'Another' NCP parking charge notice - new question...

don9999

OK.....I've just received a 'Parking Contravention Charge Notice' from NCP, having parked at a Railway Station car park in Wales. I paid for a day ticket, and due to missing a train turned up several hours late. Got back to find the ticket on my windscreen.

Have read numersous notes about these NCP Notices, and the general consensus is simply to ignore them. Wait for all the chasing letters and ignore them too.

In MY case, the notice refers to 'NOTICE OF BREACH OF RAIL BYELAWS' and this seems to raise mixed advice. Again, much of it says ignore, but many also say the 'rail byelaw' may change things etc... But from what I gather, breaching rail byelaws would be an offence that can only be dealt with by Transport Police and not NCP. So ignore. And I plan to.

Unless anyone else suggests otherwise......

But......my generic questions....

• I read that NCP 'NEVER' take anyone to court.
  Hence, why do posters often ask for details of the notice? Or 'What byelaw is quoted'? Or that there has never been an example of NCP taking anyone to court. etc.etc...
  If this is the case, shouldn't the advice ALWAYS be to ignore?
  No need for follow up questions.
  OR.......is there an example 'somewhere' of a 'genuine' parking notice from NCP that MUST be paid?
• Why does anyone pay 'anything' when they park in an NCP car park?
  I've read many examples of people claiming to have bought a ticket, it falling of the windscreen, and hence they get a ticket because the ticket could not be seen.
  'I' could claim the same situation, but in fact never buy a ticket at all!
  (In my case though, I DID pay for a 24hour ticket, just turned up late.)
  OR......in future I could buy the cheapest available ticket eg. 1 hour, and then ignore the penalty charge notice that I will receive when I turn up an hour, or a day or a week later.
• Clearly it is reasonable for car park owners to charge a 'reasonable' amount for people to park there.
  But.....who decides what is reasonable? Joe public will almost always deem the parking charge to be too much.
  And if there is no way for NCP to 'force' payment of over-staying, then what incentive is there for anyone to pay for ANY ticket at all?

In my case, I paid for a day, and guess I would have been 'happy' to have paid for a second day. Rather than the standard £50 charge.
But if everyone ignores these subsequent Parking Charges, then I can't see what the incentive is for anyone to buy any ticket........

Are we just relying on everyone to be 'honest' and 'reasonable'....?

Sir_Roger_deLodger

don9999 wrote: »

In MY case, the notice refers to 'NOTICE OF BREACH OF RAIL BYELAWS' and this seems to raise mixed advice. Again, much of it says ignore, but many also say the 'rail byelaw' may change things etc... But from what I gather, breaching rail byelaws would be an offence that can only be dealt with by Transport Police and not NCP. So ignore. And I plan to.

The clue is in what the ticket says about appeals. If it says appeal to NCP it is a private invoice and can be ignored. If it mentions magistrates court [not county court] then it is a byelaw ticket and should not be ignored.
Regarding your other questions, it is possible never to pay and get away with it but nobody on here would advise that. A landowner has the right to charge for parking, it is the stupid "penalties" that PPCs try to impose that we object to.
If you don't like paying to park, do what I do and only go to places where it is free.

Coupon-mad

People here ask for details when they hear it's a ticket issued on railway land, because unlike other private land there's the possibility that some rare tickets might be issued under real railway bylaws.

I post on pepipoo fightback forums and in two years I have only seen ONE real railway bylaws ticket posted, among hundreds of posts every single week - and that rail company allowed the appeal because it was a real appeal process and the person did have a ticket. In your case there is no 'appeals process', any reference to this by NCP is as much a work of fiction as the 'railway bylaws' heading is!

I think pepipoo regulars have said before that NCP railway tickets are NEVER issued under real rail bylaws as far as they are aware. NCP rail tickets are IMHO always bogus ones and should not pretend to be issued under bylaws - a breach of the Administration of Justice Act, CPUTR and OfT Debt Collector guidelines I believe. Then their threatogram letters typically breach the Protection from Harassment Act and again, OfT debt collector guidelines. You can complain about their letters of course:

http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/england_wales/factsheet.php?page=03_harassment

Just check, to be sure, who it says to appeal to and you should see that's a PO Box or NCP address. If it was a real railway bylaws ticket it would warn that any appeal would have to go to magistrates' court.

And to answer your last question, yes, I also think most people would be honest enough to pay a reasonable fee to a landowner/occupier to park. No-one here tells people not to pay when it's a pay & display car park (although personally I look for free ones).

The problem comes when a notorious third party parasite company who don't even own nor maintain the car park, sneak round issuing questionably-worded bogus PCNs for extortionate amounts.

I see these companies as leeching off the back of real retailers and services, whilst setting out to frighten vulnerable victims - and as such I despise them. :mad: