parking at work

l17cme

I pay for a permit to park at my work, there are two different kinds of permit, private bay and search and use (this is me). I start work on a late shift at 10am . on this day i couldnt find an empty space, there were and still are a lot of illegaly parked cars. so i parked my car safe and in a reserved bay, i did this because i have a bowl disorder and was desperate or i would as normal waited until a place became free. I recieved a parking ticket off my works security officer for £40, iappealed to head of security and told him about my condition and that work recognise my condition and i have specail sickness leave for my condition. He ignored my appeal and i was informed about popla, So i appealed to popla over 2 months ago and have never heard back since my receipt of appeal over 6 weeks ago. Since this i have had a meeting with my H.R dept who have agreed that if i find myself in the same postition i have been given the right to park in a loading bay and leave my car. My head of security says i should withdraw my appeal and pay a reduced ticket of £40 i feel i shouldnt have to pay anything. Is it right if popla reject my appeal i should just ignore it and they will go away ????? HELP:mad:

prowla

Two things:
1. Who is POPLA funded by?
2. Use of POPLA is not legally binding.

Stroma

Can you repost this in a new thread, this ancient thread with out of date information should never be used - thanks
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=163

I wish somebody would close these bloody threads off!!!

Coupon-mad

l17cme wrote: »

I pay for a permit to park at my work, there are two different kinds of permit, private bay and search and use (this is me).

I start work on a late shift at 10am . on this day i couldnt find an empty space, there were and still are a lot of illegaly parked cars. so i parked my car safe and in a reserved bay, i did this because i have a bowel disorder and was desperate or i would as normal waited until a place became free.

I recieved a parking ticket off my works security officer for £40, I appealed to head of security and told him about my condition and that work recognise my condition and i have specail sickness leave for my condition.

He ignored my appeal and i was informed about popla, So i appealed to popla over 2 months ago and have never heard back since my receipt of appeal over 6 weeks ago.

Since this i have had a meeting with my H.R dept who have agreed that if i find myself in the same postition i have been given the right to park in a loading bay and leave my car. My head of security says i should withdraw my appeal and pay a reduced ticket of £40 i feel i shouldnt have to pay anything. Is it right if popla reject my appeal i should just ignore it and they will go away ????? HELP:mad:

Why on earth would you be bullied into withdrawing your appeal and paying £40 when in fact you could sue the workplace for harassing a person who is protected by the Equality Act 2010 and entitled to 'reasonable adjustments'?

A long term condition such as you describe gives you legal rights under the Act and any terms & conditions become null and void if the effect would be to deny you your statutory rights.

I do hope your POPLA appeal was robust and pointed out that the Equality Act 2010 takes precedence over any terms and conditions? If not I would send POPLA a quick follow up worded like in a case on pepipoo yesterday where I advised someone in a similar position:



''Email this week to add more to your POPLA appeal (make sure it has the same POPLA code quoted, is marked 'further evidence from motorist - urgent' and make sure you get an acknowledgement receipt). Adding wording like this is my suggestion:




'URGENT: ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ABOUT DISABILITY DISCRIMINATION BY THE OPERATOR IN POPLA REF: XXXXXXXX

I need to add the following to my appeal wording sent to POPLA on xx/xx/13 as I have been advised that the Operator is breaching disability law and POPLA is liable to become guilty of the same breach if upholding this charge. I would have expected POPLA to know about disability law in private car parks but I see from a previous POPLA 'decision' (Rob Greenwood v Excel, now in the public domain and a horrifying mistake by POPLA) that sadly, your adjudicators do not.

The Operator is relying on unenforceable terms and conditions on a sign in this car park, which purport to create an inflexible contractual term 'requiring' disabled people to display a Council (on-street only) Blue Badge in order to use a private disabled bay.

The Operator seems to be under the erroneous impression that they can 'charge' a disabled person - who uses a 'special bay' in good faith and for reasons relating to their condition - just because they may have fallen foul of this arbitrary and unjustified 'requirement'. In fact, the Blue Badge scheme does not apply in private car parks at all. However, the Equality Act 2010 (the Act) takes precedence over any 'contractual' terms & conditions and I specifically draw this current disability law to the attention of the POPLA adjudicators.

I have a long-term debilitating bowel condition which is considered to meet the 'definition of disability' under the Act. I am therefore considered to have 'protected characteristics' even though I do not have a Blue Badge (not legally relevant or required in private car parks, anyway).

This important fact has been explained to the Operator in my appeal so they certainly 'knew or should have known' that I had undeniably established the lawful need to use a bay close to my workplace when other bays were full.

My 'Protected Characteristics' under the Act extend to me the unequivocal right to use any 'reasonable adjustment' provided by any landholder/employer/client/operator when visiting a customer-facing or staff-related environment, including car parks.

In short, the Act says that protected people can legally use any disability provision applicable, unharassed.

