UKCPS ticket

Steadyeddie_2

Hi all
I recently received a ticket from this company for parking in a disabled bay at a retail park. My son was on crutches but we did not have a blue badge.
Unfortunately I sent an appeal by email from my work address which was of course rejected.
I have had a quick read through this forum and it seems the advice is to ignore the ticket. Please could you advise me whether I should ignore this ticket in my circumstances.
Thanks

Stephen_Leak

Is your son's need for crutches permanent or temporary? If it's permanent, then he should come under The Equality Act 2010. If it's temporary, he doesn't come under the Equality Act, but it's still OK.

The Blue Badge scheme doesn’t apply to private car parks. Anyone, who’s disabled under The Equality Act can use a disabled parking bay. If they’re also Blue Badge holders, they don't need to display it. The Equality Act doesn't say that able-bodied drivers can't also use disabled parking bays. OK, maybe they shouldn't, but they can. In any event, the terms & conditions for the car park usually state that you shouldn't park in a disabled bay without displaying a Blue Badge. This, in itself, contravenes The Equality Act.

Firstly, the general legal stuff.

Only councils, the police, train operators and Transport for London can impose legally enforceable fines or penalties. A private company or individual can't. Private parking companies (PPCs) call their tickets Parking Charge Notices, not Penalty Charge Notices. In law, they’re called speculative invoices.

Any warning signs are usually so badly positioned and worded, that they won’t have created a fair and legally binding deemed contract with a driver entering the car park in the first place. See The Unfair Contract Terms Act 1997 and Excel Parking Services vs. Cutts, Stockport, 2011.

All the car park owner (CPO) can claim from a driver in damages for any alleged breach of any alleged contract is what they’ve lost as a result. If it’s in a free car park or the driver paid, this is £0.00. Demanding more has been judged to be unreasonable and therefore an unfair contract penalty under the terms of The Unfair Contract Terms Act 1997, which is not legally enforceable. See Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co. Ltd. vs. New Garage & Motor Co. Ltd., House of Lords, 1914 and countless cases since.

There are also now recent landmark court cases, VCS Parking Control vs. Ronald Ibbotson, S!!!!horpe, 2012, HM Revenue & Customs vs. VCS Parking Control, Lower Tax Tribunal, 2012 and VCS Parking Control vs. HM Revenue & Customs (Appeal), Upper Tax Tribunal, 2012. In these cases, the judges ruled that only the CPO can charge for parking and take drivers to court. The Upper Tax Tribunal is equivalent to the High Court, and therefore its judgements set legal precedents.

What should I do now?

We don’t condone not paying or overstaying in a pay car park. If you owe the CPO the original charge, then you ought to write to the CPO, offering this in “full and final settlement”. In any event, you should write to the CPO, advising them that they are "jointly and severally liable" for the actions of their agents, the PPC, and that any further actions by either of them would be regarded as harassment under the terms of The Protection from Harassment Act 1997. This ought to make the CPO call off the PPC and, hopefully, realise the potential cost of doing business with a PPC.

Don’t appeal to the PPC. They always reject them. What’s in it for them to let anyone off? Actually, there is something in it for them: information. They need to know the identity of the driver of the vehicle involved at the time, because that’s who the alleged contract was with. If they don’t know who the driver was, they have to make do with harassing the registered keeper.

With windscreen notices, an appeal letter will tell them your name and address, and maybe who was driving at the time. If they don’t know who the driver was, they have to buy the details of registered keeper from the DVLA. With postal notices, they’ve had to do this already. But they still need to know the identity of the driver.

They sometimes say that they have the right to ask for this information. This doesn’t mean that you have to tell them.

However, even if you’ve written and told them who the driver was, it just means that they can now harass the driver instead of harassing the registered keeper.

How will they do this to me?

The PPC, then a debt collector and then a solicitor will send you a series of letters. The debt collector and solicitor are usually also the PPC, but using different headed paper. These letters will threaten you with every kind of financial and legal unpleasantness imaginable to intimidate you into paying.

But, they can't actually do anything, for the same reason that a blackmailer can't take anyone who didn’t pay them to court.

What should I do then?

Continue to ignore everything you get from the PPC and their aliases. It does seem odd to deal with something like this by ignoring it. Eventually, they will run out of empty threats and stop throwing good money after bad.

Coupon-mad

Steadyeddie wrote: »

Hi all
I recently received a ticket from this company for parking in a disabled bay at a retail park. My son was on crutches but we did not have a blue badge.
Unfortunately I sent an appeal by email from my work address which was of course rejected.
I have had a quick read through this forum and it seems the advice is to ignore the ticket. Please could you advise me whether I should ignore this ticket in my circumstances.
Thanks

As Stephen Leak says, if it's a chronic condition (more than 12 months and affecting daily living) then your son can use a disabled bay under the terms of the Equality Act. No Blue Badge would be needed as the scheme does not apply; instead the Act's 'definition of disability' covers the provision.

If he was on crutches due to a temporary thing like a broken leg then he's not protected by the Act and should not have used the bay without getting permission to do so. Some retailers would allow this - but you'd have to ask when it's just a short-term problem.

Bottom line, ignore any fake PCN anyway.

Steadyeddie_2

My son has a broken foot.
I'm quite happy to take your advice and ignore the charge but am a bit concerned about one thing.
In the 'appeal' email that I sent, I accepted that I didnt have a blue badge but explained about my sons situation. Would accepting liability like this give me problems?
Thanks

Driver8

Steadyeddie wrote: »

My son has a broken foot.
I'm quite happy to take your advice and ignore the charge but am a bit concerned about one thing.
In the 'appeal' email that I sent, I accepted that I didnt have a blue badge but explained about my sons situation. Would accepting liability like this give me problems?
Thanks

None whatsoever.

Just remember, it is a PRIVATE company trying to extort money out of you, nothing more nothing less.

You or i could set up a private parking company today and be doing exactly what they are doing by this time next week. Extorting money out of peoples ignorance.

Unfortunately in this country people are now so conditioned to accepting any form of so called authority, a great deal just cave in and pay whatever demands they are sent through the post. A director at my place of work paid one a few year ago till i educated him !

Totally utterly ignore any correspondence from them and laugh at the fact they are wasting money posting their utter contemptible tosh to you.

Remember it is a PRIVATE company with no more powers than you or i.

Steadyeddie_2

Many thanks for the advice.
Keep up the good work.

bazster

Steadyeddie wrote: »

Hi all
I recently received a ticket from this company for parking in a disabled bay at a retail park.

Identify all the shops at the retail park and write to their CEO's telling them you'll never shop there again until they fire the maggots infesting their car park. Even if you don't mean it, they don't know that.