'Valid Parking' in Stockport

HeatonSK4

One quiet Sunday in Stockport town centre, A friend of mine left his car in a space that was signed as private land for a couple of minutes while he nipped round the corner for a quick errand. Upon returning, he found a scrawny little uniformless bloke on a bike had popped up and was writing a 'Parking Charge Notice'. Attempts to reason with the 'attendant' were fruitless and my friend was understandably in a bad mood at having to pay a potential £95 'fine'.

However, on googling Valid Parking, I have ascertained that it is not a fine, but an invoice. It is clearly as bent as a nine bob note, but I'm just checking to see if there have been any other developments my friend should be aware of.

I should also warn Mr. Valed (or any of his associates that might be reading this) that I work for a local radio station. I may be tracking him down for a little investigative reporting as a public service so that the good people of Stockport will be better informed on these matters.

Trebor16

Sounds like you have got their measure Heaton so just advise your friend to ignore any letters from the PPC. They have no power under law to issue fines or penalties.

It would also be a good idea to go back to the site and take photos of it to see what signage they have up there, just as a back up plan.

trisontana

There are no new developments, so private parking tickets are still phoney and can be ignored.

HeatonSK4

Trebor16 wrote: »

It would also be a good idea to go back to the site and take photos of it to see what signage they have up there, just as a back up plan.

Oh, it says something like "this is private land and if you park here you agree to pay £95".

Though it was a Sunday, the parking spaces were not appended to any obvious business and it would have been shut anyway.

Kite2010

Don't worry about the sign, any judge will see that charge as an unfair contract term and void it as a penalty.

Coupon-mad

HeatonSK4 wrote: »

One quiet Sunday in Stockport town centre, A friend of mine left his car in a space that was signed as private land for a couple of minutes while he nipped round the corner for a quick errand. Upon returning, he found a scrawny little uniformless bloke on a bike had popped up and was writing a 'Parking Charge Notice'. Attempts to reason with the 'attendant' were fruitless and my friend was understandably in a bad mood at having to pay a potential £95 'fine'.

However, on googling Valid Parking, I have ascertained that it is not a fine, but an invoice. It is clearly as bent as a nine bob note, but I'm just checking to see if there have been any other developments my friend should be aware of.

I should also warn Mr. Valid (or any of his associates that might be reading this) that I work for a local radio station. I may be tracking him down for a little investigative reporting as a public service so that the good people of Stockport will be better informed on these matters.

If you do mention it on a radio show, please make sure your listeners know that it relates to any private parking charge, any company.

Easy way to tell a real PCN is the Council logo and the word 'Penalty'.

A fake one is from ANY private firm with the word 'Parking' making up the PCN acronym.

Typically, your listeners, law-abiding motorists, may pick up or be posted a fake PCN from:

Supermarkets
Shopping Retail Outlets
Furniture or white goods retail parks
Entertainment complexes
Children's centres like Fun Factory, playgroups etc.
Sports Centres
Gyms
Swimming Pools
McDonalds and fast food places
Hotels and pubs
Schools and colleges
Universities
Church or Community Centre Halls
Train stations
Dunelm Mill and similar stores
B&Q and similar stores
Ikea and similar stores
Motorway Services
Garages
Private blacks of flats where friends/relatives live
Doctors' surgeries
Dentists' surgeries
Hospitals
Theatres or cinema

And do make it clear that we are not talking about some random rude bad parkers dumping their cars on random strips of private land. Nor are we saying people can/should park whereever they like, of course not.

We are talking about ordinary people/customers victimised and illegally harassed for daring to park with lawful authority in the above places but falling 'foul' of a sneaky protection racket they would never have suspected that a big store or service would ever allow onsite!

Then don't even get us started about the harassment, misleading company names and dodgy statements about CCJs in the threatograms (see top thread) and the breaches of the Equality Act 2010 where they pretend all disabled people who use a disabled bay in a car park have to show a Blue badge. They do not, the signs lie and breach disability law. It's just like restricting braille or large-print versions of documents only to those partially-sighted people who actually possess a white stick...clearly a breach! :mad:

The answer? Complain in writing to the retailer/landowner/service and say you will vote with your feet (even threaten to sue them for harassment).

NEVER PAY, NEVER 'APPEAL' (LOL, as if!!).

give_them_FA

Heaton, this parking stuff is nothing short of a scam and seriously needs some big-time exposure in the media to educate people that it isn't kosher and they don't have to pay these FAKE invoices. Get to it buddy!

bondy_lad

i spend part of my time when in stockport walking around the peel centre(patrolled by the scum of the earth excell parking) and part in the aldi car park on newbridge lane (patrolled by equally scum,,parking eye), informing drivers of these fake tickets,, some folk think i am nuts some thank me,,it would be great if somehow this scam could make the news,,incidentally those of us on here always say we should pay for the cost of parking,, as regards the fake invoice,,,its an ignore,,full stop,,along with all the threat o grams from debt collectors and phoney solicitor,which all equate to loo paper.

give_them_FA

Bondy is right, we don't tell people to break legitimate rules, merely not to pay scamming extortionate tickets for minor, and often non-existent, mistakes.

Coupon-mad

bondy_lad wrote: »

i spend part of my time when in stockport walking around the peel centre(patrolled by the scum of the earth excell parking) and part in the aldi car park on newbridge lane (patrolled by equally scum,,parking eye), informing drivers of these fake tickets,, some folk think i am nuts some thank me,,it would be great if somehow this scam could make the news,,incidentally those of us on here always say we should pay for the cost of parking,, as regards the fake invoice,,,its an ignore,,full stop,,along with all the threat o grams from debt collectors and phoney solicitor,which all equate to loo paper.

Oh yes, Stockport's PPCs are famous for this amusing loss.

This is the place where the judge made 2 site visits and declared the signage misleading, declaring ''The lettering about failure to comply is about four times larger than the lettering saying it is a pay and display car park, which tells me the real interest is in failure to comply.”

And what did the BPA say about those signs? Oh, 'these signs from Excel do comply with our Code of Practice'. Says a lot about the BPA COP!

And who is the boss of Excel? It's Simon Renshaw-Smith who is - by all accounts - rolling in money with 3 daughters at a top private school, a private estate in Belper with horses and staff.

The same Simon Renshaw-Smith who is on the board of the BPA which is currently persuading the Government that they need to close a 'loophole' and make registered keepers responsible for fake PCNs!

:eek:

Rs_woody

Pulled up in under bank Stockport " girlfriend got out was sat with engine running waiting 2 mins while she went to the toilet a bloke came from hiding round front of my car taking photo of tax disc reg number " said 2 him what the f**k you doing !! He said you have been parked here for 2 minutes and I'm issuing you a ticket " on this I went off my head could have done him some serious damage " they are conning people out of money and should be stopped now !!!!! My girlfriend has made me pay these fuc*ers cos it's her car " something needs doing about this company !!!! They are a fuc*ing disgrace " Valid Parking is there name !!!!! Will be down at the police station 1st thing 2 report these !!!!!!