Need advice on PCN issued by UK Parking Patrol Office - Manchester

B0dge

Guys/Gals, I need some advice on a Parking Charge Notice issued by UK Parking Patrol Office. On Saturday my car was left on Elmira Way, a side road next to the Ramada Hotel, Manchester. It was left by the kerb on the mini-roundabout near to the hotel car park entrance. There were no double yellows and the car was not causing an obstruction/parked dangerously. When I returned to the car I found a charge notice. Upon further inpsection there were a number of warning signs erected around the roundabout but they all seemed to cover various entrances to private residential parking areas. I will be seeking advice from my local citizens advice but I wanted the thoughts of somebody on here as many seem to know their stuff. General advice seems to be ignore it. What I cannot understand is most of the advice refers to cars being parked on private land/car parks. The car was left on a public road - how can they erect signs saying private land and then issue a ticket? Fair enough if it was the council/police but surely a private company cannot enforce what appears a public road???? :mad: Thanks.

trisontana

Please, please don't go to Citizen's Advice. They will tell you to pay and then try and get the money back. This is bad and wrong advice. Instead just ignore the parking company clowns.

Was this the road? It certainly looks like the public highway.

Coupon-mad

Is it a Parking Charge Notice (not a Penalty Charge Notice)? If so then it's not a real (Council) PCN, it's a fake one, ignore it.

And I can tell you what Citizen's Advice will say and I am afraid it will be rubbish advice.

They will look on their screen and tell you that there may be a contract so they will say you should 'appeal' = rubbish! Why do they give such duff advice? Well it's because their advice on this matter was written by the private parking companies themselves! :mad:

Here's the whole forum for your perusal, look at the top threads 'PPC letters, what to expect' and 'welcome, please read before posting' and then read some more cases like yours, the whole first page is current:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/...play.php?f=163

Once you have seen the letters and watched the Watchdog link, you will know it's all a scam and that you must ignore the 'ticket' and letters from debt collectors. Nothing will happen, no CCJ, no effect on your credit rating; do not reply, do not appeal (there is no 'appeal', just a chance for them to gather info about the driver and maybe appear a bit more legit to the uninformed). Just letters as predicted by the top thread. Tell your friends and family never to pay a private parking ticket.

HTH

taffy056

Providing they are not acting for a council completely ignore the invoice, the pleads for money off powerless debt collectors and their solicitors, don't communicate with them, don't appeal with them as its done in-house as is bogus, and most importantly, don't pay them!

So just ignore away!

HO87

What you have is not in any way a fine but simply an invoice cooked up by a private parking company (PPC) to empty your pockets. It is not a fine.

Have a read through the "stickies" at the head of this board and take a browse through the many thousands of threads where you will see the same advice given and followed repeatedly which boils down to - Ignore them.
Do not call them.
Do not write to them (especially do not appeal - there is no appeals mechanism it is simply a process by which the PPC will extract from you the information they really need - the details of the driver).
Do not reply to any of their letters - even though they will get very intimidating (all part of the process, I'm afraid)
Do not call or reply to any of the debt collector's/solicitor's letters you may receive. These often just originate from the next desk to that of the person who wrote to you from the PPC itself.
Do not worry.

My personal advice would be against seeing the CAB as their general approach is to advise writing to the PPC. Our collective experience here is that such letters have no effect other than to encourage the PPC to write to you even more as they know they have a "live" person at the other end and that such letters generally supply that little nugget of information the PPC's are after - the details of the driver.

esmerobbo

You can ignore private tickets on private land, so you are even safer ignoring one that has been issued on a public highway.
By the way I will save you time going to the CAB, they will tell you to pay the charge. Unfortunately the information they have on these tickets is from the BPA or rather the PPC's club.


Edit: boy were fast today!:D

Coupon-mad

Doncha just love how quick we were then to all say ignore! All together now!

:money:

trisontana

Here is a slightly different view of the road, showing the mini-roundabout. What the hell is a PPC ticketing in a place like that?

HO87

trisontana wrote: »

What the hell is a PPC ticketing in a place like that?

Not that I know the place but there certainly aren't any obvious "Private Road" signs.

esmerobbo

trisontana wrote: »

Here is a slightly different view of the road, showing the mini-roundabout. What the hell is a PPC ticketing in a place like that?

If you back up the road a bit towards the main road, there is a silver primera, behind it on the fence looks like a PPC sign!

taffy056

esmerobbo wrote: »

If you back up the road a bit towards the main road, there is a silver primera, behind it on the fence looks like a PPC sign!

Yeah and you going to see that if you turn into the junction there, the question to ask though, is that a private road, I would go to the council and ask