Parking Eye court stage

Gary_zero

Ok Thanks .

Guys_Dad

The one point that MUST be in your daughter's defence is the Grace period as in the BPA Code of Practice.

See here http://www.britishparking.co.uk/write/Documents/AOS/AOS_CoP_June_2013_update.pdf

13.3 You should be prepared to tell us the specific grace period
at a site if our compliance team or our agents ask what it is.
13.4 You should allow the driver a reasonable period to leave
the private car park after the parking contract has ended,
before you take enforcement action.

The sign probably say 1 hours 20 minutes parking. Well. it must have taken he a good 2 - 3 minutes to find a space and another few minutes to leave.

In addition, get on to the local council planning department to see what consent was given for any timescales at that car park. See if they match what was allowed in the consent . If not, then get a copy of the consent that specifies the time for free parking - 100 minutes seems a strange time - and take them to court ' Also take the BPA CoP print out of section 13 and demand what their specific grace period is.

Also, have a look here http://www.newquayvoice.co.uk/news/5/article/3428/

This is another Parking Eye site and they allow 15 minutes grace. So demand that they should justify the lesser time at ASDA.

It is a shame that she didn't know about this forum some time back and she would be paying nothing and no stress.

4consumerrights

Gary_zero wrote: »

Thanks for all your help just to clarify this is the letter I sent to parking eye after they initially applied to the court their response was to reduce from £150 to £50 within 7 days which has since elapsed.
Dear Sir
I write this letter on behalf of my daughter because your continued harassment has
reduced her to tears yet again.
My daughter was a regular customer to the Aldi store on Corporation street retail park but of course not any more. On the day in question she spent £35.05 in Aldi please see enclosed bank statement the receipt is no longer available but Aldi can confirm with their records. She also spent a small amount of cash in Pound Stretcher and visited Abakhan store trying to find items for her imminent wedding. I do not think one hour and thirty minutes is excessive for this especially as my daughter is registered disabled and had her infant son with her in a pushchair. Are you actually causing her all this distress because she stayed 10 minutes yes 10 minutes to long?? Aldi is notorious for having a minimum amount of staff at the checkouts to cut costs causing large queues and DELAYING customers so 10 minutes REALLY?
You also stated in your latest letter with regards to her actually shopping that day “Evidence of this has been requested on all correspondence” This is not true What you did write was “please include all information to assist with the appeal. This MAY include a store receipt or bank statement” May is NOT a request it’s an option. Now you have requested evidence it is enclosed with this letter.
As I have stated my daughter is registered disabled with a young child and an upcoming wedding she takes 30MG of citalopram daily for depression and suffers from OCD which is also time consuming she is also forced to take 2.5 MG of Bromacriptine daily because of the Pituitary Tumor in her head. Also I have enclosed proof she was indeed shopping at the Aldi store. If you should need any clarification on the above please let ME know.
NOW bearing all this in mind I would ask you to stop this continued harassment and cancel this “Fine”. My daughter cannot afford to pay £150 for 10 minutes yes TEN MINUTES parking.
DO NOT HARASS MY DAUGHTER ANYMORE Either cancel or go directly to court where all of the above can be made public.
Letter Before action. If you do harass my daughter again I will personally bring action against your company for damages and compensation for undue distress.
DO NOT correspond with my daughter anymore I have her power of attorney (see below) to act for her in this matter because of the state of her health.
I look forward to your response within 14 days from the date you receive this to bring an end to this sorry matter.

As suspected the £50 reduced offer to settle no longer is available to you so your only option is to defend in full at a hearing in court.

I am still slightly bemused why they offered the £50 early option - my suspicions are that there is something fundamentally flawed - as has now been confirmed with the breach of planning consent regulations and possibly contract with landowner.


(as Coupon-Mad quite rightly corrected my reasonable adustjustments faux pas regarding maternity discrimination - so used to dealing with disability discrimination LOL)

However:

Gary Zero - in view of that letter above your daughter is covered by both unlawful maternity discrimination and disability discrimination where reasonable adjustments are required under the EqualityAct.


With regards to checking the planning consent - do not delay sending your defence off just to receive confirmation from the council planning department - (they can be slow in responding) - you should also challenge if Parking Eye have planning consent for the ANPR system for that site. Put the ball back into their court and state you require proof that Parking Eye have planning consent to reduce the free car parking time from 3 hours to 1 hour 20 minutes they are imposing and have permission to install the ANPR system.

Also take photographs of the signs on site and compare with BPA cop regarding signage - and challenge where you can. If CCTV/ANPR systems are used - ample warning signs are required and having seen some of PE's signage - they are not industrty compliant.

Request also that you require documentary evidence that Parking Eye are fulfilling their legal obligations regarding paying business rates for operating a commercial enterprise at that site or proof from the council they are expempt.

And as Guys dad said include the BPA COP in the defence regarding grace periods.

Do not be bamboozled by PE's various attempts to justify their costs they try to justify by

GPEOL - when in fact these are business related running costs (many tax deductible)

Commercial justification - this again is nonensense (thread started tody) - this relies on contracts between complex commercial/large organisations where indiviudally drawn up contracts are made and terms agreed by both parties who have representation and advice.

Contractual charge - again if this was the case the Parking charge notice would be subject to VAT which it is not.

You will need to do a lot of researching and reading - plenty of material to wade through to be confident in presenting in court.

Counterclaims can be heard at the same time - although in your case it is probably too late as you have not given a proper LBA as KIFL confirmed.

Umkomaas

@Gary-zero - this is very relevant to your situation. The Parking Prankster's latest blog - do read it and take up his offer of getting in touch with him.

http://parking-prankster.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/were-parkingeye-operating-without.html

Coupon-mad

Yes it's clear that your daughter is covered under the disability discrimination section of the Equality Act 2010, and in fact ParkingEye at another Preston car park not a million miles away, know that they should offer disabled people more time. Look:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=77891

See the bit at the bottom where PE allow a double time limit for disabled people at Leyland Aldi (don't be put off by the mention of a Blue Badge because your daughter doesn't need one to be defined as disabled).

You have so much to fight back with but you must word the letter well and make it clear that she is disabled under the Equality Act 2010 and that PE and their client are jointly and severally liable for a breach of the law in not making 'reasonable adjustments' in advance, in anticipation. As per their legal duty as service providers.

Parking-Prankster

Hi, as Umkomass pointed out, ParkingEye do not appear to have authority to take court action. Therefore, you should not be paying this until they either do or do not establish this.


As you parked after April 2013, they do have a letter of authority, but this is not the same as being able to take court action in their own right. Only a properly put together contract can give them this, and as it appears that no such exists, their case seems to be particularly flimsy at the moment.

salmosalaris

Gary Zero
perhaps my earlier posts regarding South Tyneside Council make a little more sense now

martmonk

At the risk of hijacking, for which I apologise, can anyone excplain why South Tyneside Council (or the Pension Fund) would own land on the other side of the country - is this a normal occurence?

bod1467

The NHS Pension Fund owns the land - they just happen to be based in South Tyneside. (Is my understanding. Like UK Child Benefit central processing is/was based in Washington Tyne & Wear).

esmerobbo

Regarding any planning conditions, I can't see any except sufficient car parking.

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/parking_restrictions_6#incoming-434118