Can anyone help me? (Parking charge notice related)

lushlifesaver

Hoping one of you lovelies can help!

My partner is a wheelchair user, he has severe !!!!!! cp with very limited use of his legs as he has severe flexion in both.

He drives and can just about get out of the car and in to his chair (which i grab out of the boot) when parked in a disabled bay (I have no idea how he managed when he had to make his way round to the boot to get his chair out!

We had to stop to pick something up at a retail park and used a disabled bay. HOWEVER his blue badge was 2 days out of date - this was due to an almighty c**k up by Wakefield council who took 7/8 weeks to send the replacement badge despite us having sent for the renewal at the earliest possible date. We had been informed that morning by staff at the council that using the badge that day should be fine as we would have 'sufficient grounds for an appeal of any PCN were one issued by the council or a private firm' (how stupid were we to believe this!!)
As it happens we were at the retail park for around 30mins and were given a ticket which the attendant then told my partner he would not have issued had he seen us arrive (it was time marked as being issued less than 5 mins after we got there!) and told my partner to appeal as it was obvious he could not have used a standard bay. We did this and have now been informed that we must pay £60, which will increase to £100 if not paid in the next 10days. We have also been informed we can lodge no further appeals and if we decide to appeal to POPLA then the fine will increase to £100 if that appeal is rejected.

The person parked next to us had no blue badge and returned to their vehicle at the same time as us (also parked in a designated disabled bay) and when they saw we had a ticket but they didn't said 'unlucky, they didn't ticket me and I've been here 2 and a half hours.'

We really can't afford this! My partner has also been informed by HMRC that he owes the tax man £100 that Halifax should have paid when his employment with them ended (but they didn't pay and now apparently he has to pay instead!) so that's £160 we need to find as we really don't have that kind of spare cash lying around Can anyone offer any advice or point me in a direction where someone could help??

It doesn't surprise me but does sadden me that so many companies find relatively easy targets to draw money out of in these times

Invalidation

Who issued the ticket? Local Authority or Private Parking Company
If Private Parking company then ignore and continue to ignore as they have no legal right to issue any 'Fine'

Richie-from-the-Boro

- private parking can invite you to pay a fine
- if you accept their invitation freely you are foolish
- if you reject their invitation you should offer to pay the 80p per hour parking price not the fine
- you appeal to the local authority, not the issuer of the 'fine'
- read this thread

Go to Wakefield local authority the issuer of your badge, prove it was 2 days out and they were at fault, and request an appeal by the LA. POPLA are a vested interest no-mark organisation funded by the clampers / parking industry itself.

Offer to pay the 'parking cost' - refuse to pay the 'parking fine' If the ticket you received says :

- Penalty Charge Notice" or "Excess Charge Notice" and has the Local Authority address on it its a legitimate LA ticket

- "Fixed Penalty Notice" and has either a police or HM Courts Service address on is a legitimate police ticket

- any other kind is PPC [non statutory] parking, see this

emporer

Hopefully being a retail park it will just be a parking charge notice from the private scammers, if it is then just bin it.

societys_child

Disabled bays have no legal standing in private car parks so it doesn't matter that your badge was out of date, it doesn't matter if you don't have one at all.

Who's issued the notice? (name of company)

Provided it's not a Police or council notice, the general advise is . . . ignore

They don't want you to appeal to popla because it costs them (the scam parking company) money and if popla upholds your appeal the parking company have to abide by that decision, they get nothing and it's cost them. :j

However if popla reject your appeal, this is the good bit, you don't have to abide by the decision, you can continue to ignore the unenforceable invoice.:beer:
So it's up to you whether you appeal to popla or not. If you lose, you'd be ignoring a £100 invoice as opposed to a £60 one . . .

Have a look on the parking forum, in fact re-post there if you need further reassurance
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=163

leedsmodus

See the parking fines forum. If it is a retail park it is likely private land. Unless it has wakefield council on it , bin it. If your referring to the retail park were kfc, toys r us are etc this is private land

cidergirl

yes ignore if private parking like parking eye or something like that

Tiger66

Hi, I too have had 2 parking charges from Parking Eye at my local retail FREE CAR PARK. I didn't know nor anyone else I know that this was owned by Parking Eye and you could only park there for up to 3 hours. I met friends on the first occasion and left my car there for 4 hours! The second time within 3 weeks, unfortunately was to have a hospital apptment and as I have a long term illness my friend offers to take me to the hospital appt that is 30 miles away. So I meet her there and leave my car to go in hers. We had some delays and my car was left there for over 6 hours! There are sins there, but they aren't in your face to see, literally (after going back to see where they were) you need to be parked by them and then you need to get out and read them. Also the entrance sign is on the exit side of the car park, so once again you will not stop and read it! I'm quite worried as I have read on this site to ignore them as they are not a fine from the local council ot police, but where do I stand with the new law from October 2012. I'm quite worried as I have 2 £100 charges and I have no idea how to pay if I have to. Do I have to appeal? Thank you for anyone who replies.

Tiger66

Hi, I'm new and I have a very quick question. Since the law has changed with Parking Charges concering Parking Eye, do you have to pay them? I was parked on 2 occasions not knowing that you couldn't park in the free retail car park after 3 hours. There is no pay and display machine. Since going back, there are signs if you park by them and there's one at the entrance on the exit side, but again you need to get out or stop at the entrance to look on to the traffic leaving to read the sign. None of the signs stand out, so you miss them. Where do I stand, can I ignore them and what ever threat they make as there's no parking meter there and it's not from the police or council. I thank anyone who takes the time to reply and help.

tomtom256

If your tickets where issued prior to the new law going live then ignore them as it the new law will only exist for tickets issued after it became law, however if issued after the law went live then appeal or pay.

pogofish

Nothing substantial has changed with the new law - The important basics are just the same and the Blue Badge Scheme does not apply on private property, so you are free to ignore Parking Eye completely if you want to.

However, I would be tempted to give the retailer involved a big rocket for allowing these predators to operate in their car parks and for their complete failure in their duty to the Equality Act.