A complicated tale...

HO87

This situation revolves around two seemingly linked issues:

Firstly, the OP is being pursued by APCOA for failing to display a permit presumably because, they will claim, it breaches the terms and conditions (the OP is parking in a permit only area and is failing to display one) and secondly the OP is looking to raise a grievance with the Acute Trust with regard to being charged for parking. Whilst the two may appear to be linked because there is likely to be a single, overarching policy, they nevertheless remain separate.

APCOA's situation will be governed by the VCS judgment and whether they have sufficient interest in the land the car park stands on remains to be seen. Many Trusts delegate their facilities management functions to private companies and it is reasonably likely that APCOA are merely an agent of an agent and gaining a proprietary right by that route would seem unlikely. Neither should we lose sight of the fact that APCOA do not and never have done court and the risk of proceedings being commenced by them is slim. The fact that APCOA manage the car park would not prevent the Trust issuing proceedings if they chose to and at least four NHS Trusts did so last year. This may remain a risk.

The slightly thornier issue is that of the putative grievance between the OP and the Acute Trust. The Acute Trust could well reject any grievance as the OP is not their employee - there is no contractual relationship between them. The OP is actually employed by the Psychiatric Trust but is required as part of their contract of employment to work within the facilities of the Acute Trust. The OP should therefore be raising a grievance with their employers not the Acute Trust.

Before he goes any further the OP would do well to obtain the following:

a) The Acute Trust's published car park policy - and preferably without announcing his interest. Such documents are usually to be found on the Trust's website and frequently contain such phrases as "penalties", "penalty fines" and "penalty tickets" etc. Procedures laid out regarding enforcement often refer to deterrence and make it plain that charges are intended as a form of sanction which outside of statutory enforcement (which this is most certainly not) will not fly. Any court case the Acute Trust were to initiate on this basis would almost certainly be utterly doomed.

b) The terms and conditions of their employment and any disciplinary/grievance procedure.

If, as part of their employment, they're obliged to work at the Acute Trust's premises and the parking provision is a new process (which would seem to be the implication), then mighten the OP be entitled to reimbursement of the parking charges by his employers? This would be particularly applicable if they were not originally employed at that site.

I see no particular threat with regard to the enforcement of the parking policy directly but only where it impinges on the conditions of the OP's employment as the Psychiatric Trust may argue that his actions bring them into disrepute.

Half_way

A quick search under parking on a hospital website will show something up, i recently dropped some one off at Derby hospital and this is from their website, spot any flaws?

Also a few other hospitals mention something called a Civil Penalty notice

To renew a staff car parking permit the following documentation will be required:-
 A valid Driving License
 Log Book or Insurance Certificate
 Staff who have registered a 2nd car need to provide documentation which
clarifies the vehicle is registered to their home address.
If this permit is not displayed (Readable from outside the Vehicle) you may receive an
infringement notice followed by a Penalty notice which may incur a fine.

and

Any unauthorised parking by a permit holder, including failure to display the permit
when parking, or parking other than in the permit holder’s permitted area, or in any
other way breaching the Car Parking Policy and/or these terms, may incur a penalty
charge. Staff agree to pay any such charges and to authorise the Trust to deduct any
such penalty charges from their salary

and...

5.29 Legislative Requirements
To satisfy the legal conditions for Car Park Attendants to be able to issue Civil Penalty
Notices, the Trust will ensure that its car-parking personnel are sufficiently trained and
undertake any training courses in order to ensure that they keep up to date with
changes to legislation and best practice in order to maintain their competence. The
Trust will also ensure that there are sufficient visible signs in place that indicate carparking
restrictions.

full long winded article here http://www.derbyhospitals.nhs.uk/about-us/how-to-find-us/finding-the-royal-derby-hospital/parking/?locale=en plenty of talk about Civil Penalty notices

taffy056

That is terrible, and should be challenged . The automatic deduction of wages is grossly unfair, and I question the legality of doing such a thing for an invoice. Calling them fines and penalties is obviously a clear breach of authority, and needs to be complained about. Clearly this trust has got many things wrong in the parking at their hospital

taffy056

Reading their car parking policy PDF on the above link, is the worst case of abuse of authority I have ever seen by a nhs trust, it's full of terms of fines, penalties and offences, honestly this has got to be sorted, who the hell came up with that garbage ? Who is the ppc running it there ? They must be party to that document.

bazster

I would be inclined to find a comfy seat within the hospital, in some place where your manager is sure to come across you. Then, when he/she asks you why you aren't out-and-about doing your job, tell him/her that you came to work on the bus because you can't afford the car park, therefore you have no way of getting to your clients. If he/she would like to provide you with a company car and a paid parking permit then you'll be off to do your job, but in the meantime is there anything else he/she would like you to be getting on with?

I-LOV-MONEY

Just to throw something into the mix - I don't know how relevant it is.

If the OP is required to use his/her car for work purposes, do the Trust pay a petrol allowance? If so, they may require the car to be registered (and therefore pay for the parking permit!) before paying out.

Half_way

One more thing that the OP should seriously consider is the insurance aspect, most policys only insure you for travelling to and from a regular place of work, as well as Social domestic and pleasure.
if your using your vehicle for your job you will need to have buisness cover on it.