Hospital Car Park Fines

jingers_2

This afternoon I took my family to see my brother who has just had a knee replacement op. I parked in a disabled bay at Ormskirk Hospital pay car park as always, as I am a registered disabled driver with blue badge.
Unfortunately, due to the rain and one of my passengers helping me out of the car and passing me my crutches, I forgot to put the blue badge on the windscreen. Subsequently I have returned to find a "certificate" from UKPC stating that I was to be fined £100 for failing to display a blue badge.
I do possess a blue badge also my tax disc states registered disabled.
A £100 seems an extortionately large amount of money to be fined for purely forgetting to show a blue badge in a hospital pay car park. If I was not disabled and deliberately parked in a disabled bay then yes I would admit the wrong and pay up.
Does anyone know if it is worth appealing this fine and submitting photocopy evidence of my blue badge etc or should I just pay up and accept it as a bad experience.

Any help/info is much appreciated

taffy056

Ummm you forgot the third option, which is not paying and to ignore them completely. You have received a fake ticket, they won't take you to court you are safe to ignore them as you are the registered keeper (??) And by the way the blue badge scheme does not apply on private land at all, check your handbook for this. They have not made reasonable adjustments for you as your tax disc states you are disabled, its likely they have seen this, you could sue them for breaking the equalities act

nickcc

It's not a fine it's an invoice which you don't need to pay, plenty more knowledgeable members will offer more advice shortly. As above

Half_way

Blue badge scheme doesnt apply on private land, one option is to ignore,the other is to fight/take action.
if you want to take action you should complain to the hospital stating that you are disabled and require the use of disabled parking.
they will proabbaly fob you off to the parking company.

Send a copy of your badge to them stating that you are disabled and that you forgot to show your blue badge, this will probably be rejected, if so...

get in touch with the hospital again, tell them that the charge is a penalty and does not equal any losses that could have occured due to your parking, also tell them that you are disabled and that as they are responsable for the actions of their agents they - the hospital are in breach of the equalities act and that unless the ticket charge is cancellled imediatly you will consider taking aaction against the hospital and the parking company under the equalities act, and that you also want re asurance that this will not happen again, and an apology.

pogofish

jingers wrote: »

Does anyone know if it is worth appealing this fine and submitting photocopy evidence of my blue badge etc or should I just pay up and accept it as a bad experience.

Any help/info is much appreciated

Why on earth would you do that?

The Blue Badge does not apply here - check the supporting docs that came with your badge or on your issuing authority website.

If you are going to contact anyone, why not put a rocket up the hospital management and demand an explanation/apology or even restitution for their complete and utter failure to do what the Equality Act requires of them?

BASFORDLAD

So you would pay up if you were not disabled.

Sorry but that makes you very gullable!!! .

Why would you have wasted money on a private company? And why did you call it a fine

Coupon-mad

jingers wrote: »

Does anyone know if it is worth appealing this fine and submitting photocopy evidence of my blue badge etc or should I just pay up and accept it as a bad experience.

Like many people you actually think you have done something wrong. You have not. You do not have a fine there, it's not even a real parking ticket, only the Police or Council (or rarely, a Train Operator) can issue a real parking penalty.

I found this article about when this Hospital introduced a Parking Company last year. Clearly the amount of the parking charges is not a true estimate of loss, which it would have to be for a private company to get anywhere close to justifying it!

http://www.southportandormskirk.nhs.uk/news/news_item.asp?NewsID=327

''This will include using an outside company issuing fixed penalty notices to motorists...all income generated by car parking has always been used for patient care and will continue to be used in this way.''

I can't find out which company this is. Who is it, we can show you the letters they will send you and you can IGNORE.

DO NOT PAY. THIS IS NOT A PARKING FINE AT ALL.

bargepole

jingers wrote: »

... or should I just pay up and accept it as a bad experience. ...

Only if you've spent the past ten years living in a cave on Mars, wearing earplugs and a blindfold.

HO87

Coupon-mad wrote: »

I can't find out which company this is. Who is it, we can show you the letters they will send you and you can IGNORE.

As the OP posted it is UKPC.

@OP checkout the old letter chain for UKPC here (scroll down the page). These will give you something of an idea of what to expect in terms of their letters. It would be really useful if you can scan in the letters as you receive them, scrub them of your personal details and post them on the links at the top of this board.

jingers_2

A big thanks to all that have suggested what I should do. I have decided to write to UKPC with copies of my blue badge and disabled tax disc. After reading through several articles it seems that as no loss was incurred to the parking company (as it was a pay car park and I did pay the correct amount) by not displaying my blue badge correctly in a disabled space, they really don't have a leg to stand on. As such they can whistle for the money.
I will keep all updated as the story enfolds.
But again thanks to all for putting my mind at rest.

Coupon-mad

jingers wrote: »

A big thanks to all that have suggested what I should do. I have decided to write to UKPC with copies of my blue badge and disabled tax disc. After reading through several articles it seems that as no loss was incurred to the parking company (as it was a pay car park and I did pay the correct amount) by not displaying my blue badge correctly in a disabled space, they really don't have a leg to stand on. As such they can whistle for the money.
I will keep all updated as the story enfolds.
But again thanks to all for putting my mind at rest.

OK, I do urge you to make sure you word it very carefully as the first challenge, telling them that you are: 'a disabled driver with a Blue Badge, here's a copy so that you can see that I am entitled by law to use the 'reasonable adjustment' of a disabled bay on private land. Whilst the Blue Badge scheme doesn't actually apply on private land - as of course UKPC and the Hospital will be aware - I understand that to comply with the Equality Act 2010 you need to be aware of my mobility issue. So this appeal letter is primarily to alert you to my mobility issue so that you can cancel the ticket. Clearly any alleged contract will be null and void as it cannot be used to circumvent the Equality Act so I look forward to hearing from you. If you reject my appeal, with knowledge and evidence of my disability, I will not hesitate to raise this as disability discrimination with the hospital and with POPLA.'

Don't mention whether the Badge was displayed or not. DO NOT admit to any failing on your part. Just use the appeal to tell them about your mobility issue and legal right to park there.

If they reject that they'll be in breach of the Equality Act 2010 and you can have a bit of fun with your further appeal/complaint letter. But that's for later!