APCOA Luton Airport -just when you thought they could not get any more stupid.

Sirdan

Received by the keeper of a vehicle I have access to today.

a Parking Enforcement Notice for £80.

The heinous crime "01 -Stopping a vehicle in a no stopping area."

BUT the reason the vehicle came to a stop was that the traffic light on the road was red !!!!!

So what is a driver to do drive through the red light and cause an accident and risk the wrath of people with real statutory authority i.e .The Police. ??

No doubt APCOA will say that it is the alleged act of a passenger alighting from the vehicle when it is stopped at the red light that is the actual breach. (Even though they don't allege such in their notice/invoice ..guess they don't have any evidence ..lol)

Do they seriously expect anyone to pay this ?

It is akin to a Council traffic warden slapping a ticket on your car when it is stopped at a red light when a passenger alights and the road has double yellows and loading/unloading restrictions.

I know we should ignore them but I dearly want them to take this one into a court ..and I will make damn sure the press local and national get to here about it !!

Note to Luton Airport if you don't want us to stop get rid of the effing traffic lights you morons !!!!

fb1969

Maybe they're working on the theory that red lights have no legal standing on private land, so the car shouldn't have stopped.

Sirdan

fb1969 wrote: »

Maybe they're working on the theory that red lights have no legal standing on private land, so the car shouldn't have stopped.

Well quite,although as the whole road is marked out as a "public" road (which it used to be) then if you fail to stop you could possibly be guilty of driving without due care or carelessly . Those offences can occur in places other than a public highway.

That said I have on occasions when there is no other traffic around (rare but true) gone through that self same red light in my car as I don't believe it to be a statutory requirement to stop.

Goldhanger

Seems that one of Richard Stag's (Bedfordshire Conservative Councillor) constituents has been complaining about the situation at Luton Airport - might be worth adding a few more comments to his board. Check it out by typing "cllrstay and parking penalties at luton airport" which should find it (as I can't post the link from here). It's a recent post on his site 5 June 2011
As they say "Every little helps"

esmerobbo

http://cllrstay.blogspot.com/2011/06/parking-penalties-at-luton-airport.html

trisontana

Whatever APCOA are doing with the money raised by the tickets they certainly are not spending it on the long-term car park they manage for the airport. It's a disgrace. We parked there a couple of weeks ago and half of the parking area is only surfaced with very rough and loose gravel. The large stones from this stuff finds its way on to the roadways which prove hazardous for both cars and for wheeling suitcases from cars to bus-stops.

Sirdan

trisontana wrote: »

Whatever APCOA are doing with the money raised by the tickets they certainly are not spending it on the long-term car park they manage for the airport. It's a disgrace. We parked there a couple of weeks ago and half of the parking area is only surfaced with very rough and loose gravel. The large stones from this stuff finds its way on to the roadways which prove hazardous for both cars and for wheeling suitcases from cars to bus-stops.

I suspect APCOA collect the revenue from parking and their scam tickets but the responsibility for maintenance is left with the landowner !

trisontana

Sirdan wrote: »

I suspect APCOA collect the revenue from parking and their scam tickets but the responsibility for maintenance is left with the landowner !

The landowner ( Luton Airport) can't be very short of money with all the money making schemes they have dreamed up. This includes charging for using trolleys (money you don't get back), charging to drop off people, charging for those flimsy plastic bags for liquids, and having to pay extra if you want to bypass the horrendous queues in security.

Sirdan

trisontana wrote: »

The landowner ( Luton Airport) can't be very short of money with all the money making schemes they have dreamed up. This includes charging for using trolleys (money you don't get back), charging to drop off people, charging for those flimsy plastic bags for liquids, and having to pay extra if you want to bypass the horrendous queues in security.

About the trolley situation ..I believe that the notice(s) where you get the trolley use the word "hire" in order to make it clear that you have not bought the trolley for £2.
However there are no terms and conditions attached to this contract to hire ..so I reckon you can take the trolley where you like and keep it for as long as you like ..just an idea :rotfl:

(Contract law ..don't ya just love it !! )

RENEGADE_2

The landowner is not short of money and neither is APCOA.

APCOA and the like claim to "manage car parks" but we know this is restricted to its harsh measures of bullying unsuspecting individuals. Similarly, one of the roughly 40,000 "PCN"s I have had is from a company that calls itself "ParkingEye" and on it, they write: we are happy to provide parking facilities, but subject to their indended purpose.

Sounds like they built the car park with their own money! Why then is the client "Pizza Hut Weston-Super-Mare"? I suppose ParkingEye built it, donated it, continue to manage it, and threaen to remove it if "abuses" (oversatying 10 mins) continue. And that was the offence, overstaying a 10-minute deadline. It's all right for Pizza Hut customers but then I used McDonald's and never declared my registratrion with the "freeze our bases from 24 hrs earlier" monkeys. I knew what I was doing but.... tough!

Alyraqs

I received an Apcoa £80 charge a couple of days ago. I dropped off my wife to catch a bus to Stansted airport at 5.45am. I wished I'd known about all these forums because when I got the notice I "got hot under the collar" and rushed off a registered letter to Apcoa asking the following and stating that if they didn't reply within 10 days I would consider that they were acting extralegally.
1) Evidence of the alleged infraction
2) Evidence that the signage used complied with Road traffic
3) Evidence that they legally obtained my personal data from the DVLA and fully complied with the DVLA manual MIS546.

Did I do the right thing or have I been rash to imply that they have some right to charge me? If I'd known that they had no legal right to issue any charge and that they were using contract law not road traffic law, I would have been more forceful!

Can I now write to them and tell them not to pass on my data to a 3rd person ("Debt recoverers")?

Thanks to all those who have posted advice on these forums, you have given me the strength to take this to the end.
Apcoa doesn't realise how tenacious I can be when so inclined.... I fought Ryanair and won compensation, and you need stamina for that.