Hospital staff parking fines

hollybean27

Can anyone give me some advice?
I work for Midyorks nhs and pay £20 per month for parking. Its a barrier system and today i put my card in as usual and the barrier opened to let me in but the car park was so full and all the bays were full. There were lots if people parking along the curbs within the car park. As i had to get in to work on time i also had to park along a curb. When i finished my shift i was greeted with a £50 fine. I want to challenge this fine. really the barriers are not supposed to let me in if car park if itis full. Should i pay this? They have threatened court action and also writing to the dvla to get my vehicle keeper details. Do i have any rights, will they take me to court even though i pre-pay already? Please help? What should do?

RENEGADE_2

Whether or not you have to pay depends. If this curb was on public land, paid for by your road tax fund and the body that issued the ticket was the local council, then yes the ticket has to be addressed one way or another, because such figures serve as an embodiment of the law and are powered by the Road Traffic Act.

If however, and as I assume, the place you parked was on hospital premises (private land) and the ticket was issued by a private enforcement company, then you can throw the document including the sticker onto the fire to keep warm this winter. They are powered only by Contract Law and this legislation in turn only enables a landowner to recover losses resulting from a driver's actions. So, you park without paying for 60 minutes where the hourly rate is £1, then losses are £1. Your action here will have cost £0 so landowner's losses are zero. Anything else amounts to a penalty and the law expressly forbids one citizen penalising another. Here, you face the prospect of being a would-be victim of a certified scam - I speak of the entire private parking sector. If the ticket you got was private, it is neither a fine nor a penalty, so you can ignore it, along with all other rubbish that lands on your mat for the next five months.

Provided it is a private ticket...

...in your case, ignoring is the best policy. You cannot argue with the scammer that his practice is unlwaful, he'll shove it back in your face, treat your communication as an "appeal" which it most certainly isn't (because to "appeal" accedes to the authority of the rogue) and you will be stuck on Square One.

On top of the fact that the demand is unenforceable and your antagonist would not even dream of taking you to court for the knowledge that you will win hands down, they cannot even be sure that the registered keeper to whom they send threatograms is in receipt of the letters, just as they cannot know that the sticker was affixed to the windscreen upon your return to the vehicle. By keeping them in the dark, they don't know their target, they don't know which way to turn!

hollybean27

Dear Renegade
Wow what a reply! Thankyou you have eased my mind. Yes i was parking within the hospital grounds so hopefully i will ignore this threat. Its hard to ignore a written fine but i will be strong fron your words. Thanks again!

RENEGADE_2

Oh believe me Hollybean, what I have told you mirrors the exact information which dozens of other decent users would say, just wait until tomorrow and you'll see more support coming in for you on this thread.

Basically, what you have is an invoice, it isn't a fine - if your antagonist has used that word, or "penalty", then he has acted illegally and can be reported to Trading Standards. If you look though, I am sure it is something along the lines of "Parking Charge Notice". Most know better than to use those two words. If on the other hand you discover the word "penalty" or any of its derivatives such as "penalise" on their signage, photograph it and take it straight to Trading Standards, along with your fake ticket.

Don't be surprised if letters eventually come from debt collectors as these too are unenforceable. If the debt hasn't been registered then it is not payable, but resorting to such shameful methods is a part of the wider scheme of the private parking company (PPC), the landowner, and the debt collection agency itself. They are all in on a scam. Some people get cold feet when these ominous letters arrive. You on the other hand know the law which is that the landowner can push for losses and these documents are nothing more than de facto penalties. With that you can send their trash back to them by marking the post "Refused - Return to sender" once you spot the sender's address. After four or five letters, it will go away.

DO NOT mention this to your employer. If they do get wind of what is happening because the PPC who has requested your details reports this to them, come back here and I will be able to guide you how to legally repel your employer without harming your appointment.

hollybean27

Dear Renegade,
Gosh its sound so scary! As if i don't get enough stress at work than to fine me for parking at my work place!
Yes the notice says 'Parking Enforcement Notice'
I have a lot of future letters arriving then i see and they could involve my employer? Great! You certainly know your stuff, i might need you on the future then lol

RENEGADE_2

There are always people here to help. I hope I'll be around to do so if the need arise!

The repertoire is not harrowing, it is a set of template letters designed to scare you into paying, each can be discarded and when the final one has been sent, the case will self-destruct.

There, "Parking Enforcement Notice", honestly, EMPTY isn't the word. It is nothing.

Well they say "nurses have it hard" and my ex-wife is an RGN so I am all too familiar with the stress people in your profession have to endure. This is something tame however. Obviously the Trust is the landowner so they will from their end discover that their target is an employee but they have no legal right to victimise you for this. If they believe you have a debt with them, they go down the same route as anyone else - County Court - and they explain to the judge how your action cost them what they claim, and they reassure him that it is not a punitive measure. More chance of seeing pigs fly.

But if they DARE put one dirty hand on your salary, you just take them down the road to the Employment Tribunal for Unlawful Deduction Of Wages. When their summons appears and ACAS get involved, they'll defacate in their trousers in no time. The process for arranging a hearing is dead simple and I'll bet it won't even get to court because they will have caved in long before the date - nobody likes the bad publicity.

But it's not going to go that far, I promise you. You've got about five bits of ignoring to do.

If anything does come, just let this forum know if it mentions the Protection of Freedoms Bill and that it has the right to pursue the keeper. If so, we're going to have some fun with them and make them pay money for nothing - not to you sadly but to an independent appeal system. Nothing to worry about now, you can go to sleep in the knowledge that you won't be paying a penny NOR will you come face to face with anyone threatening.

daveyjp

Take it up with the Director who is responsible for managing the car park contracts. If you are paying for a service which is not being provided a complaint needs raising asap and the issue over giving invoices also needs raising as a scam.

At times like this being a union member can also be very useful. If you pay the subs use their services.

hollybean27

Dear Renegade! Can i have and keep you in my back pocket? You know so much and with so much confidence.
Thankyou so much for time. Im so appreciative. You have allowed me to sleep tonight.
Take care!
Hollybean

RENEGADE_2

hollybean27 wrote: »

Dear Renegade! Can i have and keep you in my back pocket? You know so much and with so much confidence.
Thankyou so much for time. Im so appreciative. You have allowed me to sleep tonight.
Take care!
Hollybean

Why of course, but many know more than I do. If any doubts, send a personal message - though users are here more or less around the clock. There you see DaveyJP with even more fresh advice regarding the RCN (if you're a nurse) or whichever wing of the union covers you. Tomorrow there will be more posts here, I'm sure. Sleep tight.

visadeath

Are the cards that let you in the barriers registered to the car reg?

If so, I wonder if a PPC would block the card from being used or renewed whilst they think monies are owed ?

hollybean27

Dear Renegade,
im not a nurse lol, everyone thinks that if you work for nhs that you are a nurse. Because nurses run the nhs lol.
Well i think you are wonderful at giving advice. Can u hire you?