Initialparking Reviews 

Eleven minutes over on a three hour stay, with no option to add extra time whilst I was away from the car park, yet subject to their £60/£100 fine.
Initial Parking embody the vile, rampant profiteering endemic in this sector.
One star feels too generous.
Avoid.

We used the Marazion Long Stay car park. We paid our initial fee of £5.00. There on the board it says "Don't worry if you go over your time you can add and pay for more time". We did this, picking option 3 to add more time. We were asked what time are you leaving the car park, we keyed in the time. It then charged us £2.30, which was ridiculous, but there is no way you can alter this. Then we get a fine for £100. They also sent the letter so it arrived outside the time scale for paying £60. This company also keep your mobile phone with your registration number at least a month later. Surely this should not be the case. All smacks of sharp practice and something should be done about this company. I give zero stars.

Parked at Polzeath back in August Gotta ticket to park. Went beach. Come back on time. Just got a letter now without any letters from the parking company. Without any court summons. £150 charge from a debt collector. They have completely bypassed the appeal process. COMPLETE AND UTTER Scumbagging, evil, scammers. THIS is the reason the country and local community is going to hell in hand cart, Something needs doing by the local council or someone. We aint paying it. The letter writing and complaints start here.

I parked in st Mary’s Church car park in Betsy coed, paid for four hours, they didn’t appear to be any option for extending stay on four hours. I was 26 minutes late after 4 hours payment and they’ve sent me a parking fine for £60.

They are an absolute rip-off company, it’s a bit late but I will never ever park in one of their car parks again

Be warned and avoid this car park and other car parks operated by initial parking

Complete scumbags. Was there for 20 minutes while dropping off for an organised event. All barriers to the carpark were open to suggest we were allowed to do so. No morality in this company whatsoever.

Avoid - just total scammers! Shame on Newquay Airport for using such a unscrupulous company to run their car park!

Groovy, your review will be used in court when I sue Initial Parking and the Trustees of Abersoch Village Hall under joint and several liability after being harassed by them for £170 for entering their car park and then leaving unable to park due to no spaces being available. Perfect review as they admitted that they were in error and as such I cannot thank you enough. See you in court trustees of Abersoch Village Hall, et al. I am in the process of making a claim against you.

I hope this helps someone.

POPLA Appeal Submission
POPLA Verification Code: **********
Vehicle Registration: ******
PCN Reference: IPL*********
Parking Operator: Initial Parking



Dear POPLA,

I am writing to formally appeal against the Parking Charge Notice issued against my vehicle on [DATE] at Mousehole Car Park. I respectfully request that POPLA consider the following grounds for appeal:

1. Inadequate Evidence of Breach

The parking operator has relied solely on ANPR camera timestamps showing entry and exit times. These do not accurately reflect the time my vehicle was parked. Time spent entering the car park, locating a space, and exiting is not considered parking time under the BPA Code of Practice (see attached Parking Charge Page 2)Grace Period Not Applied

The BPA Code of Practice (Section 13) requires operators to allow a minimum 10-minute grace period after the paid parking time expires. Additionally, time must be allowed for entering the car park, reading signage, and making payment. The alleged overstay of 34 minutes and 59 seconds likely includes this grace period and non-parking time.



3. Genuine Attempt to Comply

I paid, with cash for more than two hours of parking and displayed the ticket on my dashboard. The operator has not provided any evidence that I failed to comply with the terms beyond ANPR timestamps. I made a genuine effort to follow the rules and did not attempt to avoid payment.



4. Lack of Transparency

The operator has not provided any evidence of the payment machine, or a photo of the ticket displayed in my vehicle. This lack of documentation undermines their claim that a breach occurred.

In light of the above, I respectfully request that this charge be cancelled. I trust POPLA will consider the fairness and proportionality of this case.

Kind regards,

Signature

Note.

If you pay by card, you can prove how much time you paid for, I paid by cash and did not keep the ticket.

After three weeks I received an E-mail from POPLA stating that Initial Parking had cancelled the charge.

When Parking and you see that the Car Park is managed by InitialParking - do not shop locally. Don't visit Cafes, independent shops etc. Complaining directly to IP is water off a ducks back. But if local businesses suffer (in the short term) then the Council may act against IP.

