Location of parking board

Essex32

Hello

Received PCN from NCP after I parked in a stations car park. I had bought a ticket but returning to my car it was in the footwell so can only assume it came off the dash after closing the door. Like most sites and watched the watchdog youtube clip and have ignored 2 letters now and the last one being if you dont pay will take you to court and may have problems getting credit etc etc.... However I have noticed that the NCP board that details the rules about parking and charges etc is not in the car park but on a public piece of land on a road on enterance to the station, so if for example due to its location if you parked next to this sign on the street could be seen as a violation, therefore I am wondering why the NCP board is not in the station itself and only on a post on a grass verge on a public highway. Any ideas on how legal this is?

taffy056

It depends if they have permission to put this sign there, really speaking it should be on the entrance of the car park. They haven't booked on this public highway have they ? And you are doing the right thing in ignoring them in this regard, you have paid you can prove it, there is no loss to NCP

Coupon-mad

If it's on the public highway then you could report it to the local Council's Highways Dept and see what they say.

Apart from that, carry on ignoring because NCP don't issue fines, only fake 'PCCNs', even in railway car parks. They don't issue real ones under railway bylaws or anything.

Essex32

Thanks for replies.. I was wondering who I could contact to find out who owns this piece of land so may give the council highways dept a call.
Although I am ignoring their letters and threats do they ever do take anyone to court or send baliffs round as you know NCP a big company so tho ignoring them do think how far they will go. Last letter I got was this is your final chance to pay the GBP 75 before we give it to a debt collecting agency and could damage your credit rating.....

Coupon-mad

Yes, ring the Highways Dept and ask them. Or get an email addy and email them a link from GoogleStreetView to pinpoint the spot.

As for NCP, they are indeed a bigger parking firm but no, they don't do Court. They can't just send the bailiffs round nor affect your credit rating. Read this pepipoo explanation, an oldie but a goodie:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=24362

And all the letter-chain is shown in our second to top thread 'PPC letters/threats'. Just play snap with the letters. Worry ye not.

If you do find it's public highway then I really would be tempted to report them to Trading Standards, also complain in writing to the Train Operator which probably owns the actual station car park. Tell them that their agent has exceeded the car park curtelage and how horrified you were that their agent had tried to impersonate a real parking ticket when you were on the public highway.

If it were me (if it turns out to be public highway) I would also consider taking NCP to Small Claims for harassment. NCP are slightly different from most PPCs, only insofar as they have assets, car parks, a relatively 'good name' (by comparison!) and probably won't want a case like that if they want to keep the Train Operator happy. Claim a couple of hundred quid and I wouldn't be surprised if they settled it!

BASFORDLAD

Op can you get a clear picture of the ncp board pls and post it up?

Essex32

Hello
Update on above spoke to the council but they said they dont own the piece of land and had to contact the land registery do find out but have not done that yet. In meantime I have received a letter from Newlyn debt collections who "have been contacted by NCP" to recover the debt which is now GBP 129 and do not ignore this letter as further action may be taken at considerable cost... I am getting slightly worried as NCP are a big company not like the 2 bob companies that issue you a PCN so I thinking maybe they will take stronger action? Any ideas of whether I should just pay it or carrying on ignoring it... Thanks

SodG24

Essex32 wrote: »

Hello
Update on above spoke to the council but they said they dont own the piece of land and had to contact the land registery do find out but have not done that yet. In meantime I have received a letter from Newlyn debt collections who "have been contacted by NCP" to recover the debt which is now GBP 129 and do not ignore this letter as further action may be taken at considerable cost... I am getting slightly worried as NCP are a big company not like the 2 bob companies that issue you a PCN so I thinking maybe they will take stronger action? Any ideas of whether I should just pay it or carrying on ignoring it... Thanks

Continue to ignore. NCP maybe bigger but they're still scammers. Here in Brighton they supply the Traffic Wardens ( albeit via an NCP subsidiary ) and to say they're brainless morons does morons a dis-service.

Coupon-mad

Essex32 wrote: »

Hello
Update on above spoke to the council but they said they dont own the piece of land and had to contact the land registery do find out but have not done that yet. In meantime I have received a letter from Newlyn debt collections who "have been contacted by NCP" to recover the debt which is now GBP 129 and do not ignore this letter as further action may be taken at considerable cost... I am getting slightly worried as NCP are a big company not like the 2 bob companies that issue you a PCN so I thinking maybe they will take stronger action? Any ideas of whether I should just pay it or carrying on ignoring it... Thanks

The opposite is true, NCP have never been seen to try Court on any individual forum posts we have ever seen (I think they may have tried it for someone who had accumulated several fake PCNs but never for just one or two).

Anyway, you are worrying about something that's less likely than you winning the lottery! The FOI request which found how many cases went to Court in 2011 showed that 49 cases across the whole country resulted in a Small Claim in a year, of which over half were lost by the PPC. The chances of being taken to Small Claims are tiny and it simply will not happen.

The Newlyn letters are the usual letter chain. You should be expecting all these and just playing snap with the letter-chain by now against the 3rd from top thread on here, called 'PPC letter chains'. Your letter is on there and is one of the last template threatograms before they give up.

Essex32

Thanks for you replies.. I will ignore and continue to do so, there has been many threads on this and even the Watchdog thingy...Im expecting more letters so will simply play snap with them.

rdr

I got some very threatening letters from Newlyn after a NCP ticket, including one that said "we will [not the usual hedge] start court proceedings if you don't pay" they didn't,