Vcs parking charge notice at doncaster robinhood airport

Lexie_25!

Hi, first time posting on this forum,

Just as others I have been issued a parking charge notice from vcs. I was about to appeal back with the below. But I am going to run this by the councils legal dept. further more having revisited the site I saw the white van in question, solo driven so I ask how they are managing to drive and operate a camera at the same time.

I'm thinking of ignoring the letters but want to take this matter further. I don't know how they are able to get away with it


First of all I would like to make clear how outraged I was to receive such a non-official demand for payment of fine for so called offences taking place on what would clearly be taken as public highway. Given that the roads are officially marked under highway code (I.e. yellow lines, official speed signs, bus stops, etc).

I have not been to robinhood airport for some time now and before this wasnt an issue. To which I have since revisited the roads in question and had my passenger photograph the roads. Cross checking these on Google maps they clearly haven't always been there.!

On the day of the alleged offence I did not notice the signs, given they were unofficial and somewhat out of my direction of travel, I.e. would have meant not focusing on the road in order to read any of the text. Which, if you check your CCTV footage you will see that when I was Parked up I actually got out of car to read what the terms of conditions of these signs were. At which point I relocated to the airport car park. So how in that time the images were taken I don't know (other than the innocent are being preyed on).!

Secondly if there is a no stopping law on these roads they should be painted with red lines and not yellow.

As a member of the council I am all too aware of such contraventions and know my rights in terms of what I have and haven't breached. As stated above, having read the small print on such signage, which I ask yourselves to legally attempt to read these without stopping the vehicle, this is a scam and a matter that my legal department will be looking into. Any further communications will be taken as harresment and matters taken further if not cancelled.

Coupon-mad

Now that you have posted a shiny new thread of your own in the right place (which on a parking board is vital,since dates and details are different for everyone) you will get lots of help here.

The even better news is that you WILL NOT BE PAYING THIS, so relax!

You just need to send a short challenge to the scammers like on this thread:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=80125&st=20&start=20

DO NOT SAY WHO WAS DRIVING NOR TALK ABOUT 'WHAT HAPPENED'!

So not this (it's not an offence anyway, nor a fine):

''On the day of the alleged offence I did not notice the signs,''

Basically you DO NOT need to be making excuses and the more you write the more likely it is that you will imply that you were driving - it protects your position and gives you more appeal points later if you do not volunteer that information at all.

Then there will be a second stage when VCS reject your challenge, you'll then be at the POPLA stage which is where you will win it if you take our advice on wording it well! It will just be a matter of sending a strong postal or email appeal to POPLA after reading up on it on the current threads (the ones around your thread right now). PLease, please, please do not just send a normal appeal to POPLA without forum help to get the wording right. It's a long appeal and you will read good examples posted on other threads (read any CURRENT JUNE 2013 threads about any PPCs, not just about VCS).

The_Slithy_Tove

Coupon-mad wrote: »

PLease, please, please do not just send a normal appeal to POPLA without forum help to get the wording right. It's a long appeal and you will read good examples posted on other threads (read any CURRENT JUNE 2013 threads about any PPCs, not just about VCS).

And do focus on appeals relating to stopping on airport approach roads. There are special points in these cases (as opposed to normal car parks), such as:

• Impossible to read the signs as you drive past, so no contract (put them to proof that the signs are readable and fully understandable while driving past without having to stop)
• Stopping is not the same as parking, so whole premise of it being a "parking" charge is moot, as is Protection of Freedoms Act (if they are attempting to use it)

as well as all the usual stuff around ability to form contracts, no loss to landowner, etc., etc.

Lexie_25!

That's the route I'm going down re the readability of the signs, plus they are offset into the pavements on the lampposts so not even on the roads signs that a motorist would be paying attention to.

Guys_Dad

Nicholmes25 wrote: »

That's the route I'm going down re the readability of the signs, plus they are offset into the pavements on the lampposts so not even on the roads signs that a motorist would be paying attention to.

Use the comments on the lead adjudicator's report on the POPLA web site on this very point.

Also, BPA guidelines on signage (even colours required )

And also where road changes from public to private and are there any warning signs there at the entrance, so to speak.

On the matter of whether or not POFA applies, my pragmatic approach is if there are points in there that, even if they apply to Parking per se, help my case, then I would settle for it to be thought of as coming under Parking, albeit still suggesting that if it is to be considered as such, then the use of replica lines as on public roads, combined with poor signage, is unfair for drivers who may stop on council run roads double yellows to unload..

I also think the POPLA adjudicator would limit his view to this as a parking matter rather than if it got to a court where a judge might be swayed by any "reasons why we have this enforcement at airports"personal views.

bazster

Someone has to nail these barstewards over these airport stopping cases. POFA doesn't apply because (i) no-one parked and (ii) the airport roads are quite possibly not "relevant land" within the meaning of POFA.

Despite this the likes of APCOA are sending out NtK's like confetti when in fact there is no keeper liability. Everyone who gets one for airport stopping (not parking) needs to complain to DVLA about the misuse of their personal details!

Coupon-mad

Nicholmes25 wrote: »

That's the route I'm going down re the readability of the signs, plus they are offset into the pavements on the lampposts so not even on the roads signs that a motorist would be paying attention to.

Yep but not yet, that's for POPLA really. This early stage is similar to the fake (bribe of the discount being paramount) 'informal challenge' stage that Councils 'offer' and routinely reject. Very similar, over 90% routinely rejected by Councils and nearly 100% rejected by private firms because both situations are about chasing money, not about fairness. PPCs are much worse than Councils IMHO as the former make it up as they go along and deserve all they get from us here.

Think of POPLA as 'postal adjudication' where most people win with Council ones and in the case of POPLA we currently win 100% of the time when a poster uses a forum-worded appeal.

Fergie76

More Robbinghood airport...

VacuumDarkside

Just picked up a PCN from VCS. I stopped for about a minute at 3am in the morning and been ticketed for £60 - which is already up to £100 as a travel a lot therefore away from home for weeks at a time.

So the rule of thumb is to ignore these - that's my plan. What do you guys think? There's been no changes in the law or anything has there?
Regards

Stroma

Please create your own unique thread - thanks
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=163

Coupon-mad

VacuumDarkside wrote: »

Just picked up a PCN from VCS. I stopped for about a minute at 3am in the morning and been ticketed for £60 - which is already up to £100 as a travel a lot therefore away from home for weeks at a time.

So the rule of thumb is to ignore these - that's my plan. What do you guys think? There's been no changes in the law or anything has there?
Regards

Are you joking?! Of course the current advice is NOT to ignore! :eek: