What would you do?

hwalkerh

Hi

We went to a kids bday party this afternoon and parked at the local council owned leisure centre rather then the busy road, there were no signs saying only for users etc. It isn't in a town centre or anything. Anyhow we got back to the car at 4.30 and the centre closes at 5 but no-one was there and the carpark was locked. (maybe because of the 5mm of snow?!?)

My handy other half refused to leave his car there so lifted the gate of at the hinges drove out and put it back on.

Do you think we just leave it (let them wonder) or go and tell them in the morning what we did?

I guess if the person who locked up doesn't open then no-one will probably ever know anyway!

marleyboy

I'm surprised he put the gate back on , I would not mention it if I was you, just forget about it. The chances are you were on CCTV when doing this, but it will more likely be missed unless or until you mention it to them, where they may charge you for damages or vandalism.

How he managed to raise a gate is beyond me, I imagined them to be extremely heavy.

McKneff

I wouldnt bother if I was you. CCTV isnt looked at unless there has been an incident where damage has been
caused.

Just move on.

hwalkerh

No damage was caused otherwise he wouldn't have done it. I did wonder what they could charge us with anyway, it can't be criminal damage as no damage, we didn't break and enter just break and exit :-)

From what we could tell there was no cctv in the carpark or entrance which is another reason he didn't want to leave the car as anyone could walk through and it is a bit of a local hang out for kids.

thanks

stephen77

If your near the centre. I would check if there is any sign saying car park close before the centre shuts? if there is not or it would have been covered by snow, then they are in the wrong as they should have given a warning

were you the only car left?
I would expect the centre to give a tannoy warning out car park is closing early and even if it close at 5 give 20 minutes grace on people changing etc.

stephen77

I forgot to add.

WHo owns the car park? they are not often owned by the sports centre, which can make a difference. So even if the gate was broken it would not be the sports centre who chase you anyway.

hwalkerh

There are two car parks there one for the leisure centre, one for another gym. people use them for the playing fields and football pitches. They are council owned. Neither say anything about opening hours or that they are only for use of gym users etc.

I guess that they had a announcement in the leisure centre itself about the car and if there was no one in there thought that it must have been left. We were the only car left, we really only moved it to avoid it being vandalised, if it was my little car we would probably have just left it and got a lift from someone.

shaun_from_Africa

I would look at it the same way as if your car had been clamped by a private company.

You are legally allowed to remove the wheel clamp provided that you don't do any damage and you don't keep hold of the removed item. (otherwise you could be charged with criminal damage or theft).
As it stands, all you have done is to remove your property from a private area and you have not inconvienced anyone or caused any damage.

Private parking "tickets" are totally unenforcable anyway, so even if you had been ticketed I can't see that you have anything to worry about. (Just my opinion of course).