Parking Eye - Debt Collectors letter for 30 sec overstay.

bazster

It would've helped if you'd given us an accurate and complete description of the situation in the first place instead of misleading us.

I already gave you that quote from the BPA Code of Practice.

Dawn74

Emailed the BPA with my complaint today.
Let's see what happens now.

Dawn74

Bazster - what are you talking about ??? Misleading who with what?? How have I mislead anyone? Please explain ?

Dawn74

Ok now I have received an email from the church secretary saying the following :

Dear xxxxx

Thank you for you original email dated 12th August, unfortunately I was away on holiday. First all I would like to know the date of your Parking Fine as of the Bank Holiday weekend in May and the first weekend in June we did indeed have some problems with our Parking Eye cameras and perhaps this is when the problem has occurred.

I am sorry that you during your visit to our Parish here in Newquay you received this Parking Fine. The Parish does have a contract with Parking Eye to provide equipment etc for our Car Park. However, the Parish does not receive any money from the fines issued nor does it procure payment of fines. Our income depends solely on the tickets purchased by those who wish to park in the Car Park.

You indicate that the fine is excessive but the parking conditions are clearly stated on the seven notices that are placed around the car park. As I have stated the parish receives no income at all from the fines and have no desire for anyone to receive a fine from Parking Eye. Parking Eye does not act on our behalf in issuing fines. If you are only 1 second over your time they will instantly issue a Parking Fine.

Once again I am sorry that you received a fine and I hope that it did not spoil your stay in Cornwall. I look forward to hearing from you in due course with regards the date that you parked in our Car Park.

Three points stick out to me :

First, the date is 30th May - it wasn't bank holiday w/e when the ticket was issued. This means the cameras were faulty the Monday before this date should I ask for certificate of calibration or something ?

Secondly: she has also admitted that PE send out parking tickets even if over 1 second!! - continuously breaching BPA CoP section 13.4 grace periods.

Thirdly : if the church own the land she has stated that PE do not act on behalf of the church when issuing fines - so am I right in thinking that PE have no right to issue fines at all as the landowner hasn't given permission and or have not got a contract between myself and the landowner ?

Also had a response from the BPA who say they will investigate but they need a copy of the PCN, appeal letter and any other evidence before taking it further. I can only supply the appeal letter I sent and the debt collectors letter.

But even if I supply these they cannot have my ticket cancelled or overturned anyway.

Please help ..... Thank you.

trisontana

And, of course, they are not "fines".

Redx

definitely press them on the dates and anpr issues

that person seems to have mentioned the F word a million times in that letter, so I would point out that only a court or judge can issue FINES and Parking Eye cannot legally issue a FINE of any shape or form, only parking charge invoices and they are excessive due to the fact that all these companies are using excessive charges as can be seen in courts and at POPLA on an almost daily basis, also point out that PE cannot issue a penalty either as only the council or police can do so

ask them if they have seen the recent Daily Mail and Daily Express articles on these charges and if that aspect has any sway on their decision to employ PE to manage their car parks ?

point out to this person that the only restitution in law is the cost of any losses to the landowner (the payments for parking) plus any recovery fee and that the OFT deemed that figure to be £12 but neither PE nor the BPA accepted it as they wish to charge exorbitant punishments upon people which by law they are not allowed to do

as you have not seen any contract between the landowner and PE you cannot make an informed decision on this parking charge notice but say that you would insist on an unredacted copy of it to go to any ADR or court so that the assessors or judge can see it to make an informed decision as to its legality and if it confers legal rights upon PE to pursue these charges and the nature of those charges and rights

yes you can tell her that in a recent court case in altrincham about fistral beach in newquay the judge said that driving and queuing and entering and exiting is not parking so both the judge and the BPA CoP allow for grace periods and yet PE seem to be over enforcing these times in order to punish people and maximise profits to the detriment of visitors who try to do the "right thing" by paying the car park charge which they then receive

obviously the BPA cannot make them give you a popla code but they could sanction them, so if they replied in your favour and did sanction them its something for your defence if you need it

Fruitcake

The church secretary needs educating on points of law and contract law.

Only courts can issue a fine. Only the Police and Councils can issue a penalty. If the church consider these charges to be fines then they are colluding in an illegal activity.

A judge (one of the regulars will no doubt produce the relevant link) stated that driving in, around, and out of a car park does not constitute parking. Only the time from when you have stopped to when you start moving again is legally considered to be parking. So, a 1s or even a 30s overstay is not parking if it took you longer than that to actually find a place to stop.

eta

Fast-Fingers Redx beat me to it.

Redx

its here http://parking-prankster.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/waiting-for-space-is-not-parking.html

the same judge also said this too

the judge thought he would probably be minded to rule that £100 was not a genuine pre-estimate of loss.

also, at the moment PE do not seem to be defending POPLA appeals which says a lot about their "rules" on parking , especially as they lost in court at fistral beach, which I believe is near this car park

MicaMoo_2

I got stung with a fine from Parking Eye, parked in a hotel carpark, wrongly assumed that parking would be included, thought nothing more of it until the fine came through

bazster

Dawn74 wrote: »

Bazster - what are you talking about ??? Misleading who with what?? How have I mislead anyone? Please explain ?

First you said it was the Trinity Church car park, then you said it was the golf club's car park! Now I see it's reverted to being the church's car park again!