Private company working for LA - Is this enforceable?

lostinthewoods

Corection to my previous. ..About 4 posts above I said,

"You are right that the City of London is a local authority but not THE local authority here. .."

A bit of research shows that the Corporation of London actually is the Local Authority under the Corporation of London Open Spaces Act 1878, which was passed to allow the Corporation to acquire some bits of land including Burnham Beeches.

The Corporation can and has passed bye-laws and their "Park Inspectors" are trained in PACE powers and interviewing. They can initiate prosecutions. I know this just confuses the issue, but the circumstances are unusual and so it seems that the Corporation may actually have jurisdiction in a part of Berkshire after all.

annoyeddriver_2

Hmm - the 'ticket' doesnt say PENALTY CHARGE NOTICE - I thought it had to say this if issued by a council / local authority?

Coupon-mad

Does the ticket say 'Parking Charge Notice'? No mention of Traffic Law or Bylaws? Then it's a civil matter and can be ignored - it will not follow the Council appeals procedure, it will follow the PPC model of debt collector letters, then nothing more.

Sometimes you get Councils acting as a PPC or outsourcing 'enforcement' to a PPC (usually on car parks at blocks of LA flats) as it's cheaper than jumping through all the hoops of creating/agreeing a Parking Places Order, publicising the restrictions, enforcing it 'properly' with a Council CEO team, etc. In that case they do just issue 'Parking Charge Notices' which the Council probably knows are ineffectual but they rely on the fact that most people do not know this.

vax2002

annoyeddriver wrote: »

Hmm - the 'ticket' doesnt say PENALTY CHARGE NOTICE - I thought it had to say this if issued by a council / local authority?

Yes it has to say
PENALTY CHARGE NOTICE
Traffic management act 2004
then it can quote the act or quote sections in force.
The traffic management act is an act of parliment giving local authorities devolved power of penalty levies.
Without quoting the act that gives them this power on the ticket, it becomes a flyer, a bit of hamster bedding, emergency toilet paper, or what ever you see fit to do with it.

TrickyWicky

vax2002 wrote: »

Anything that does not state
PENALTY CHARGE NOTICE
The Traffic Management act 2004

Last time I issued a council PCN it had that and it still had the Road Traffic Act on it too.

annoyeddriver_2

Link to ticket

use.com/173f03b720b6d93388eb

peter_the_piper

1)Driver must pay
2)charge for credit card use (not allowed by councils)
3)Payment to PO Box.
4)Parking Charge Notice.
All signs of just being a PPC.

HO87

District Enforcement are a PPC plain and simple. Based in Stafford they appeared about 18 months ago with much fanfare that they had THE answer to dealing with private parking because the then all three directors had recently obtained law degrees. Lots of puff pieces in the local press and they had offices on the university campus for a while. Quite why they feel that a degree from what one might describe as the equivalent of the University of Wallamalloo qualified them goodness only knows, but that is what they said. IIRC one of them, at least, was an ex-cop and another was a graphic designer (or similar). They are still going but the graphic designer has left to go back to graphic designing and otherwise things have been pretty quiet on their front.

As for Burnham Beeches it seems that DEL are merely acting as a PPC. To establish a parking places order and equip the car park would cost money (as if the corporation haven't got any - how much did they stump up to help fund Crossrail?). Have DEL come in and do it for free - and may be give them a rake off?

titch2k6

If there were no signage up at the car park (did you get photographic evidence? If not, it will be more difficult to prove), then the operator has breached the British Parking Association's Code Of Practice, where in Appendix B, section B4.1 the BPA clearly states that:

"You may ticket vehicles only where there are visible, clear, and legible signs and you must keep a record of where all the site’s signs are."

You may want to consider writting a letter of complaint to the BPA and ask for an investigation.

Coupon-mad

annoyeddriver wrote: »

Link to ticket

use.com/173f03b720b6d93388eb

Here's the clicky link to it:

http://www.use.com/173f03b720b6d93388eb

Now just ignore it and the letters they may send you. It's the same scam as all the other PPCs use, all letters are shown in the top sticky thread. They will almost certainly use the same debt collector letter-chains as all their PPC mates.