Just recieved a fine from Vehicle control services LTD

Mrs_J_S

Hi,
I am new to this forum so please bear with me if I don't get it right.
I was after some expert advice as I have no idea if I have a case. So need to know whether to pay up or appeal & if I do appeal what approach I should take, key phrases etc.

This is my situation.

My Husband is a plumbing and heating engineer and has been a regular customer or Grahams plumbers merchants for many years. As he has a good rapport with the company the branch manager allowed me (his wife) to park in their car park whilst I made my weekly visits to the nearby town centre.

This was the case without issue for may years.

Very recently Grahams the plumbers merchant have relocated, which I was aware of but I continued to use their car park thinking that it would still belong to them despite them no longer trading from there.

It would seem that this is not the case.

To access the car park (as has always been the case) you needed to drive through the wicks car park but the bit in front of Grahams was separated by a wall.

Since Grahams have moved out of the premises no signage regarding parking has been added or removed leading me to think that I was still ok to continue to park there.

I parked in the car park this morning, according to parking notice at 11.20 (it was actually 11.10 as my hair apt was at 11.15) and the penalty was issued at 11.50 stating that I was seen in Wickes.
As far as I was concerned I was parking in Grahams not Wickes there was no notices to say that ownership or boundary's had changed. They state that 'vehicle parked and driver walked of site' this is true as I didn't think I was doing anything wrong, I am not in the habit of breaking rules and would never have parked there if I had know.

Can I find out if Wickes actually own the 10 spaces previously used by Grahams, or are the parking company just trying their luck by taking control of them now the property is empty.

what do you think, do I have a case?

Sorry if I have rambled on but the fine is £60 if paid within 28 days or it goes up to £100 if not excessive if in comparison to a council fine.

Thanks guys.

reehsetin

Is there no signage at all in that area?

Mrs_J_S

Hi
There is a sign one of those that are black white and red and covered in very small writing but it has been
there for years when it was grahams and it is still there now it is not Grahams, my point was that there was nothing new to indicate a change.

Guys_Dad

Very simple.

You do nothing till you get a Notice to Keeper through the post. Actually, not nothing. You go into Wickes, ask to see the manager and get him to confirm the extend of Wickes' property and find out if the bit of land is their's.

When you go into Wickes to see the manager, take a few pictures of the entrance to this bit of land. In particular that there are no signs to its entrance. Also a picture of the entrance sign into Wickes car park.

Post them up here via tinypics or similar.

Now what exactly did the PCN say? Being seen in Wickes is not an offence!!!

Plenty of time to get some sense into this so don't worry.

Umkomaas

VCS and Wickes, now that rings a bell.

OP, I agree with Guys Dad as the way forward with this.

Re my 'cryptic' opening line, you aren't the first and unlikely to be the last to be scammed by VCS on a Wickes site.

Mrs_J_S

oooh you have given me hope, Guy's dad.
There are no signs to the entrance of the Grahams bit of the car park, there maybe one at the main entrance I'm not sure, there are a few others dotted around the place but I have never really paid any attention to them as I am not parking in Wicks, I am (or was) parking in Graham's.
I will go speak to the manager of Wickes to determine ownership and boundry's.
The PCN has a box called Was seen in and the warden has just written Wickes.
He has ticked contravention code AO and written vehicle parked and driver walked off site.
I am determined to fight this out of principle, if he saw me walk off why didn't he say something and I would have moved, I would never do something that is so blatantly apparently wrong and expect to just get away with it. Grrrrrrrrrrr.

Do you think the Manager of Wickes will be honest with me re boundrys, you don't think they will be in cahoots with VCS?
Thank you for replying

Folkiedave

A pedant writes: this person will not be scammed if she does as we suggest!:beer:

Folkiedave

Personally I am of the opinion that it is better to go to POPLA because that costs VCS money!! But by all means try and get it cancelled at source. And don't be fobbed off by excuses.

Mrs_J_S

so you all think I should hang fire
What is a notice to keeper?
What will be the worse case scenario?
Do you think I could phone the branch manager as opposed to going down to see him?

I don't know if this is relevant or not but The notice also says no of W/Signs the guy has written 4 and where it says filmed it is ticked.

Guys_Dad

To reiterate.

1. Go see manager at Wickes.

2. Take photos.

3. Wait for NtK as they can easily screw up their legal process.

Their PCN is gibberish by the way!

Relax. You have landed on here and are in safe hands. Just read the last 3 pages of the POPLA Decisions sticky thread, but please don't contact the PPC till you have come back for more help.

If the Wickes manager confirms that the land is not theirs, ask him to instruct VCS to cancel charge on that basis (unless VCS have rights on that car park too)

Mrs_J_S

Hi
After reading on other peoples threads re their parking tickets I decided to look on Google street view re the parking notices displayed here is the link.

instantstreetview.com/2pr6mqz3doxi8z45czniz2u[/url]

Just add the w's

This is an old street view as grahams is now shut down and there is one of the small parking notices on the fence next to the front door of grahams which is not present on this picture.
This view is of the main and only entrance to the car park from the main road, you can see grahams in the back ground. This should help if used along side my description of where I was parked.
I will go to Wickes tomorrow to speak to the manager.
My Husband seems to think that the car park doesn't belong to Wickes so I am hopeful of a good outcome tomorrow when I speak to the manager. We will see.