Got a fine while walking to the ticket machine!

AlexisV

Very simple - unless it says "Traffic Management Act 2004" on it, ignore it.

Inflatable_Armadillo

SonOfPearl wrote: »

Thanks to everyone for your helpful replies!

I have just spoken - again - to the local Vinci office and they said that they operate the car park on behalf of the local authority, but payment would be made to Vinci. Does that mean it's a private ticket?

They suggested we should write to them again with a second appeal letter. Is this worth doing or are we wasting our time?

btw- I'm not sure whether it's appropriate for me to mention it by name, but the car park is Heath Park Parade Ground in Cardiff.

I am more than certain it is private, but as the wonderful Alexis posts, double check if says "Traffic Management Act 2004" anywhere on the notice?

vax2002

Can you get the ticket please and find where it says :
Send payment to:...... and post this information ASAP

The_Slithy_Tove

SonOfPearl wrote: »

btw- I'm not sure whether it's appropriate for me to mention it by name, but the car park is Heath Park Parade Ground in Cardiff.

If you look at the Cardiff council web site, it only lists 3 car parks as run by the council, none of them that one. It also gives the address for parking fines to be sent to as
Parking Services
PO Box 47
Cardiff
CF11 1QB
If it's not that on your ticket, it's not a coucil ticket.

SonOfPearl

Thanks so much everyone! The ticket says the payment should be... "made payable to Vinci Park Services Ltd". So that's a private ticket then, yes? No mention of a Traffic Management Act.

I'm not sure whether we need to write to them again to reiterate that we are not paying their poxy fine because we didn't park illegally!?

Is it useful and/or necessary to write a second and final letter to say we have no intention of parting with £50 for something we didn't do? (in addition to the letter we already sent which explained the relevant facts).

trisontana

Just ignore them from now on.

vax2002

Private parking firm.
IGNORE from now on, get ready for fake debt letters and threats of fake court action, fake solicitors and more threats of fake court action all to go with the fake parking ticket they gave you, possibly even phone calls from fake debt collectors.
All you will achieve by writing is more harassment.
They dont care if you are right or wrong, they leave bait out for you to take, this is a scam of impersonation of authority that needs to open a dialogue to get the scam running, leaving a bit of bait out is how they do it.

Sirdan

As has been already said if the ticket is not issued in accordance with the TMA 2004 then it IS a private ticket -IGNORE.

Even if Vinci are managing the car park for the LA , they are doing so as a PPC not as an agent of the LA , as such they do NOT have any statutory authority, IGNORE.

Coupon-mad

Don't contact them at all or you'll give them information about the driver - and they'll also know their letters are being read. They'll step up the debt collector threats in the hope of scaring someone in the household into paying, if they use enough scary legalese and lies about CCJs and Court.

If you have not read the stickies yet (info threads at the top of the forum), click on 'Parking Tickets, Fines & Parking' in the blue chain>link above (top of page 'breadcrumb trail' link) to work your way back and view current threads on the board you are on. See my signature - which attempts to tell people this, without providing a link as I am not allowed to in a sig.

You will see a top thread with PPC letters, showing you what to expect and ignore (in pictures). And you will see a sticky thread called 'welcome, please read before posting' which has a must-see Watchdog youtube clip.

Plus you will see all the current threads from today and yesterday, we get 20 or 30 new queries here every day. Have a look and see how many times we tell peeps to ignore any fake PCN from any private company. Get familiar with the scam and get ready for a game of PPC snap with the debt collector letters! Join the 'ignore a PPC scam' club!

SonOfPearl

I'm afraid they already have our address, but we will ignore their letters from now on. Many thanks to all who replied!:T