Great Western Coffee Shop

https://www.banburyguardian.co.uk/news/more-drivers-fighting-banbury-train-station-car-park-operator-over-unfair-fines-1-8888331

It all sounds rather odd to me.

How do these people physically pay the parking charges? If into a Pay & Display ticket machine then the money will go to whoever empties the machine which would presumably be a representative of the parking company. If by phone, ditto. If they are paying a real person such as a booking clerk then they ought to know if they should or should not be able/ permitted to accept the money.

Has anyone got any background to this?

Maybe it is people buying a season parking ticket online through Chiltern (or more accurately from APCOA) who don't realise they are buying a ticket for a different station car park to the one they then park in. Possibly they used to be interchangeable. One of the complainants though has been charged for an overstay after midnight, which sounds like a difference in terms.

For the record, nobody has been fined. Only a court can do that.

Folk have been issued speculative invoices (Parking Charge Notice) for perceived infringement of rules or alleged non-payment of parking tariffs.

With the Private Parking Company Britannia and Chiltern adamant that Chiltern do not have an interest in the car park any more (I suspect Chiltern do, having merely engaged Britannia to 'manage') then neither should have recourse to Railway Byelaws to enforce parking 'rules'.

What's needed is for motorists to start challenging the PCNs. Not just meekly paying up.

The quote from Britannia refers to "what used to be Chiltern’s West Car Park B ", and there are also a West Car Park A and an East Car Park that presumably remain operated by Chiltern. That sounds very like the situation with one of Wokingham's town center car parks (Cockpit Path/Denmark Street) where the site is split between council and private ownership. The private owners once leased their part to the council who ran it as one car park, then switched to a private operator, though access is still common to both parts. There has always been an issue with people who pay the council machine and park in the private part, iniatally by people who used it often and didn't see any new signs. Over the years signage has been improved, but it remains possible to pay the council machine (near the entrance) park further in (in the private part) and simply not look at the signs.

I would expect that users of station car park will pay remotely from the car park in some way, not at a machine (there often are none these days), but it may still be possible to pay Chiltern (who think you will park in their parts) and use a Britannia parking space. I am surprised not to see a complaint about Chiltern in that piece, who after all have taken payment and may have not done enough to explain that what has been paid for has changed.

As above, yes. Then Chiltern chose to give up the lease & the owners engaged Brittannia. Now not subject to Railway bye-laws as on private land. Initially, the signage wasn't good, but that sign tyou can see on a pole at the entrance has been there for at least 4 of the 5 months that Britannia have worked it. So anyone incurring a PCN recently doesn't have a leg to stand on, IMHO.

Chiltern operates RingGo as well as APCOA daily tickets (via ticket machines) and this will be how parkers there are probably paying for their parking. Britannia has only a ticket machine in the actual car park they run. Chiltern have put up the large poster in the booking hall, as well as A4-size signs on booking office windows.
I would expect that users of station car park will pay remotely from the car park in some way, not at a machine (there often are none these days), but it may still be possible to pay Chiltern (who think you will park in their parts) and use a Britannia parking space. I am surprised not to see a complaint about Chiltern in that piece, who after all have taken payment and may have not done enough to explain that what has been paid for has changed.
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