If I could give less than 1 star I would. No human factor at all, they just milking people.
On holiday in Cornwall we parked at Polzeath beach. I paid the ticket but only the first letter of my license plate showed on the ticket. Thought nothing of it as I paid.
A month later I got a pcn letter. I wrote to them with bank statement evidence that I paid and even a screenshot of the parking ticket. But they rejected my plea. Went to appeal with POPLA, unbelievably they rejected my appeal as I should have bought another ticket when I saw first one don't have license plate on it. So not only had I paid for parking, I also had to pay an extra £50 fine. I will avoid parking at any of their car parks as far as possible for the rest of my life.

Do not use initial parking. I purchased a ticket and have proof and still received a parking fine. My one hour paid parking has now cost a further £130 😡 how they are allowed to get away with this, this is shocking.

I was charges twice for dropping off at Newquay airport, as I drove to the drop off point the signage seamed to.point to the corner of the car park. The barrier was raised automatically and I drove in.
I.did the same 5 days later to collect my partner. I've been charged £60 twice for 2 minutes on one day and 1 minute the next time.
robbing devious company extorting money from people!

Initial Parking are absolute rogues. Cornwall County Council should review their parking provision. The payment process is confusing and seems designed to trick the customer. The fact that the machine doesn’t calculate the duration of your stay and requires you to select + button is surely a little trick that makes them millions. Trading standards where are you? This cowboy operation seems to deter people from using Newquay airport - unless of course that’s what Cornwall County Council wants!

An extremely poor company with very bad corporate governance. Suggest that they need to be investigated by both Companies House and the DfT.
Despite a valid parking ticket, Initial Parking didn’t allow consideration time or a grace period at the end of the paid-for stay - the overstay was actually only about 20 minutes; having paid £10.50 for 8 hours.

I parked at Belvoir Castle car park and paid the £3 parking fee in coins in one of the machines which was accepted by the machine. I didn't get a ticket but assumed this was correct given that most people were paying using smart phones and would also not have a ticket to display. I got a letter demanding a £40 parking penalty a week later. I tried to appeal on the basis that I had paid the fee but their machine had not operated correctly but this is not one of the options allowed when you start the appeals process and there is no option that I could use to start the appeal Paid the fine because I have no choice but not happy at paying £43 for three hours parking.

Initial Parking don’t allow consideration time or a grace period at the end of your stay.
I arrived at a car park it took 10 minutes to download their app, I then paid for 4 hours of parking. I left the car park slightly late (9 mins) but thought as I’d paid there would be a little grace - I was wrong.
They are trying to justify their extortionate fine by saying I was parked for an additional 19 mins unpaid. 10 of that was getting the app and should be thought of as the consideration period, the last 9 should be well within the minimum 10 mins grace required by the BPA.
Horrific company. If you see you’re about to park in a car park managed by these conmen just turn around and drive away. I am appealing and will be making complaints to the BPA and DVLA.

I paid for all dar parking at Praa Sands Cornwall, but due to me losing my glasses, I only paid £3, not the £4 required. For this mistake, I now have to pay £60 or £100. I appealed, demonstrating it was a genuine mistake and I paid the correct amount two days ( with new glasses on!) but got refused. This company should not be accredited by any official associations and the BPA should consider this

Absolutely appalling! The same thing happened to me as Stuart Kinton at Newquay Airport TWICE, picking up and dropping off family from Dublin. The system is designed to catch people out, quite why the machine can't calculate the duration of the stay is beyond me! I paid £60 for being THREE MINUTES overdue leaving when dropping our son off to fly back. Shame on you, initial parking!!!

By the time we were able to download and use their app, the ticked issued was incorrect and we ended up with a parking ticket. I'd call that a scam, frankly. I was annoyed about it but looking at the other reviews here, I think I got off lightly.

Not even a 1 star but only way to enter apparently.
I parked at Kennack sands Cornwall paid for 2 hours by cash when i realized family wanted longer i paid for another hour by cash, this company eventually said they could see i had purchased first 2 hours but denied i had paid for the other 1 hour there is no doubt i did as my daughter witnessed it, i appealed by email and when they said not accepted i wrote them a letter asking for them to make machine information available to an independent body they refused, this tells me one thing, they know i am telling the truth. How are these companies allowed to get away with it.