Cms parking fines at Blackburn train station

Cml_2

Hi guys,
Having read everyone else's threads on ignoring ppc's I just had a question after reading something about national rail by laws. My teenage son is following advice on not replying to the scam letters from the above company after getting a parking charge notice for £55 increasing to £90 after 2 weeks fine for parking on the local train station car park and the 2 weeks are nearly up. Ticket stated 'left the site' after parking on what was formerly a free car park (that cms now charging £2.00 for) and merrily jumping on the train as he didn't realise there was a charge. They had put the some signage up at roughly 8 foot off the ground in probably the smallest text they can legally get away with and hidden the parking meter way over at the back of the car park which I believe he did find after seeing the offensive yellow package on the windscreen and actually searched for it - I've been myself and looked and its certainly not obvious and no barriers etc and car park is a small section at the back of a retail park car park. I contacted national rail and they stated cms were contracted by northern rail who run the site and it was nothing to do with them. Does this mean it can be treated as a private parking area and by laws relating to property owned by the railways doesn't apply if national rail aren't at all interested? They informed us to take it up with cms directly. I'm more than happy to use the aggressive mailings to store our familys muddy wellys on but just a little concerned as we found a some information advising on land being owned by the railways as being subject to certain laws regarding parking. Does anyone have any advice on this and are we right to carry on militantly ignoring the poison pen letters? With thanks.

give_them_FA

It certainly appears to be just another fake ticket that can be ignored. Does it mention any type of "bye-law" anywhere on it?

HO87

give_them_FA wrote: »

It certainly appears to be just another fake ticket that can be ignored. Does it mention any type of "bye-law" anywhere on it?

Those tickets that have previously led to allegations under the R'ways byelaws made no mention of the byelaws initially anyway so there may be no definitive conclusion to be drawn from the fact that your son's doesn't either. The clue will undoubtedly lie in the signage which will need to give warning of certain things if any action was to be taken under the byelaws.

The fact that the ticket suggests that the infraction your son is alleged to have committed is "left site" might be alluding to the fact that they believe that he did not catch a train. A condition at some of Northern rails sites is that you can only use the car park if you are a bona fide rail passenger.

Cml_2

Nothing at all on the ticket other than the usual, it just appears to be a standard form. I thought it odd that they'd scrawled left site as the infringement instead of failed to display a valid ticket too - they hadn't even got the alleged crime right!

Cml_2

Thanks HO87, we will go back and check signage carefully but can't remember anything stating bye laws from when I went myself to look, I only came across the suggestion on the Internet. He's kept his rail ticket as evidence but when I contacted national rail having an angry mother rant about the fact he'd used the Carpark for genuine rail travel and could prove it they weren't really interested and although sympathised with the fact it was clearly a rip off, just said it was between my son and the private parking company and to lodge an appeal to them...hmmm, I don't think we'll be doing that judging off the advice on here!!!

give_them_FA

I can understand HO87's concern as the issues with railways can be an anomaly. However it seems plain that all your son got was a fake ticket which can be safely ignored- to be on the safe side I would check the sign, though!

Coupon-mad

I would post about this one on pepipoo as you mentioned Northern Rail?

Northern Rail have started to take people to magistrates court on the odd occasion now. But they would have to do this within 6 months I think and if it started out as a 'parking charge' (fake) then you could write and ask for proof that any 'penalty' was ever served. It was not!

Pepipoo here:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showforum=60

HTH

HO87

To clarify C-M's point, Northern Rail (together with at least two other TOC's) have recently begun to issue proceedings against some (I emphasise the word "some") previous recipients of what were undoubtedly contractually-based tickets. There is no provision within the byelaws, nor their parent legislation, for the application of "parking charge notices" to drivers (although there is provision for a penalty to be applied to vehicle owners) and the route NR are taking smacks of them trying to having their cake and eat it by chasing contractual charges to start with and, if this yields nothing, following up with summonses for alleged byelaw breaches. The process they are using does not follow anything laid down in the byelaws and, besides looking as though it had been made up as they go along, may well lack crucial evidence. One of the cases is likely to be legally challenged shortly and this may lead to a clarification.