Smart parking fine - slightly different this one!

JakeElwood wrote: »

well the woman was blustering a bit and said I needed to speak to Head Office as there was nothing she could do, out of her hands etc etc.
I keep trying to upload the appeal document to the website but that isn't working.

Post a complaint letter snail mail marked FTAO the Asda Executive Relations Manager (address on Asda's 'contact us' page). Also post a complaint on their facebook page right now. Send a copy to Smart Parking and say:

''See attached complaint about breach of the Equality Act 2010. This is my challenge to your fake PCN, which I have also copied to Asda's Executive Relations Manager because this is a case of disability discrimination. If you decide not to cancel it, take formal notice that I am minded to sue both you and your client (Asda) after dragging you to POPLA adjudication at your own expense. NEVER send me a fake PCN again; my family car is used for transporting my disabled daughter and as such needs to be on a white list of exempt vehicles immediately. I require you to confirm it has been added to your exempt list, when you respond.''

Include a copy of the Blue Badge (purely to prove the disability, not because it's particularly needed nor relevant on private land*) and a copy of the fake PCN, and a copy of this BBC article printed out:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8488737.stm

That was written in 2010 before the Equality Act 2010 even became law, and it was unlawful even then (under the old DDA) to impose the same arbitrary time limits on disabled people as allowed for able-bodied customers/visitors.

Here's a similar 'Equality Act breach' complaint I wrote earlier - as SchoolRunMum on a pepipoo thread. I have written quite a few like this, post #13:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=79515&st=0

Asda are already aware of the issue, not only from the BBC article from 2010 which they clearly knew about then, but because in some Asda stores they have a 'white list' of exempt vehicles. Require Asda, once they have apologised and called their scumbag dogs off, to add your car reg (quote it) to the white list in the local store(s) so that you never get bothered like this again.

This is NOT LEGAL. Asda are responsible for the actions of their agents and in fact YOU could sue THEM for damages for distress. The last thing you should be doing is thinking of paying the scammers money for disability discrimination against you!






* P.S. Blue badges do NOT apply on private land AT ALL (despite the utter drivel these PPC scammers' signs always say, purely designed to make it easier for them to extort money from unsuspecting people and to give their scam 'fake PCN racket' an air of apparent respectability and make it appear to their clients as if they are giving a nod to disability rights. NOT SO!). So the '3 hr clock' thing isn't important at all. If the time limit for everyone else is, say, 3 hours then you can legally exceed it for an undefined period, as needed/within reason, due to your rights as carers under the Act, due to your daughter's needs. Even if she had no Badge, but that's another debate!

hoohoo wrote: »

Some ASDAs have signs like this

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=79746
'disabled blue badge holder? register your vehicle at the customer service desk to receive your exemption from this time limit. need longre? just ask.

Why not phone the store and retrospectively register your vehicle at the customer service desk. If they won't do it, phone the manager and ask why his/her store is not clued up like the one in the sign. Get it in writing that you have an exemption then appeal to smart parking.

The Equality Act 2010 gave them an exemption (entitlement to a reasonable adjustment) BY LAW, before they even drove in, so I wouldn't scrabble around trying to pretend the vehicle was always on a white list. Complaints about this disability discrimination will win the day.