APCOA running NHS car parks- should I complain or ignore parking charge notice?

mluk1234

I took my disabled dad for a long procedure last week at Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow (Greater London). I parked at what I thought was a disabled parking space, displayed the blue badge properly as required. When my dad finished his procedure and we got back to the car around 4 hours later (still within time limit imposed), to my horror I saw a parking charge notice stuck on the windscreen wiper. I was astonished and dad was very upset. The guy parked next to me told me he was here yesterday and saw another car given a parking charge notice- apparently he said where I parked was meant to be the exit!

I have uploaded an image on Youtube to show where I parked that day. Since I am relatively new to this website I am not allowed to post a link but if you go to Youtube and type in ''NHS hospital car park run by APCOA'' you will see the image I took.

It shows the space has a ''disabled'' sign on it and I didn't see anything else obvious to me that it was the exit. Coincidentally when I was waiting for my dad in the hospital that day I read an article from Daily mail newspaper. It can be seen online if you search for ''Daily mail, Parking cowboys hit cancer victims: Now scandal of 'disgraceful' fines spreads to NHS hospitals''. If APCOA really want patients to know it was an exit, why didn't they clean up the disabled sign so there is no confusion and make sure they repaint clearly something like ''Exit only, no parking''etc on the ground?

My key question is : Should I complain to the NHS or should I just ignore it?

Thanks a bunch for your thoughts.

Crabman

The above post has been moved into a new thread

Dee140157

My goodness that was quick work Crabman.


The first thing you should do is read the Newbie thread at the top of the forum. The advice is not to ignore but appeal. It's all there.

You should also contact your local PALS and complain too asking for them to sort this.

But do both. Do not rely on PALS.

Umkomaas

I'd also email the Daily Mail; they are interested in getting such stories about hospital parking charges by PPCs. The more such information they get, the greater the pressure they will place on government.

fisherjim

Well that looks pretty confusing to me!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9Esf5bIpw8

Dee140157

What a great piece of evidence to put into your appeal. I might be inclined to keep it for your POPLA appeal though. Only because I want to cost the PPC £27 to go to POPLA. If you put it In your first appeal it might be strong enough to win under the unclear signage point!