Gary, I drive a taxi in Cornwall and I'd absolutely appeal this further. Don't argue that you were "allowed to park", because your much stronger argument is that you weren't parked in the first place.
Your own account, and apparently their own photograph, shows that you stopped your taxi to set down an elderly passenger and were assisting her from the vehicle to her residence. Keep that photograph because it potentially proves your case better than theirs.
Your main authority is Jopson v Homeguard Services Ltd [2016], B9GF0A9E, particularly paragraphs 19–21. This was a County Court appeal judgment by HHJ Harris QC. The judge specifically distinguished parking from stopping briefly to allow passengers to alight and said that whether someone is merely stopped can include "accompanying a frail person inside". That is remarkably close to what you appear to have been doing.
I'd also challenge the double yellow lines. Private land can have yellow lines, but the landowner has chosen to use road markings which have a universally understood meaning. Under the Highway Code, double yellow lines prohibit waiting, but expressly permit stopping while passengers board or alight. If this private landowner intended those familiar markings to mean something completely different, such as "NO STOPPING WHATSOEVER", require them to produce the signage which clearly communicated that different contractual term to you before you stopped.
Private parking charges are contractual claims, not council fines. Under Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, where keeper liability is being relied upon the statutory requirements must be satisfied, and fundamentally the operator still needs an enforceable underlying parking charge. Challenge them to identify the precise contractual term they say you accepted and breached.
Also rely on the BPA/IPC Private Parking Sector Single Code of Practice, particularly its requirements concerning signage and consideration periods. Photograph the entrance, the double yellows and every sign from the position and height at which you would actually have seen them from the driver's seat. Don't just photograph the signs close up because that doesn't demonstrate whether they were reasonably visible when you entered.
If your passenger is disabled or has mobility difficulties, and only if that is actually the case, say so and provide whatever evidence is reasonably available. Taxi and PHV drivers have statutory duties concerning reasonable mobility assistance for disabled passengers under the Equality Act 2010, including sections 164A and 165 where applicable.
I'd structure the appeal under these grounds:
1. The vehicle was not parked. It stopped only for the time reasonably necessary to set down and assist an elderly passenger to her residence.
2. Jopson v Homeguard [2016] B9GF0A9E, paras 19–21. The appeal judgment expressly distinguishes parking from brief stopping for passengers and even gives accompanying a frail person as an example relevant to deciding whether a vehicle was parked.
3. Their own photographic evidence supports your account. It appears to show you immediately beside your taxi assisting the passenger, rather than leaving the vehicle parked.
4. The road markings reasonably indicated a waiting restriction, not an absolute stopping prohibition. The Highway Code expressly permits passengers to board or alight on ordinary double yellow lines.
5. No adequately communicated contractual term. If the operator says its private double yellows mean something more restrictive than ordinary double yellows, require evidence of prominent signage communicating that fact at the point you entered and stopped.
6. Require proof of their legal basis for the charge, including the relevant signage, the precise contractual term allegedly breached and, if they are pursuing the registered keeper rather than the driver, compliance with Schedule 4 POFA 2012.
@Emina_ibrahim@RobertJenrick Woman has empathy and woman complain lack of empathy from people who no have big empathy. Vote for empathy party. Me like big empathy.
@Sinbad51979702 Communists call anything they disagree with fascism.
The right will lose the next election as our people are stupid and keep voting labour.
Where is the evil fascism John? Is it in the room with you now?
@kokeshimum@W_Russell__M Sarah you say £9 a week, but we actually spend £94M per week. Assuming there are 900,000 migrants here, that is £104 each. So your maths are wrong by a factor of 10. This doesnt even count how much they cost the NHS, translation services and so on.
You are wrong by 10x babe.
@kokeshimum@12cupsaday Anyone can claim asylum. You seriously think 100% of applicants are genuine? Nobody lies?
We cannot be a 1st world nation and also maintain your logic. Your logic ruins nations.