract as applying when parking / by choosing to park / by parking the vehicle.

Their own ANPR evidence only showed the vehicle entering and exiting. It did not show the vehicle parked.

The original POPLA decision treated entry/re-entry to the site as enough, despite my appeal being that this was a parking contract and the vehicle did not park.

I complained that the assessor had used the wrong contractual trigger and had not properly addressed the basis of my appeal.

Rather than properly address that point, POPLA’s complaint response introduced a new argument: that 28 minutes was too long to be on site without being considered parked.

That was not the basis of Horizon’s charge. It was not the basis of Horizon’s rejection. It was not the basis of the original POPLA assessment. It appeared only at complaint stage, after the appeal had already been rejected.

This matters because I had evidence from McDonald’s that the restaurant was very busy that night and that they were short-staffed. If “28 minutes is too long for a drive-through visit” had been part of the case, I could have responded to it properly.

Instead, the goalposts were moved after the event.

Make of that what you will, but from my experience the complaints process did not feel like a proper review. It felt like a way to defend the original decision, even when the actual basis of the appeal had not been properly dealt with.

I am paying the charge only because it is in my daughter’s name and I will not expose her to the stress or risk of court proceedings. Payment does not mean I accept that the charge was fair, properly assessed, or correctly decided.

I can't believe an operation like Popla whoever funds them!! We are told and hope they look at all circumstances but don't see common sense and genuine errors and will only go by the book.. whatever the circumstance, it is pointless sending them the truth.. they are just puppets to the parking companies.. waste of time as they have no empathy for honest mistakes so just pay the fine even if you are innocent. Hopefully the govt will close down this pointless quango and all the beaurocratic staff at Popla and all the appeal assessors will loose their jobs.. maybe they can then go into social care.. but hey they will just starve the innocent bystanders as they have no understanding or empathy!! get rid of Popla waste of time and tax payers money !

he whole ANPR system is a big fraud. This white-collar mafia is taking over the parking system in our country, and everybody is taking their cut: the government, councils, private parking operators, and POPLA. They all get their share.

POPLA is paid by the parking operator for each appeal, something like £30, which ultimately comes out of your PCN, so why wouldn't they favour the parking operator?

They can install cameras anywhere by calling it private land, usually near shopping areas, and innocent motorists drive in good faith without knowing that their vehicles are being recorded (where is privacy and GDPR here). They expect motorists to read small signboards whilst driving, which is impossible and arguably unsafe.

If someone mistakenly ignores the signs, they are slapped with a £100 PCN. To make the whole process appear legitimate, POPLA was established so that drivers don't feel like they are being scammed.

Don't waste your time appealing. Either pay straight away or pay at the end after a court judgment.

When I asked for evidence of land ownership and proof that the operator was acting on behalf of the landowner, they simply used GDPR as an excuse not to provide the evidence, or they produced contracts that appeared to be fake as the ticket was issued in Stevenage and contract said borough council of Basildon. Yet this company could not see that as a problem because they are designed to white wash the claim.

They want you to pay simply by blindly trusting their claims of authority. Meanwhile, the government is watching this system flourish across our parking spaces while drivers continue to be penalised. The DVLA is selling all your records to these mafia companies who can then further sell your records who is watching (Where is GDPR and privacy?). Shame on them too! I have seen this mafia in the UK only other countries are not that infected.

Honestly . Parking Eye and POPLA are a waste of time , nine or more appeals to the scurrilous parking demand in a supermarket carpark for being a few minutes over their proffered time limit , which is not enforceable against two well disabled people .
We'll be happy to go to court on this one .

POPLA are currently dancing to the tune of their greedy, fat-cat paymasters. It’s now time to turn the tables and to change the tune.

Scratch the surface of POPLA and there will doubtless be a lot to see. Someone just needs to go looking to expose POPLA for what it is, a facilitator of this runaway gravy train for (mostly) overseas investors, bleeding UK motorists dry, and which now needs to be stopped. POPLA is so incompetent that you could almost cry with laughter at how biased their assessors are, but this is a serious problem when you consider the unregulated, unchecked power and control that it has over motorists.

I came across ill-educated, shameless, grubby individuals during my appeals process who, in my experience, are paying lip service to independence as they line the pockets of their fat-cat, lying paymasters. I found POPLA to be nothing more than facilitators for this racketeering industry, and who respond to all reviews with meaningless platitudes of ‘regret’, followed by condescending, passive-aggressive, “nothing to see here, it’s all your fault” explanations, and reinforced with deny, deny, deny comments, in an attempt to gaslight their paymasters’ victims. Look at their responses. They use the same standard pattern with slight variations. They must assume that as you were stupid enough to think that they were an independent organisation in the first place, then you must also be stupid enough not to notice that their replies are the same!

I refuse to be a silent victim of POPLA, and don’t bother trying to gaslight and shut me down with your reply of regret, platitudes and denials. It won’t work.

Doubtless rich pickings for investigative / undercover journalists in this rotting heap of manure known as POPLA . Enjoy…!

Didn't overturn or even manage to reduce my fine to £20 after I had mistyped the wrong time into the RingGo app. I paid the same parking amount as I would have done if I had entered the correct time! I thought this company was supposed to help drivers? Feels as though they totally sided with the money-thieving company that is Euro Car Parks. Awful experience. No doubt I'll get some AI-generated reply to this that starts with something along the lines of "I'm sorry you didn't get the outcome you were hoping for..."

