Parking Eye - PCN -Hospital Car Park -advice sought

NeverEnough

A PCN from Parking Eye arrived today, addressed to me as I am the registered keeper, for a parking "issue" which happened on 2 June, unbeknownst to us. So they just made their 14 days.

My disabled partner used my car to go to a hospital appointment atour local hospital, she recently had surgery and was attending follow up appointments.

Parking Eye were recently contracted by our local NHS hospital to run the parking, and have changed the system to a driver having to input their registration details and the time they arrived via a very small, difficult to use keypad in a difficult access position if you have a physical disability, - in her case, a degenerative condition -in order to pay at a machine before then exiting. They use cameras to capture the vehicle arriving and leaving and the PCN gives a photo with exact times.

She paid for the parking and has kept the receipt, but unfortunately the keypad did not register the first two digits so instead of ABC1234
The receipt shows C1234 (the car has a 7 digit numberplate as it came from a NI dealer but is registered in England and the incident happened at a Midlands hospital. The receipt she has, has a timestamp on it which strangely enough coincides with the time the car was shown leaving the car park.

I am aware of the basics, such as do not ignore the PCN, do a "soft" appeal to get the POPLA code and then appeal to POPLA and end up arguing about it in Court if needs be.

However, I am not sure how to word the appeal in this case - I am pretty sure the difficult access to the keypad played a part , the two missing digits are both identical and are also the first two digits of the registration number, so the keypad may have been faulty, or my partners disability may have played a role - the keypad digit concerned may have needed more pressure than she could give for it to register for whatever reason.

I would be really grateful if Couponmad or another savvy forum user with good knowledge of the Equality Act as well as the Parking Eye /POPLA minefield could advise me on how I should word an appeal - this case is a bit more complex due to the disability so I am not 100% sure and don't want to mess up at this or the next stage!

Many thanks

Coupon-mad

I would use the template from the NEWBIES thread and just add a point #4:

The driver (who was not me) used my car to go to a hospital appointment following recent surgery. Parking was paid for and here is a copy of the receipt (attached). Unfortunately the keypad did not register the first two digits (the car has a 7 digit numberplate as it came from a NI dealer but is registered in England). Contrary to best practice under the Equality Act 2010, you have installed at a Hospital, a very small, difficult to use keypad in an inaccessible position if you have a physical disability. In the driver's case, she has a degenerative condition which made using your keypad difficult so I suggest you should cancel this ticket immediately.

Also, you must now consider this a formal complaint under the Equality Act 2010 which you must raise with the Hospital as well. If a disabled service user has difficulty using your keypad you have a statutory duty to consider changes to make the operation more accessible, particularly at a Hospital. I will complain to the Hospital Facilities Manager if you do not cancel the PCN and respond with the outcome of your disability complaint review. I will also escalate the complaint within the Hospital and within the BPA Ltd., if I do not receive a proper response about this disability complaint and what changes you intend to make to address the inaccessible and small keypad. This is not merely a case of cancelling the PCN, although that is of course expected - this is about making a reasonable adjustment to the ticket machines you have chosen to install which are not fit for use by a disabled person.


(I would remove the 'take formal note' stuff from the template to make it less of a 'template'!).

NeverEnough

Many thanks Coupon, your help is invaluable. Should I include point 2 about the signage as well, even though the circumstances in this case are a bit different and don't actually involve the signage? I am complaining to the Chief Exec of the hospital as well, just for good measure, as it was her decision to get this pack of cowboys involved! Even our local MP is now involved in the row!

Will update thread as it evolves. Many thanks again.

Coupon-mad

Maybe remove the signage paragraph to make yours much less 'templatey' and because it's not about the signs it's about the inaccessible machines and the whole scam!

nigelbb

PALS is the usual route for complaining & getting the charge quashed in these circumstances. Just Google PALS & the hospital name.

bazster

Furthermore your partner can make a formal complaint to the hospital that their agent, ParkingEye, wrote to a third party (the vehicle registered keeper) concerning an outpatient visit she made to the hospital. This is a clear breach of patient confidentiality, and she wants an apology, an explanation, and an undertaking that it will not happen again.

What with this and the Equality Act issues she could really give them a hard time.

nigelbb

I appreciate the potential for beating up PPCs over a potential breach of patient confidentiality but I'm afraid that the charge doesn't stand up. PE haven't told the RK who used the car or who attended the hospital for an outpatient appointment. The car could have been at the hospital for any number of reasons e.g. visiting, dropping off etc.

bazster

Utter, utter rot. Your penchant for pointless pedantry has really run away with you this time.

If my missus used my car to go to a hospital appointment without telling me, and ParkingEye subsequently wrote to me effectively telling me where she'd been, I imagine she would rightly be very, very upset and angry. The breach of confidentiality couldn't be clearer.

I suppose she could lie and tell me that she'd lent the car to someone else, and in any case if it had been her driving then she was doing a bit of moonlighting as a hospital cleaner. I suppose you think it's acceptable for the NHS to put people in that sort of position?

antrobus

bazster wrote: »

Utter, utter rot. Your penchant for pointless pedantry has really run away with you this time.

If my missus used my car to go to a hospital appointment without telling me, and ParkingEye subsequently wrote to me effectively telling me where she'd been, I imagine she would rightly be very, very upset and angry. The breach of confidentiality couldn't be clearer.

I suppose she could lie and tell me that she'd lent the car to someone else, and in any case if it had been her driving then she was doing a bit of moonlighting as a hospital cleaner. I suppose you think it's acceptable for the NHS to put people in that sort of position?

Curious.

Please cite your references to support your contention that ParkingEye has a duty of confidentiality in these circumstances.

Dee140157

Hmm, that is an interesting thought. I can't comment on whether Bazter is right or not, but I do work in admin in a similar environment to a hospital and I know I am bound by strict confidentiality and would be breaking this if I were to tell anyone who did not already know that someone had a) visited a clinician, or b) was an inpatient. So he may have a point. If I am bound by this would not anyone working on behalf of eg a hospital trust be similarly bound? I certainly can see where he is coming from

Apologies Bazter if you are a she by the way!

bazster

ParkingEye doesn't have a duty confidentiality, the hospital does. ParkingEye is the hospital's agent.