Excel Parking Fine

Coupon-mad

and

3). the signs Excel use are woefully inadequate - you need a picture of the 'small notice at the bottom of a large sign' - and cannot even begin to make a motorist aware of the 'rules' of the car park. This has been exposed by the judge in Excel v Martin Cutts and I think their signage is also the reason that Excel are currently banned from getting DVLA access.

and

4) You had paid and displayed so there was no loss to the complex or Excel - which is a similar point to 2) already stated by ManxRed.

Conclude by saying the only reason the matter is with POPLA now is because you thought Excel were an AOS member and appealed in good faith because you knew you had paid and displayed and there was zero contractual loss. But you've since found out they are currently suspended from getting DVLA data and could never have got your details - and it's questionable whether the case can even be considered by POPLA as the firm are AOS members but temporarily banned by the DVLA.

taffy056

Also as Excel were suspended from dvla access because of the signs, the ones in the car park you parked in are probably not compliant

Ibsen3

Thanks a lot again, everyone. I have read and digested all that. I've had a busy day today but will be putting together an appeal tomorrow. This also helps to make things a lot clearer for me too. My only concern now is that if it were to go to court, I would be worrying about legal costs. I'm sure that's a common concern but I've never had the misfortune to be involved in legal proceedings.

I'm 98% certain that the signs in question were identical to the ones featured in the BBC Watchdog report. There's basically a small (yellow, I think) section that details the fees. I need to get into town and take a picture but I'm pretty sure.

Coupon-mad

taffy056 wrote: »

Also as Excel were suspended from dvla access because of the signs, the ones in the car park you parked in are probably not compliant

The OP could use this article from the Plain Language Commission dated today, to back up his assertion about Excel's signs and the DVLA data ban imposed.

QUOTE
Excel Parking Services has been suspended from access to lucrative DVLA data for breaching the rules. The programme showed a misleading sign at its controversial car park at Ebbw Vale where Excel had plastered tape over some offending wording (see photo). It’s likely that Excel's signs nationwide have been similarly bodged. Given that Excel's managing director sits on the British Parking Association (BPA) committee overseeing private parking, it’s extraordinary that his company fell foul of the rules.
QUOTE

Oh and this link about the Martin Cutts Excel case & signs will also give POPLA an insight into Excel and why they were recently banned (why are POPLA even considering cases involving DVLA-banned firms, I would actually make that specific point - but only as part of your POPLA evidence so Excel still have to fund it!):

http://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/plcdev/files/126/original/DVLA-BPA-Cutts22Apr2012_1b_mf.pdf

And who could forget the infamous Hetherington Jakeman small claim case too, that was also Excel in another very rare & very wayward foray into Court:

http://www.chad.co.uk/news/local/judge-says-excel-parking-fines-illegal-1-701811

Ibsen3 wrote: »

Thanks a lot again, everyone. I have read and digested all that. I've had a busy day today but will be putting together an appeal tomorrow. This also helps to make things a lot clearer for me too. My only concern now is that if it were to go to court, I would be worrying about legal costs. I'm sure that's a common concern but I've never had the misfortune to be involved in legal proceedings.

I'm 98% certain that the signs in question were identical to the ones featured in the BBC Watchdog report. There's basically a small (yellow, I think) section that details the fees. I need to get into town and take a picture but I'm pretty sure.

Don't worry about legal costs in what would only ever be a Small Claims Track case in a County Court. Costs are capped at around £50 expenses for a person to show up plus the Court fee of about £30. No expensive legal fees allowed. But that WILL NOT HAPPEN HERE.

Excel are connected to VCS (both are PPCs owned by rich horsey toff Simon Renshaw-Smith) and he got short shrift from the judge in VCS -v- Ibbotson only in May this year! He won't do a Small Claim attempt again in a hurry (read and enjoy the comments of the canny judge in the link by esmerobbo in post #10 above and take into account it's the same company owners, same basic contract with landowners!).

taffy056

Coupon-mad wrote: »

The OP could use this article from the Plain Language Commission dated today, to back up his assertion about Excel's signs and the DVLA data ban imposed.

QUOTE
Excel Parking Services has been suspended from access to lucrative DVLA data for breaching the rules. The programme showed a misleading sign at its controversial car park at Ebbw Vale where Excel had plastered tape over some offending wording (see photo). It’s likely that Excel's signs nationwide have been similarly bodged. Given that Excel's managing director sits on the British Parking Association (BPA) committee overseeing private parking, it’s extraordinary that his company fell foul of the rules.
QUOTE

I was in Ebbw Vale this morning should have gone to The Walk to see them I complained about their signs in Parc Tawe North directly to Steve Hopkins at the dvla a few weeks ago. If you are wondering what the missing text says its on the image

Coupon-mad

Wouldn't it be funny if Excel's wonderful new 'legal team' (remember them!) don't manage to clean up their sign properly for after the 3 month temporary DVLA ban on data access?

It's a waiting game to see if they can spot what we can spot that is wrong with that sign...several things...shhhh!

taffy056

Yeah the dvla certainly saw what was up with it lol

Ibsen3

I just thought I'd post up details of recent developments.

There's very little to report so far but I've sent my appeal in to POPLA (again, thank you very much for the details everyone) and I'm also trying to make contact with people at the Evening Gazette whilst working as a full-time teacher (tricky!). I will certainly get there though.

I'm determined to help people in our very deprived local area (worst in the UK) to fight back against these predators.

I enjoyed reading the details about the signs. Very interesting!

Ibsen3

I finally received my first 'warning' notice today (nice timing for Christmas). It looks very official of course and states that:

"....under schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, we do have the right to recover from the Registered Keeper of the vehicle so much of that amount that remains unpaid."

I'm storing it with the rest of the hate-mail for now. It doesn't look it but is there anything particularly new about this?

surfboy1

They got that wrong.
They have the right to TRY to recover from the registerd keeper!
And the registerd keeper has the right not to pay!