Stayed Less Than 10 Minutes Over Your Allowed Time

Parking operators who belong to the BPA or IPC must allow a grace period after your paid or permitted time runs out before they can issue a ticket. For car parks open to the public that period is 10 minutes — Table B.1 of the joint Single Code of Practice, which clause B.1 makes mandatory. Worth knowing where it does not apply: short-stay areas are given a grace period of zero in the same table, and parking tied to an event, tied to using a particular shop or venue, or for pre-booked users is given none. The table's own footnote also allows a site to have a shorter or longer period, but only where the operator's trade association has approved it in writing and recorded why — so ask to see that if you are told your site is different.

Legal basis

Private Parking Sector Single Code of Practice v1.1 (in force 17 February 2025), clause 5.2 and Annex B clause B.1 with Table B.1 — a 10-minute grace period for controlled land open to the public; 0 for short stay; n/a for parking tied to an event, tied to custom, pre-booked users and no-stopping zones. Table B.1 footnote 2 permits a shorter or longer period only with the ATA's written approval and a recorded rationale.

How to identify this in your case

Compare ANPR entry/exit times on the PCN with the paid duration plus 10 minutes. If overstay is 10 minutes or less and the operator is BPA or IPC accredited, the Code applies.

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. Replace the bracketed prompts with your own details; leave any case citation as it is.

Dear [Operator Name], Re: PCN [PCN_NUMBER] — Vehicle [VRM] — [SITE_NAME] — [DATE] The PCN records ANPR entry at [ENTRY_TIME] and exit at [EXIT_TIME], a total stay of [TOTAL_MINUTES] minutes. I was permitted parking until [PAID_UNTIL_TIME], meaning my overstay was [OVERSTAY_MINUTES] minutes. Under the Private Parking Sector Single Code of Practice (BPA/IPC, effective 1 October 2024), operators must apply a minimum 10-minute grace period at the end of a parking stay before issuing a PCN. As my overstay falls within this grace period, this PCN is in clear breach of the Code. I require cancellation in full within 14 days. Failing that I will appeal to [POPLA/IAS] citing the Code breach and ParkingEye v Beavis [2015] UKSC 67 on proportionality. Yours faithfully, [Driver Name]

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Sources

BPA-IPC Private Parking Sector Single Code of Practice v1.1 para 5.2, Annex B Table B.1