Parking Eye / Aldi - naughty naughty

SodG24

First the good news, my fat thick friend from Parking Eye at my local Aldi would appear to be out of a job as PE have replaced him with cameras. Sad though I will be not to ever be sparring with him again or altering his invoices it is at least one less person involved in the PPC scam.

The original planning permission at this site allowed people to park free for 3 hours ( subsequently reduced to 2 at a later application ) BUT to let people use the other local shops AND to use a car park management system agreed with the council.

All of a sudden PE have put up a banner declaring only Aldi customers can use the car park. I've search the council planning records and Aldi haven't applied to either change the condition around use of other shops nor to put up cameras nor to change the management system.

I will of course be reporting Aldi to the council and informing PE and the BPA that they are breaking planning permission.

What fun :rotfl:

27col

Sounds like a plan, keep us posted.

antrobus

SodG24 wrote: »

....

I will of course be reporting Aldi to the council and informing PE and the BPA that they are breaking planning permission.

What fun :rotfl:

A local Tesco Express did a similar thing and started trying to issue 'enforcement notices' on shoppers who used its (small) car park. Until that is a local councillor pointed out to them that it was a condition of their planning permission that the car park was for the use of all local shoppers.

vax2002

If they have broken planning laws, you need to insist they are prosecuted or the matter referred to the Local Government ombudsman if they fail to do so. .

SodG24

vax2002 wrote: »

If they have broken planning laws, you need to insist they are prosecuted or the matter referred to the Local Government ombudsman if they fail to do so. .

Agreed but thankfully the council already don't like Aldi - they've already prosecuted them about two years ago for breaking the planning permission. I don't think it will take too much of a push

SodG24

And back to the topic of the thread. I've now sent the following to the council :

Please could you clarify a planning question I have around parking at Aldi in Carlton Terrace, Portslade.

As I understand it Aldi were granted permission for the store with a number of conditions under application BH2006/00834. The key condition around the car park being condition 16 – that users of Portslade Shopping Centre were allowed 3 hours free parking to use Aldi and / or other local shops. At the same time they had to implement a car park management scheme agreed with the council.

Aldi subsequently tried to have this condition removed under applications BH2010/01684 and BH2011/01104 – both were refused ( although other conditions were altered around deliveries and staff access to the store ).

Under application BH2011/02857 Aldi finally, and regrettably, managed to get the free three hours reduced to two. What wasn’t changed was the condition to allow people to use other shops and to use the pre-agreed car park management system.

Aldi along with their appointed agent Parking Eye have suddenly this week put up signs indicating only customers of Aldi can use the car park. Alongside that they have altered the management system to a ticketed and patrolled system to an APNR camera system.

I can find no planning applications for these changes on the council website.

Please could I respectively request clarification around the following :

1. Do Aldi / Parking Eye have planning permission to now exclude anyone no using their store ?
2. Do Aldi /Parking Eye have planning permission for the new sign on the west wall ?
3. Do Aldi / Parking Eye have planning permission to change the car park management system in use ?
4. Do Aldi / Parking Eye have planning permission to install the APNR cameras ?

If the answer to any of these questions is no please could you start enforcement proceedings without delay.

SodG24

And now I've emailed Parking Spy for a laugh !!!!

"I have noted that you provide car park “management” to my local Aldi store in Carlton Terrace, Portslade, Hove. I also note that that you have recently change your method of enforcement and installed a new sign along with new APNR cameras. I am brining to you attention that Aldi do not have planning permission for the following :

Ø The new sign
Ø To change the conditions of the planning permission to Aldi customers only. Under planning application BH2006/00834, condition 16 customers of any of the local shops are entitled to use the car park free. This condition has not been rescinded or altered despite attempts by Aldi.
Ø To change the management system of the car park from tickets with on foot patrols to camera enforcement. The previously mentioned planning application included a condition that the car park management scheme had to be pre-agreed with the council. No application has been placed to change to the APNR camera system.
Ø The installation of APNR cameras.

Subsequently any and all “tickets” issued using the APNR system are null and void. This obviously ignores that fact that they are legally unenforceable under contract law anyway. I have reported both Aldi and Parking Eye to the local council Planning Department request enforcement action be taken against both parties.

It is worth noting that I have been an Aldi customer for some time and have explained to at least 20 people who were issued with tickets that they didn’t have to pay. Strangely none have ever been taken to court by yourselves despite ignoring all your letters. I will now leaflet all cars each week when I shop to ensure nobody pays your invoices going forwards."[FONT=&quot][/FONT]

muckybutt

Looks like a few dont get PP for cameras and signs, I researched our local tesco today, they have anpr but the only PP I could find was for a parking barrier ?

patman99

I do hope you pointed-out that Parking Eye don't actually have a legal way of creating a contract with a user of the carpark on behalf of the landowner.
May be a letter to your local newspaper. If they have a 'My Opinion' feature, send in an article for that as well.

When my local rag ran a news item about a Clacton man getting a 'fine' for using the entrance to a hotel to turn around in, I sent-in a letter mentioning that he can safely ignore the theatregram. This encouraged 2 other people to write-in backing-up my letter.
When the decision was made in the famous VCS v. HMRC 2012 case, I once again wrote-in under the headline 'Judge clarifies rules on PPC PCNs'.
In every letter, I refered to the forum here along with Peppipoo and my Hubpages article (which has been viewed by over 3,500 people so far).

Strangely, there has been no response from the PPCs.

SodG24

muckybutt wrote: »

Looks like a few dont get PP for cameras and signs, I researched our local tesco today, they have anpr but the only PP I could find was for a parking barrier ?

I suspect most think they can get away with it. In fact I'm now going to check on my local G24 sites and see if they have planning permission :rotfl:

taffy056

I have noticed that tesco in swansea has no planning permission for ppc signs or cameras that I can see, going to check other sites when I have time