Got a parking ticket in Churchill Square

Hi, I went for a morning breakfast at Churchill Square today and the parking lot was completely empty (monday morning and Civic Holiday for some people). So I parked my car in one of the spots and went for breakfast, came back after couple of hours later and found a $50 parking fine (apparently I didn't realize it was a paid parking spot :(

do you think I can contest it or just paying $50 would be the easy thing?