Total joke 6-8 weeks to review a ticket should not have had. no proper proof I was even parked total scammers like anyone to do with parking companies. Bet this gets removed like all my bad reviews!!!!!!

Also it's pretty obvious that no one is going to get their fines cancelled by this "company" or how would they make any money.

Absolute joke proved that I was working at court of appeals Wetherspoon pub but still had to pay £100 pound fine manager of pub said that we would not get charged for parking as it was there car park and we were working there so now I have to pay £100 makes no sense cost me to go to work
Maybe the clown who reviewed my appeal gets something out of this

Absolute joke of a process. Got a parking charge, had a digit missing on the paid for parking ticket from my car registration. Appealed the parking charge providing a copy of the ticket and the payment coming out of my bank account on the date, still issuing the
parking charge and the appeal unsuccessful. The assessor, Barry Arledge, is really good at looking at the evidence. Offered £20 settlement. See you in court!!!

Popla rejected appeal for unclear pcn. No worry, your client that funds your biased service is not getting paid regardless. Its good to know that both nexus and yourself cant even respond properly to the core arguement points. They can submit their shoddy evidence to the court.

Its like you just used chat gpt and wrote 'please decline appeal based on this information' lol.

Some of the other negative reviews amuse me. Poplas response declining appeals because payment systems aren't operational is hilarious. 'The PCN was probably valid' lol. Id quit chaps, find something constructive to do with your time. You are wasting your life caught in a revolving organised con.

As should be obvious to all reading your reviews, you are a meer cog in an organised scam. Its just a suggestion but close down your organisation, find a product or service of value and sell it the people of this country. This would be a far better use of your time rather than pretending to arbitrate between patrons of UK Business, and the car park twits whose very existence relies on extorting money from their unsuspecting victims. You should all be locked up for your involvement in this apparently 'legal' yet morally repugnant activity.

Before you post one of your standard responses about how you are completely separate company admistered by Flexible Resolution services, please explain how your services, and ultimately wages are financed because your not a charity and you do indeed receive funding. And dont answer you are a single stage review as this is just an excuse to not deal with responses to your inept investigations. No i dont need your telephone number because you are as you pointed out time and time again you are a single stage and couldnt give a rats about opinions post your extensive review.

I also see one of our unelected lords sits on your parent company board so well, yeah! Enough said! With great power comes no responsibility.

I look forward to an innovative and original response if you can manage one!

P.s who ever you are that responds to these reviews, just take a look at them mate. Please make something of your life. Paying bills and providing for family is important but try and so something constructive. I wish this for you. :) I am actually not angry but disappointed that these things now form the very fabric of society. Meaningless opportunisitic thievery.

There was me thinking POPLA was independent and impartial when we find out they are funded by the people they are supposed to be policing BPA!
So Eurocarparks say you can appeal but if you fail we will charge you even more!!
Sharp practice or what and their CEO can't even be bothered to respond to our email

EV charging without sign post received a £100 parking fine.

I now understand why this company has received such a low rating: its conduct reflects a clear and troubling bias in favour of parking companies.

Very disappointed with the way you treat people signage is very poor and the extortionate amount of fines you expect people to pay when a warning should be given first.If the vehicle was in a dangerous position and could have caused an accident it is understandable.There are not enough parking spaces in your car parks. You treat drivers as cash cows ,for a possible minor offence,I don't think any opinions given to you will make any difference.

Extremely frustrated and angry - I submitted a detailed appeal supported by contemporaneous evidence, including timestamped screenshots showing repeated attempts to pay, an incorrect parking tariff being displayed and payment system errors. While the assessor acknowledged this evidence, the decision relied largely on the operator’s general assertions and did not meaningfully address the specific issues I raised. I was particularly disappointed that the decision included reasoning about the operator not being responsible for the payment platform, despite this not appearing in the operator’s evidence. Overall, I was left with the impression that the individual facts of my case were not fully considered, and that the appeal process did not properly engage with the evidence I submitted.

Addendum following POPLA’s reply:
POPLA have provided what appears to be the same generic copy and paste response that many other reviewers have received. It does not address the specific issues I raised and only reinforces my original concern that individual cases and feedback are not being meaningfully considered.

No help whatsoever,
Denied my appeal without an explanation

I hadn't paid enough and was issued a parking ticket by euro carparks. I didn't understand why I wasn't charged by the payment meter I had to put my registration number into. Because I was confused, I didnt pay and took it to appeal, when they finally told me I had put the incorrect registration into meter-well why did meter accept incorrect reg as it shouldnt have.
well I lost the appeal, and because I thought it unfair and had nothing to lose(Im at the stage in life I dont care about my credit rating) it went all the way to court where I counter-claimed, europarks backed down, gave me out of pocket expenses. i want others to be brave enough to do this, I understand when younger you dont want a bad mark on your credit rating, I was exactly the same, but cant let bullies win!

This company is just as corrupt as parking eye, machine wouldn't work for me so I tried the app which came back as unavailable so I still got the parking fine , absolute disgrace of a set up.

Popla even had the cheek to reply to my review, you's are pathetic and robbers , look at the reviews , should be shamed but you won't be as you are ran by parking eye

Useless service. No consideration of the facts.