Initialparking Reviews 633

Shockingly deceitful approach to car park charging. You insert your reg number after parking and the machine says £2.50.

It's then up to you to calculate how much the charge should be and then pay that. Bonkers.

It's crap and NQ airport should change their supplier and refund the fines.

Avoid parking with these cowboys at all costs, why are companies like this allowing to operate. Why should there be any charge for short term parking at Newquay airport, it’s not like you’re parking there to go anywhere else. Be careful of payment signage confusing and probably designed to be so!!! What sort of low down company doesn’t provide a telephone number, another clue as to how they operate!!

I paif £1.50 to park at Lamorna Cove, followed every instruction, and still received a Parking Charge Notice from Initial Parking days later. Despite proof of payment, they refused to acknowledge it — their so-called “appeals process” felt like a rubber stamp exercise designed to squeeze more money out of honest drivers.

This isn’t “parking management” — it’s a trap for visitors, especially those who simply want to enjoy one of Cornwall’s most beautiful spots without being harassed afterwards. Their ANPR system clearly fails, yet they continue to issue tickets and hide behind automated responses.

What kind of company penalises people for doing the right thing? One that profits from confusion, not service.

If you’re visiting Lamorna Cove (or anywhere managed by Initial Parking), beware: even if you pay, you may still be fined. Keep your receipts, take photos, and tell others. Cornwall deserves better than this predatory outfit.

Paid for parking and couldn't extend the parking period on the app or the machine. Recieved £150 from debt collectors and no appeals process was made available. For everyone facing this issue, I am arguing it every day and my initial email said:

This charge of £150 is both unfair and disproportionate, and I request that it be cancelled immediately for the following reasons:

Inability to Extend Parking Period Due to Payment Failure
I made every reasonable effort to comply with the terms of parking and to extend my stay, but the payment system was not functioning correctly. As a result, I was prevented from making payment or extending my parking period. It is unreasonable and contrary to the Consumer Rights Act 2015 to penalise a customer when a failure to pay results from technical or procedural issues outside of their control

Unfair and Disproportionate Charge
A charge of £150 is excessive and does not represent a genuine pre-estimate of loss. Private parking charges must reflect a reasonable and proportionate sum. This fee appears punitive and therefore unenforceable under consumer protection law and relevant case law (ParkingEye v Beavis [2015] UKSC 67 makes clear that charges must be proportionate and justifiable).

Nature of the Charge – Private Invoice, Not a Fine
This is a private parking notice and therefore constitutes an invoice, not a legally enforceable fine. As such, I am within my rights to dispute this charge before any payment is made. Unless and until a court determines otherwise, there is no obligation for me to pay.

Given the above, I request that this parking charge notice be cancelled immediately. Should you decide to reject this appeal, please provide a detailed response with all requested evidence and confirmation of how to escalate my appeal to the relevant independent adjudicator.

Please note that this communication is made without admission of liability, and I reserve the right to pursue this matter further should it remain unresolved.

Feel free to copy and keep pushing. These are the vampires of the world.

The previous parking provider at Newquay Airport should never have been replaced. I never had a problem. Now I try to pay with the Initial website which was impossible. Therefore I bought a ticket at the machine to cover the entire parking period and they still sent a penalty notice. This is meant to be a window to Cornwall for the business community. Initial need to be replaced!

I was park at lands end carpark maintaining by initialparking .Bought ticket but no where to enter reg number.i received parking fine 100 gb and after appeal reduce to £20 .No customer can enter their reg to machine at that time in lands ent car park Cornwall .We have to do some this for this dogy parking company .

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.