Camera-entry, barrier-less car parks

malkie76

In my area a couple of local private car parks (CP Plus on the tickets) have introduced barrier-less car parks where they photo your car on the way in, and you pay based on your number plate on a touch-screen machine prior to driving out.

Importantly there are no barriers.

I've no intention of doing so, but should I forget to pay and they issue a penalty / fine / whatever, would that be not legally enforceable - ie I could just ignore it ?

It only twigged my mind when I got a receipt on from of these car parks with CP Plus on the back.

The photos the camera takes are pretty blurred and difficult to see who was driving.

I'm just interested, as essentially this car park might only work on a trust basis, and if everyone refused to pay they'd put the barriers back in again.

Sir_Roger_deLodger

malkie76 wrote: »

I've no intention of doing so, but should I forget to pay and they issue a penalty / fine / whatever, would that be not legally enforceable - ie I could just ignore it ?

Yes you could just ignore it.

give_them_FA

Please be clear that we do NOT encourage deliberate non-payment of legitimate and reasonable parking charges. What we advise about is how to avoid paying the outrageous and unlawful penalty charges which these companies attempt to impose for the slightest breach of their often unreasonable rules, which amounts to a scam.

So yes, try to remember to pay; but if you forget, do not pay any inflated arbitrary amount they try to lever out of you; offer the amount you should have paid and if they refuse to accept it they will not have a leg to stand on from that point on, so simply IGNORE any further letters from them and never speak to them again.

malkie76

Thanks for the comments - that is what I thought.

It's clear to me that if no-one paid then they car park would close and we'd have no where to park. It's no different to buying a train ticket on a train you know has no inspector - you still buy the ticket to ensure they keep running trains.

I've no plan to dodge parking fees - I was just interested in how their system operates!

give_them_FA

Good good. The absence of physical barriers is in any case a ploy, the company is hoping people will deliberately/accidentally not pay so that it can try to extract far larger "fines" out of them- those that don't stand up to the robbers, that is.

HO87

give_them_FA wrote: »

Good good. The absence of physical barriers is in any case a ploy, the company is hoping people will deliberately/accidentally not pay so that it can try to extract far larger "fines" out of them- those that don't stand up to the robbers, that is.

This may be the case. However, at least the relationship is one that is recognisable with the motorist paying sensible value for a service he has actually received.

I for one have far less issue with this type of car park management than the more common PPC model - which is simply tax farming. Indeed I have often used a private P&D car park operated by Euro Car Parks where the charges are reasonable, the signage clear and unambiguous and the car park is in good order, well laid out and has sensibly sized spaces.

I would never recommend nor condone deliberately avoiding payment of reasonable charges.