Letter before Action - advice please?

blossom1948

Just to clarify, yes I do know who the retail park landowners are as I sent them copies of all the corrrespondence I had sent/received from the PPC.

They wrote to me basically saying that as my badge was not displayed on the windscreen I was in breach of the parking regulations and it was reasonable for them (the PPC) to have issued a ticked.

They further went on to say that they "have drawn your letter to the attention of our contacts at PPC so that they are aware of the circumstances in your particular case and can give it individual consideration".

So yes, the Landowners are aware of this particular issue.

The PPC simply sent a further letter saying they do not enter into discussions about the legality of parking on private land or of the landowners right to impose parking conditions on their property. They also added that I "may appeal to an independent assessors through POPLA details of which will be sent at the appropriate time if requested."
I emailed requesting a POPLA reference and have received nothing from them.

My letter will be addressed to both the PPC and the Landowner.

Thank you again Coupon and other responders.
I will let you know what happens.

HO87

I hope you haven't posted the letter yet as I have some other points but as a starter, is this a car park you visit on a regular basis? Had you been there before the day that the invoice was issued?

blossom1948

HO87 wrote: »

I hope you haven't posted the letter yet as I have some other points but as a starter, is this a car park you visit on a regular basis? Had you been there before the day that the invoice was issued?

Yes, regularly visit this retail centre, as it has a variety of well-known retailers, eg., Halfords, Argos, PetRUs, Boots, Lidl, etc.

Without checking our bank statement, not sure if we visited the day before, possibly a couple of days before.

Coupon-mad

HO87 will give you some good advice - so if you get a pm from him then add in what he advises.

blossom1948

Coupon-mad wrote: »

HO87 will give you some good advice - so if you get a pm from him then add in what he advises.

Thank you Coupon, I'll await a pm from HO87 before I send the letters which has taken hours to formulate this morning!!

Guys_Dad

blossom1948 wrote: »

Thank you Coupon, I'll await a pm from HO87 before I send the letters which has taken hours to formulate this morning!!

One other point. Does your car have a disabled road tax with 0.00 tax? If it has, then please draw this to their attention and point out that this was sufficient information for their attendant to have observed in the first place and is equally valid recognition of a disabled driver as a blue badge.

HO87

Guys_Dad wrote: »

One other point. Does your car have a disabled road tax with 0.00 tax? If it has, then please draw this to their attention and point out that this was sufficient information for their attendant to have observed in the first place and is equally valid recognition of a disabled driver as a blue badge.

I don't disagree with you however others might and, with respect to them, their views are based on custom and practice rather than regulations. The regulations stipulate that (summarised) only the disabled person or their nominee (singular) may use the vehicle; for their own purposes (in the case of the disabled person) or for purposes that may assist the disabled person (in the case of their nominee).

Is it wholly unreasonable to have expected that were a disabled class VED displayed on the OP's vehicle that the "invoice" issuer might carry out a period of observation in an effort to identify whether there was a disabled person on board?

In the case of a PPC probably a bridge too far.

Coupon-mad

I think it's perfectly reasonable to expect any PPC to leave cars alone in a private disabled bay if there is ANY evidence that it's a car used by a disabled person. No need to observe and look for a 'disabled' person because that's not always obvious either.

I strongly believe it's wholly unreasonable for a PPC to rely only on the irrelevant Council Blue Badge scheme. Not saying they cannot 'adopt it' as one indicator of disability need, because they can, but not as the only indicator - because of the huge diversity of disability need outside of mobility issues.

Not only that, we all know that the main abuse of the Blue Badge scheme is by lazy toerags using a relative's Badge. So a BB on a dashboard of a car at Tesco does NOT necessarily mean the occupant has more need for a disabled bay than the car next to it which may have no BB at all. And it's just tough on the PPCs if that makes life difficult, maybe they need to do more to actually understand the law and comply with it and help people who need to find a space close to the store - Blue Badge or not! But that will never happen all the time that PPCs are incentivised to issue as many fake PCNs as possible.

HO87

Coupon-mad wrote: »

I think it's perfectly reasonable to expect any PPC to leave cars alone.......... But that will never happen all the time that PPCs are incentivised to issue as many fake PCNs as possible.

Indeed. Together with the support of a representative charity who believe that the completely inappropriate "enforcement" of the BB scheme by PPC's in a way in which it was never designed to be used and, worse still, who actually benefit from a kickback from certain PPC's almost seals the deal.