NCP fine Blue Badge holder

tonywhatling

I recently received a £50 parking penalty for parking in an overflow area at my local rail station where all 4 disability bays were occupied. I displayed my blue badge, as I had done many times before when unable to use the designated bays, with a note on the dash explaining why. All other normal white line marked bays were occupied. I took care to ensure that I had not obstructed any other vehicles. My appeal was rejected on the grounds that I had not parked in a white line marked bay. Almost daily since then I see others parked in the same spot, including blue badge holders but none having been issued with penalty notices so have written again to NCP regarding their inconsistent and discrimatory actins. Rather than incur the higher fine of £75 if not paid in 14 days and under threat of debt collectors I paid up. I am taking advice as to if this constitutes disability discrimination under the DD Act regarding 'access to land based transport services'. I have had two letters published in the local press on the issue and am due to meet with the station manager. However it would appear that the infamous NCP beaurocrats have no sympathy nor interest in resolving this issue. I wonder if others have had similar problems.

Fergie76

You've been scammed and done out of however much you paid.

At train stations, unless they mention Railway Bylaws then just ignore them, as you would if you received them at a supermarket.

AlexisV

Oh dear. You just received a speculative invoice and did not legally owe the money. There is no 'appeals process' - it's a trick to get you to write to them.

I bet the ticket fraudulently stated that it was issued under railway byelaws as well.

Your only solution is to sue NCP in small claims court. In all likelihood they wouldn't even defend.

RENEGADE_2

As Fergie rightly says, railways byelaws are the key to this matter. Check all the documentation and see whether Byelaw 14 is stated anywhere. I'm convinced that even if it is, it is used falsely given in that you have already appealed and unless you've left something out, I'm guessing you appealed to NCP who also issued the ticket. Don't expect symapthy from these degenerate rogues.

Bottom line: you owe absolutely zilch. If this is being pursued via the civil channels, what you have is not a penalty, just an invoice. If they have stated "penalty", then they have stuffed themselves as they can only sue for actual losses.

Ignore ALL rubbish from debt collectors or any third parties, don't believe the nonsense about applying for CCJs because they won't and more importantly, they CAN'T. They can pay to arange a hearing and you too will be invited to defend yourself. This is not exactly applying for anything - they make it sound as if obtaining a CCJ is as easy as getting keeper details. The difference is that the DVLA sell this information to prats stupid enough to pay for it, but no court willingly awards CCJs to organisations just because its "collections manager" has told them "oh, Mr.X owes us £258, let's have a CCJ, thanks".

tonywhatling

Thanks for the responses but yes they did mention bylaws and also their 'car park terms and conditions' which are posted by the station entrance - a notoriously difficult spot to navigate into and out of becasue of heavy traffic and hence I had never seen the nor=tice board before - which does include a paragraph on parking only in marked bays. I still think my only hope is to keep pushing under the disability discrimination act requiring the rail company to provide adequate access facilities.

vax2002

I had a good conversation with BTP officer who said that railway by-law tickets were only issued by BTP officers for vehicles causing an obstruction upon the network, that at the decriminalisation of parking laws they have refraind from issuing them upon car parks as they are privately administered and that they can not be "respectively issued" for ignoring the parking company and in 25 years as a BTP officer he had only issued one on some people they suspected of stealing cabling and had parked a transit van next to the rail line and this was after a lengthy discussion with his sergeant over how to get details of the people they thought were about to nick the cabling, but had not started to yet .
I asked if the parking people could issue one, he said not without a fixed penalty notice and they had to be filled in by the officers or pcso's, who did not have any.
In short unofficially the section 14 was a load of old bull from the private car parking company and anyone getting a real one, would certainly know about it.

Coupon-mad

tonywhatling wrote: »

Thanks for the responses but yes they did mention bylaws and also their 'car park terms and conditions' which are posted by the station entrance - a notoriously difficult spot to navigate into and out of becasue of heavy traffic and hence I had never seen the nor=tice board before - which does include a paragraph on parking only in marked bays. I still think my only hope is to keep pushing under the disability discrimination act requiring the rail company to provide adequate access facilities.

Never pay a private 'parking charge notice'. You were had, this is a scam.:mad:

It may be worth you threatening to sue whichever train operator provides the parking at that station for your out of pocket expenses (the bogus 'fine' you fell for and paid) and a sum for the emotional distress of the ticket (really, it is recoverable under the law!). They have to provide a reasonable adjustment for disabled users and they failed - you may be able to argue there are not enough disabled bays so they have failed in their duty. They may defend this though if it's a small/old car park where they have done their best to comply. But put some pressure on with quotes from the Equality Act (Google it) and you may get a climb-down and a goodwill gesture from the Train company.

Someone on Consumer Action Group forums once posted that they had threatened to sue a retailer in these circs (disabled bays always full so woefully inadequate adjustment) and it may or may not be true but they reckon they were paid out of court a few thousand. That was alleged to have been a payment from a supermarket I think, when the DDA applied - the law now is the Equality Act 2010 which includes the DDA and is clearer on some issues.

vax2002

tonywhatling wrote: »

Rather than incur the higher fine of £75 if not paid in 14 days and under threat of debt collectors I paid up.

End of story, they sent you an invitation to pay an invoice, you accepted that invitation and paid up.
I am sorry but you have just been scammed.

Just learn from the mistake and move on

tonywhatling

Thanks for the resonses and yes I have learned but will certainly not move on. I do intend to claim from the rail company for the amount of the fine, on the grounds that they have significantly failed to provide the nationally required standard of disability bays ratio to other parking bays - said to be 6% - and with only 4 bays on a 188 bay site it is not just an issue of the dosh but of approprate disability access provision. I spotted another hapless blue badge victim on the same spot today so left them a note to contact me. I shall obviously commend them to this site.

AlexisV

tonywhatling wrote: »

Thanks for the responses but yes they did mention bylaws and also their 'car park terms and conditions' which are posted by the station entrance - a notoriously difficult spot to navigate into and out of becasue of heavy traffic and hence I had never seen the nor=tice board before - which does include a paragraph on parking only in marked bays. I still think my only hope is to keep pushing under the disability discrimination act requiring the rail company to provide adequate access facilities.

NCP are well known to issue fake 'railway byelaw' tickets: http://i42.tinypic.com/2v1srdk.jpg

NCP knowingly commit offences under the 2006 Fraud Act and get away with it.

Legitimate railway penalty tickets end up in magistrate's court. NCP issue speculative invoices and unlawfully label them as being issued under Railway Byelaws.

They've been running the scam for years. Which is why if you sued they wouldn't defend. They daren't go anywhere near a court with these.

Kite2010

AlexisV wrote: »

Oh dear. You just received a speculative invoice and did not legally owe the money. There is no 'appeals process' - it's a trick to get you to write to them.

I bet the ticket fraudulently stated that it was issued under railway byelaws as well.

Your only solution is to sue NCP in small claims court. In all likelihood they wouldn't even defend.

And also jointly sue the landowner whom contracted NCP to do the parking mismanagement as you would more likely get money back from them rather than a CCJ collecting PPC :cool:

I'm suprised the landowner hasn't ordered NCP to refund you or risk saying byebye to the contract.