News story on Southport hospital and UKPC

cgk1

Apologies if this has been posted but I can't find it if it has?

A WOMAN has won an appeal against a parking ticket in Southport Hospital car park on the grounds that that car park operator had no right to issue a ticket.

Now West Lancashire MP Rosie Cooper is calling on the hospital trust to review all parking charge notices issued at the Southport and Ormskirk hospital car parks.

A man, who is believed to live in West Lancashire,was given a parking ticket in the Southport and Formby District General car park in in July but his daughter challenged the fine on the grounds that the car park operator, UK Parking Control Limited (UKPC), who also run the car park at Ormskirk and District General Hospital, does not own the land and so had no right to issue a ticket.

The appeal was upheld by the Parking and Private Land Appeals (POPLA) in December and UKPC were ordered to cancel the fine.

http://www.champnews.com/newsstory.aspx?story=3047653

Here's the interesting nugget:

Jonathan Parry, Chief Executive, said: “UK Parking Control Ltd (UKPC) is authorised by the Trust to patrol our car parks at Southport and Ormskirk hospital to prevent thoughtless and dangerous parking.

”The company issues fixed penalty notices to drivers who, for example, park in Blue Badge spaces to which they are not entitled, park on pavements and double yellow lines, or block access to essential clinical services and emergency services such as ambulances and fire engines.

“The Trust makes no money from penalty notice income which funds UKPC’s management costs.

em.. Penalty notices? and I thought that you had to show an actual loss? Not your costs of enforcement?

Coupon-mad

That final line is a classic one to quote, in any POPLA appeal re Southport/Ormskirk Hospital. They just demolished UKPC's case at any POPLA appeal in one fell swoop!

And just seen this at the end of the article:

''A spokesman for POPLA said that although they could not guarantee the outcome of individual claims, claims made on the grounds that the fine issuer are not the private land owner, or without the authority of the land owner, would be likely to be successful. ''

Redx

it also shows that they clearly havent a clue what they are talking about

using the words fine , penalty , and thinking that UKPC have the right to make money out of ticketing car owners ( ie profit ) as opposed to gpeol

and these people are in charge of our hospitals

Half_way

Fines, penaltys deterrents etc etc are all pretty common things when dealing with Hospital parking policys, dentists doctors surgeries and so on as well as those used by colleges and universitys and any other such institutions.
If you or someone else gets a ticket in such as place its always worth checking the parking policy for such gems.

Press and media attention is always a good thing as well, although there is a lack of understanding in the media it may be worth poking them in the direction of

"IldI could be forced to payback thousands/hundreds/scores of motorists who have been illegally fined by their agents porking fly whilst using their car parks...after the appeals tribunal ruled that the charges were unlawful as amongst other things they did not represent a genuine pre estimate of loss customers with receipts/proof of payment of parking fines issued by porking fly at ILDI should go to their nearest store to demand a refund for the ticket plus costs of up to £50 "

cgk1

There are three letters in this week's edition of the paper, two are from locals pointing out that these are not fines but rather speculative invoices which is good but there is also a letter from the Chef Exec of Jonathan Parry which I quote:

May I correct an element of your story 'Hospital carp fines rules invalid'. Only one fine for parking in a disabled bay without a blue badge was overruled by POPLA, the independent parking appeal ervice, and this was on a technically that has since been reflected. I also disagree with MP Rosie Cooper's view that the ruling somehow brings into question other fines issued by UK Parking Control (UKPC).

So there you have the Chef Exec going on record to confirm these are fines...