Reader's letter: £100 fine for parking in this Doncaster retail park car park

In December last year, I received a letter from the car park company that own the Centurion Retail Park on York Road, stating I was in their car park on 25 June 2025 from 8:57 till 20:06 which exceeded the three hours parking allowance.

The letter was dated 19 November so I had to rush to appeal because the time starts with the date of the letter, not when you receive it.

Due to being sent this in November, my Ring doorbell did not go back far enough to prove I was not at the car park that long and I never exceeded an hour there.

Because I had no photographic or written evidence, my appeal was declined with Civil Enforcement and I had to refer to POPLA – an independent appeals service for Parking Charge Notices issued on private land – as my local council did not want anything to do with it after I asked them why they allow companies to operate in Doncaster that can send parking fines later than two weeks of the alleged date.

I appealed to POPLA as I had the same problem in 2018 with this company where cameras were not picking up cars leaving – and this was overturned as I had tracking location on my phone.

Unfortunately this time, I had changed phones last year so was unable to use the same evidence as last time.

After submitting my appeal to POPLA, I came across a bank transaction at the Post Office which would prove I was not in the car park as long as they said I was - but you are not allowed to submit anything after the you have sent the original appeal.

POPLA have replied to me today to decline my appeal and now I am facing paying £100 for something I did not do.

Since November I have not been able to use the shops there as I am worried of getting false fines again.

POPLA have said to contact Citizens Advice if I am not happy with the decision which I have done today and Citizens Advice cannot help me for approximately three weeks - which by then is too late and I will have to pay the fine.

I am wondering how many people in Doncaster have been falsely fined by this car park and paid because they have no evidence or cannot remember what they were doing due to the length of time before the fine arrives. We have no protection against the parking companies where we need to complete our shopping in an age where money is tight and supermarkets are too expensive.