Signs Forbid Parking — No Offer, No Contract (Trespass Only)

A private parking charge is only enforceable as a contract: the sign must OFFER parking on terms (e.g. 'you may park if you pay £X / display a permit'). Where the signs instead FORBID the act entirely ('No parking', 'No stopping', 'Do not park on the roadways', 'Ambulance bays — no parking at any time'), no contractual offer is made, so no contract can form and no contractual parking charge arises. At most a trespass occurs — and only the landowner (not the parking company) can normally sue for trespass, and only for actual loss. In PCM (UK) Ltd v Bull and others B4GF26K6 (2016, county court) charges for parking on access roads failed on exactly this basis: the signage was purely prohibitive, so there was no offer capable of acceptance. Separately, the industry Single Code of Practice only permits operators to pursue charges for 'stopping' (as opposed to parking) where they hold explicit consent from their trade association on evidenced security or safety grounds (e.g. airports). Note honestly: county court decisions are persuasive, not binding, and some adjudicators/judges have gone the other way, so this is framed as putting the operator to strict proof.

Legal basis

Basic contract formation (offer and acceptance) — a prohibition is not an offer; PCM (UK) Ltd v Bull & others, claim B4GF26K6 (2016, county court, persuasive); trespass actionable only by the party in possession of the land, damages limited to actual loss; Private Parking Sector Single Code of Practice v1.1 (17 Feb 2025), clause 5.3 — operators 'must only pursue parking charges in instances that could be interpreted as stopping if they have explicit consent to do so on evidenced security or safety grounds from their ATA'; contrast ParkingEye Ltd v Beavis [2015] UKSC 67, which enforced a charge precisely because a contractual licence to park WAS offered on clear signs.

How to identify this in your case

Only run this ground if the customer confirms (or their photos show) that the signs at the location are prohibitive rather than permissive: wording such as 'No parking', 'No stopping', 'No parking at any time', 'Do not obstruct', 'Access road — keep clear', with no wording offering parking in exchange for payment, a permit, or compliance with conditions. Common at residential access roads, roadways between blocks of flats, marked hatched areas, and 'no stopping' red-route-style private roads. If the sign offers parking subject to terms, this ground does NOT apply.

Sample appeal wording

Before you send this

Deadline. A late submission can be turned down without your argument being read. Check your notice for the deadline and how it is counted.
Paying may end it. Paying can count as accepting the notice and can close a challenge already under way. Part-paying or acknowledging an old debt can also revive a time limit that had expired.
The amount can change. Check what happens to the sum if you challenge — it may be held, re-offered lower, or keep rising, and fees or enforcement can continue meanwhile.
Use the official route. Use the method, recipient and form your notice specifies, with any reference, evidence and signature it asks for. Sent elsewhere, it may not count.
Only say what is true. Do not copy any statement of fact unless it is true for you, and check the legal point still applies. Delete what does not fit. It may be treated as your statement.
Careful what you volunteer. Avoid unnecessary admissions — naming the driver or accepting responsibility can remove arguments. But answer anything you are legally required to answer, and do include the evidence your ground needs.
Keep the record. Keep what you sent, the attachments, any receipt, and the reply. Note the next deadline.

Sample wording to adapt and send yourself — it may not fit your notice or the stage you are at.

The signage at this location does not make any contractual offer of parking: it purports to prohibit parking outright. A prohibition is incapable of forming the offer and acceptance necessary for a contract, so no contractual parking charge can arise (see PCM (UK) Ltd v Bull & others, B4GF26K6 (2016), where charges issued against prohibitive signage on access roads failed for precisely this reason — in contrast to ParkingEye v Beavis [2015] UKSC 67, where a licence to park was clearly offered). Any cause of action on prohibitive signage could only lie in trespass, which is actionable by the party in possession of the land for its actual loss, not by an operator charging a fixed sum. I therefore put you to strict proof of: (1) the full wording and photographs of every sign relied on; (2) how that wording constitutes a contractual offer to park; (3) if you contend this was a 'stopping' contravention, your Accredited Trade Association's explicit consent to pursue stopping charges at this site on evidenced security or safety grounds, as required by clause 5.3 of the Private Parking Sector Single Code of Practice; and (4) your standing to recover trespass damages together with evidence of any actual loss. Absent such proof the charge must be cancelled.

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Sources

https://www.parkingcowboys.co.uk/forbidding-signage/
https://www.britishparking.co.uk/write/Documents/AOS/Sector%20Code%20Templates/sectorsingleCodeofPracticeVersion1.1130225.pdf
http://parking-prankster.blogspot.com/2016/04/pcm-uk-signage-does-not-create-contract.html
ParkingEye Ltd v Beavis [2015] UKSC 67 — reported on Find Case Law under the joined appeal Cavendish Square Holding BV v Talal El Makdessi:
https://caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/uksc/2015/67
Contains information licensed under the Open Justice - Licence v2.0.