PCM Bluewater

dsimms

I recently went to Bluewater with my father who is disabled. We parked in a disabled bay and displayed his blue badge. It transpired this was expired and we hadn’t realised, and on our return to the car we found a parking notice from PCM

As the car park is free I felt this suspicious so have investigated online, and ended up on this site

As far as I can tell

1) The Blue Badge itself is only valid in council car parks and on street parking and has no validity in a private car parks such as this centre. The Blue Badge Scheme does not apply in private car parks, the only requirement to use the bay is that someone in the vehicle is classified as disabled.
2) The centre advertises free parking on its website with parking close to the entrances for guests with disabilities. No mention of badges. No mention of PCM
3) As the car park is free, there is no loss to the owners.
4) Therefore the parking charge ticket means nothing.

Am I correct in assuming I can safely ignore this piece of paper. (Badge itself is now in renewal process!)


Thanks for any advice!


Di

Guys_Dad

dsimms wrote: »

I recently went to Bluewater with my father who is disabled. We parked in a disabled bay and displayed his blue badge. It transpired this was expired and we hadn’t realised, and on our return to the car we found a parking notice from PCM

As the car park is free I felt this suspicious so have investigated online, and ended up on this site

As far as I can tell

1) The Blue Badge itself is only valid in council car parks and on street parking and has no validity in a private car parks such as this centre. The Blue Badge Scheme does not apply in private car parks, the only requirement to use the bay is that someone in the vehicle is classified as disabled.
2) The centre advertises free parking on its website with parking close to the entrances for guests with disabilities. No mention of badges. No mention of PCM
3) As the car park is free, there is no loss to the owners.
4) Therefore the parking charge ticket means nothing.

Am I correct in assuming I can safely ignore this piece of paper. (Badge itself is now in renewal process!)


Thanks for any advice!


Di

Wait till you get the Notice to Keeper. You will then need to do an appeal we will help with that.

The forum expert is on holiday so she will pick it up. But don't worry, you are home and dry on this.

Half_way

As abve wat for the letter in the post, it will most likely to be rejected by the parking company, as soon as that happens you need to fire off a complaint to bluewater, reminding them of their duty's under the equalities act ( formerly known as the disability discrimination act - DDA) and that they (bluewater) are responsible for the actions of their agents - CPM and thatbluewater need to stop the action by their agents immediately, otherwise you will be holding them ( bluewater) liable for a breach of the Equalities act.
Plus you should also demand that bluewater take action to make sure that this will never happen again.

bluewater are owned by Lend lease, see here http://www.lendlease.com/EMEA/United%20Kingdom/Home

Guys_Dad

Half_way wrote: »

As abve wat for the letter in the post, it will most likely to be rejected by the parking company, as soon as that happens you need to fire off a complaint to bluewater, reminding them of their duty's under the equalities act ( formerly known as the disability discrimination act - DDA) and that they (bluewater) are responsible for the actions of their agents - CPM and thatbluewater need to stop the action by their agents immediately, otherwise you will be holding them ( bluewater) liable for a breach of the Equalities act.
Plus you should also demand that bluewater take action to make sure that this will never happen again.

bluewater are owned by Lend lease, see here http://www.lendlease.com/EMEA/United%20Kingdom/Home

In fact, you can send that letter to Bluewater immediately. Enclose a copy of your expired Blue Badge and point out that having a Blue badge or not does not affect your father's disability.

Suggest that the PPC operative is working under pressure to meet their targets and not exercising judgment.

But do wait for the NtK from the PPC before contacting them.

Edit:- Do have a look here at section 16 "Disabled Drivers" and incorporate what you want from here, whilst referring to it. http://www.britishparking.co.uk/write/Documents/AOS/AOS_CoP_June_2013_update.pdf

dsimms

Thanks for all the support. I'll get a letter off to Bluewater right away.

TrickyWicky

dsimms wrote: »

1) The Blue Badge itself is only valid in council car parks and on street parking and has no validity in a private car parks such as this centre. The Blue Badge Scheme does not apply in private car parks, the only requirement to use the bay is that someone in the vehicle is classified as disabled.

Only councils can legally REQUIRE you to display a blue badge in a disabled bay however it doesn't stop private car park operators from requiring you to display one under contract or refusing you the use of the disabled bay.

By law however they have no legal right to inspect your badge or even demand that you display it but again they can argue that they don't permit you to park there without it under their contract with you.

Just wanted to clear that up

dsimms

TrickyWicky wrote: »

Only councils can legally REQUIRE you to display a blue badge in a disabled bay however it doesn't stop private car park operators from requiring you to display one under contract or refusing you the use of the disabled bay.

By law however they have no legal right to inspect your badge or even demand that you display it but again they can argue that they don't permit you to park there without it under their contract with you.

Just wanted to clear that up

So are you saying I entered into a contract by parking there?

TrickyWicky

If they've got signs etc up they may argue this, yes.

Half_way

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Job done - nice get rich scheme there i think.

Guys_Dad

dsimms wrote: »

So are you saying I entered into a contract by parking there?

That is precisely the argument that they will make to POPLA and a court.

What your job is will be to prove that either they were not entitled to make a contract, that the terms were not clear or that the financial charge is punitive and exceeds covering their losses. In addition, if they do not follow the BPA Code of Practice, they will lose - at least at POPLA and if they do not follow the court procedures to the letter, they lose.

But in essence, they believe that you have entered a contract.

Me? I believe I have entered a car park.

Coupon-mad

dsimms wrote: »

Thanks for all the support. I'll get a letter off to Bluewater right away.

And don't forget to look out for the Notice to Keeper and read up on how to challenge that, as explained in this Bluewater thread:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4726997

Your case is similar to trubster's case at Meadowhall, where they had no Blue Badge at all but the son is disabled so the LEGAL right to park there in a disabled bay comes from the Equality Act 2010:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=75213&start=0&p=773656&#entry773656

Trubster is a legend IMHO, who won at POPLA to get the fake PCN cancelled and then pursued the retail park managing agents for compensation. And got it.