In the case of a closer/special bay in a car park this is a reasonable adjustment which would be available to protected disabled people, with or without a Blue Badge (the Act has nothing to say about permits and badges of course because the legal right is established by need).

Any term that the Operator may have on their signs to the effect 'Blue Badges only' is null and void if the result is to deny a disabled person the statutory right to use a 'reasonable adjustment'.

To attempt to 'charge' me for using this bay is unlawful so cannot be upheld by POPLA. Pursuing this charge is illegal; it is harassment of a protected disabled person when I have clearly and reasonably established to the Operator and workplace that I have a condition which is deemed protected by the Equality Act 2010. Indeed, the work HR Department already extended some sick leave adjustments so were already aware of my condition. Now that I have complained about this fake PCN and harassment by Security in the car park, the HR Dept have belatedly reconsidered my needs (having previously failed in their duty to do so) and recently have agreed that if I find myself in the same position of need, I have now been given the right to park in a loading bay and leave my car.

I do appreciate that the 'requirement' to show a Blue Badge may indeed have been added to signage as a result of an ill-conceived attempt to comply with the Act; indeed it appears to be based on private parking industry-wide misconceptions about disability law.

But ignorance of disability law is no defence for breach. The Operator (workplace Security and HR Dept) have an ongoing legal duty to observe and comply with the Act and to make regular operational adjustments to identify, consider and avoid any potential adverse repercussions affecting disabled people's legal rights.

The Operator has failed in their legal duty - as well as harassing me, a protected person - and is guilty of a breach of the Equality Act 2010 from the moment that the Operator/workplace 'knew or should have known' about my disability needs. This was when I first appealed and informed the Head of Security (who issued the ticket) about my condition and that my work HR Dept already recognise and acknowledge my condition and have already granted special sickness leave for my condition.

He ignored this appeal and made no reference to my needs and made no 'reasonable adjustment' at all. This is a breach of the law.

POPLA must consider all applicable laws when making their decision and must now order the Operator to cancel this fake PCN. I believe that failure to do so could even leave POPLA exposed to a claim for disability discrimination because the facts of this case and the effect of the Act is unequivocal.'





P.S. You really do need your own thread and you must rush this to POPLA !! POPLA will not reject the above IMHO, they daren't.

Crabman

Welcome to MSE, l17cme.

I've moved the posts into a new thread for you.

(also sent via PM)

Stroma wrote: »

Can you repost this in a new thread, this ancient thread with out of date information should never be used - thanks
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=163

I wish somebody would close these bloody threads off!!!

That's a call for the MSE Team... but I can't really see them closing it as it's a feedback thread for POPLA appeals.

l17cme

I have not heard anything from popla regarding my appeal and the letter above, how long do i have to wait before i can sleep again?????????

Umkomaas

l17cme wrote: »

I have not heard anything from popla regarding my appeal and the letter above, how long do i have to wait before i can sleep again?????????

They are running well behind schedule as they've been deluged with appeals. In fact they are desperately recruiting staff to get themselves back on track with the backlog.

Have a look at The Parking Pranksters blog where he details the logjam problems POPLA is having:

http://parking-prankster.blogspot.co.uk/search?updated-min=2013-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&updated-max=2014-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&max-results=8

Suggestion is that POPLA is some 43 - 50 days behind schedule. Time to chill I think :cool:

Guys_Dad

l17cme wrote: »

I have not heard anything from popla regarding my appeal and the letter above, how long do i have to wait before i can sleep again?????????

Can I just check something?

Did you make a written appeal to the Parking Company and did you get a POPLA code? If you didn't get a code, they won't deal with it and may explain the delay.

Coupon-mad

l17cme wrote: »

I have not heard anything from popla regarding my appeal and the letter above, how long do i have to wait before i can sleep again?????????

You need to email POPLA and check that your latest evidence email dated xx/xx/13 was added to your appeal re that fake parking ticket. We have seen a case where POPLA didn't add the latest email to the evidence and the person lost at POPLA as the original appeal was pants.

l17cme

I have email twicw now and just get a auto response message with noe code. I have tried to look at the evidence on the popla page and the code that i have recieved on all coorospondense is not recognised. This will be two months on the 15/6/2013, how long can it be before i can say ...... u .

Coupon-mad

l17cme wrote: »

I have email twicw now and just get a auto response message with noe code. I have tried to look at the evidence on the popla page and the code that i have recieved on all coorospondense is not recognised. This will be two months on the 15/6/2013, how long can it be before i can say ...... u .

Why don't you post a copy to POPLA if you have their address? Marked up clearly with the POPLA code and stating that you wish this to be added to your evidence before the decision is made (and that you have already tried to email it but only got an auto response). Also say you are worried because your Code apparently 'isn't recognised' on the POPLA page. Hence you are adding this evidence in writing to ensure they include it in their decision-making.

When you sent your first POPLA appeal did it get recognised? Did the first submission work with that code?