Parking Ticket Appeals successes and failures

buttons1987

My other half and i received a parking ticket from a car park in whitehaven, cumbria. It was right on the harbour side where we parked and there are 3 entrances to this parking area, only one of them having a sign saying about private parking only. We parked up and went for a stroll, noticing along the way there was a suspicious man sitting in small white transit van but not taking any notice of him other than that.
When we came back to the car approx 20 mins later, there was a £50.00 parking ticket on the window for parking without a permit. I've lived in that area for the better part of 15 years and this must have only been a recent development. But as there was no signs telling us that this was a private parking area, how were we supposed to know??
So we took photographs off all the entrances and where our car was parked and the route we had taken and also of the weirdo in the transit van and his lack of parking permit for that area, as we later found out it was the guy who had given us the ticket.
Sent all these photos to the company and told them that if they wish to issue us with a parking ticket then they must also issue their officer with several for his repeat offences.
We have yet to hear anything back from the company.

jordylass

Just wanted to say a huge thank you for the clamping article.

I just got back to my car to find it clamped and the clamper was waiting next to it. £85 to have it removed or £285 once it had been towed. My cars hardly worth that, so he told me I could sign it over to him, if I'd prefer!

All the time I was talking to him I was doing a search on my phone for MSE clamping. I got your site up, told him I would have to go to the cash point to have it released but that I would be paying under protest and would need a receipt as I would be getting some legal advice.

Told me he'd have to go back to the office for the documentation then said, "oh you know what our lass will have the tea ready, I'll remove the clamp"... and went on to say park here in future if you like I'll recognise your car and leave it alone, makes me wonder if they are registered with SIA.

trishab_3

This happened at Gallagher Park, Longwell Green Bristol. I parked slightly over a line as the person to my left was right on the line and the space to my right was empty (and there were plenty of parking spaces elsewhere so I was not preventing someone being able to park). Sensible solution, I thought, to the probability of cars getting dented by opening doors had I parked in the middle of the bay. Refused to pay the "fine", and the company didn't bother to address my points, just sent standard threatening letters. In the end they said they would not accept any further letters from us, so we sent them another one. All this took 3 months, but have heard nothing for over a year now.
I wrote a letter to every shop on the retail park telling them what I thought of the system. Someone else was "had" at the same time as me, which leads me to expect that they must be making a fortune out of shoppers.

HO87

trishab wrote: »

Someone else was "had" at the same time as me, which leads me to expect that they must be making a fortune out of shoppers.

In the years between 2004 and 2009 the number of checks carried out by car parking companies at the DVLA (to obtain owner details) increased from just under 10,000 to over 740,000. If we allow a potential value of £75 against each of these checks then the total value is over £55m. Bear in mind that this takes no account of those who voluntarily pay the ticket at the outset.

Private parking enforcement is an absolute gold mine and it is little wonder that there are a lot of snouts in the trough. There is an old Russian saying "When money speaks the truth is silent" - this most certainly applies here.

sailingjez

I have won a small claims court case against South East Clamping Ltd and the judge has ordered them to repay the £250 clamping release fee which is good news.

The problem I have is they have failed to pay within the given time frame and I am now wondering if anyone could give me ideas about what the next step would be.

Many Thanks

peter_the_piper

It sounds, unfortunately, that you only sued them and not the landowner jointly. This makes it more difficult, afaik you now have to contract bailiffs to help you. Wait for others to assist who know more than I.

Coblcris

Failing the landowner being joined to the action you may have to spend a a few pounds with Companies House obtaining Director and accounts information in order to identify what seizable assets they have.Do not overlook their bank accounts.
This company has quite a chequered history as a simple google search on their name will evince.

lady64

Hi there

I got a parking ticket for parking on the footway of my road last September. I live in an exempt area which was evident by the sign at the top of my street.

When I informally challenged the ticket because of the exempt sign I was told I got the ticket for being parked outside of marked bays. I decided to proceed to a formal challenge.

I then dissected the term marked out bays and went to ticketfighter.com which showed me the Traffic Regulatory Signs and General Directions Act 2002 -Schedule 6 which showed me that bays designated for footway parking have to conform to diagram 1028.4 . The bays in my road did not

It also stated that there should be signs informing drivers to park in "Marked Bays" if there are trees or lamp posts that interrupt the run of marked out bays. My road has such interruptions however there were no signs informing motorists to park in marked bays.

There were a number of other factors that I quoted and my appeal letter was 7 pages long.

It was worth it as I recently had my PCN cancelled.

I would have written 20 pages if necessary because I now don't have to shell out £120 for PCN which was unenforceable
It's always worth appealing as 65% of appeals are successful as my case proves.

peter_the_piper

lady64 wrote: »

Hi there

I got a parking ticket for parking on the footway of my road last September. I live in an exempt area which was evident by the sign at the top of my street.

When I informally challenged the ticket because of the exempt sign I was told I got the ticket for being parked outside of marked bays. I decided to proceed to a formal challenge.

I then dissected the term marked out bays and went to ticketfighter.com which showed me the Traffic Regulatory Signs and General Directions Act 2002 -Schedule 6 which showed me that bays designated for footway parking have to conform to diagram 1028.4 . The bays in my road did not

It also stated that there should be signs informing drivers to park in "Marked Bays" if there are trees or lamp posts that interrupt the run of marked out bays. My road has such interruptions however there were no signs informing motorists to park in marked bays.

There were a number of other factors that I quoted and my appeal letter was 7 pages long.

It was worth it as I recently had my PCN cancelled.

I would have written 20 pages if necessary because I now don't have to shell out £120 for PCN which was unenforceable
It's always worth appealing as 65% of appeals are successful as my case proves.

Well done, doesn't it give you a nice feeling to have got one back at them.

0151charl1

Hi,
I am looking for some advice about having my car clamped by PCN-UK LTD. Myself and my partner were visiting Halo Nightclub in Warrington on 1/4/2010. We returned to our car approx 2hrs later to find it had been clamped by the above organisation. We where told to pay a £120.00 release fee to avoid being towed away, we felt very intimidated by the three male staff. We phoned the police to see if the clamping was legal we were told "If the company has signs up it was legal" we did not see any signs and the carpark was not lit and there were no designated car parking spaces. We paid the fine, and this morning searched the website to complain and were told to put in all of our personal details on the form (which I am wary of doing, after some research has revealed this firm seems a bit dodgy).

Any advice as to what to do next would be greatly appreciated,

Thanks.