Motorway Services Parking Charge

Coupon-mad

G51shopaholic wrote: »

someone on here said the 2hr free period can start over without having to move.

So i paid £10 to park for over the 2hrs on the way down to Devon. Does this mean you DON'T have to pay the £10 and just ignore any letters
they send?

I'm confused

What we are saying is they cannot enforce their fake PCNs (Parking Charge Notices) which never go near a Court anyway in 99.9% of cases, they just threaten the unwary/uninformed/easily persuaded among us, and simply scare people into paying. So ignore any fake PCN you pick up along life's way and ignore the debt collector letters that follow, as there is no debt, no fine to any private company. Only ever take seriously a Penalty Charge notice from a Council or a ticket from TFL or the Police.

BUT:

We are not saying to people that they should not pay a reasonable charge to a landowner for the provision of parking. No-one here has any issue with a landowner/occupier charging for parking if they choose. But what do you think is reasonable and was there no free alternative in the nearest town (nicer to check a map and stop at the nearest nice town off the motorway and go to a cafe/pub perhaps?).

Personally I don't think I would ever pay £10 to park for a couple of hours or so, that seems extortionate IMHO for a stop at Motorway services. And if that £10 lines a PPCs pockets rather than the owner/occupier then I would not park there as I wouldn't want to fund the continuation of a PPC scam and line their filthy pockets.

My rule of thumb, if the on-street parking is not free, is to park in a large, free supermarket car park usually. Or second choice, park in a cheap retail car park (non-Council) and pay for an hour perhaps, a quid or so.

I normally spend a bit of money there - and elsewhere if I want to go off-site, and I may 'overstay' their made-up restrictions as a customer if I am shopping. Like most people I always park courteously IMHO - i.e. parked within a bay, never stay all day, would never take a disabled bay or even a parent & child advisory bay up even though they mean nothing on private land.

I don't give a stuff whether a PPC goon reading this forum thinks an overstay is an offence - it isn't - and having worked in Customer Service industries I am comfortable with the idea that the customer comes first. Hence why I normally stroll in and buy some basics/toiletries which can go in the car, then I feel I have 'paid' to park there just the same as any other customer who may park for less time. And at least I have paid the occupier/service rather than the scammers.

I don't ever check the t&cs on any PPC sign as I have zero respect for them, seen enough on here to know all about their protection racket which is ALL about money and NOT about keeping bays clear. All I do, every time I park on private land, is to make sure there are NEVER any private clamping signs, I do NOT park if there are clamping warnings as private clampers are of course the very scummiest PPC 'crims' who cannot be trusted and a clamp is hard to get off.

So simply avoid clampers whilst they are still 'legal' (debatable...), pay a small reasonable parking cost if there is no free alternative - but NEVER pay a fake PCN.

RENEGADE_2

G51shopaholic wrote: »

someone on here said the 2hr free period can start over without having to move.

So i paid £10 to park for over the 2hrs on the way down to Devon. Does this mean you DON'T have to pay the £10 and just ignore any letters
they send?

I'm confused

I may have said that. The situation is this: ParkingEye state that for the two-hour free period, there is no return within two hours. CP Plus by contrast fail to specify a time on their motorway signage. Perhaps they forget that you gain access to these money-swallowing dumps via side roads; the cameras are set up to catch vehicles entering and exiting using the non-motorway exits so there can be no question of people only coming off the motorway junction only to resume their journey in the same direction. Staff don't do this. Now when there is no condition telling you how soon you may return, you can effectively leave the car park and return. If so, why should you even leave in the first place? Check mate.