Hospital Complaint For Breach Of Equality Act 2010

Fergie76

Fergie76 wrote: »

Just emailed this to the hospital:

Good afternoon,

Thank you for a copy of the contract yesterday as part of my FOI request. Can you please confirm that this is the correct and current in use contract?

My concerns are that it is dated 10 Feb 98. I have had a quick look through it and I see nowhere in the contract that APCOA are allowed to charge parking charges for breaches, it just relates to clamping, which has now been made illegal. If it is there, can you please point me to the relevant section?

Secondly and more importantly, the contract is with FMG (Harrow) Ltd and Lister Healthcare Group Limited. It appears that Lister has been dissolved and FMGH have been taken over by or renamed to APCOA FACILITIES MANAGEMENT (HARROW) LIMITED, company number: 03481526. However, the driver was issued the penalty charge by APCOA Parking (UK) Limited, company number: 02572947. The problem being, if there is no other contract, then APCOA Parking (UK) Limited are operating without the lawful authority of the Landowner and therefore illegally.

Can you please confirm this as a matter of urgency? If there is another contract, then can you please forward the correct contract in accordance with my FOI request?

In light of the above, I will be bringing this to the attention of the DVLA and requesting that they suspend APCOA from obtaining registered keepers details for this site until it is confirmed that they have the lawful authority of the Landowner.

So had an email response to the above email I sent on Friday. Something tells me they are not treating this very seriously...??

Thank you for your request and FOI request below.

YOu request was received on 28th November 2014 and I am dealing with it under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

You should expect a response by the 30th of December 2014 and your reference number is .....

I have also had an email from the Acting CEO in reply to my previous complaint (see post 167) which I will post when I home tonight, but needless to say we disagree on every point.

Castle

Perhaps they need the 30 days to have a look at the "back of the filing cabinet" to find it.

Fergie76

Castle wrote: »

Perhaps they need the 30 days to have a look at the "back of the filing cabinet" to find it.

That was exactly my thought. I think it is totally unreasonable to treat this as separate FOI request, when all I am asking is that they confirm that they did indeed send the correct contract.

So they are breaching the FOI Act again by sending incorrect information or more seriously are complicit in APCOA obtaining money fraudulently.

I emailed them back at dinner time, saying that I need an answer today, given the possible illegal activities that could be happening and they have failed to acknowledge, let alone answer.

I also reported this to the DVLA on Friday and as yet have had no response and also the BPA, who have responded.

What is my next step here? Can I report this to the police as possible fraud?

Fergie76

Fergie76 wrote: »

Was expecting a reply to my latest complaint from the hospital yesterday and again never received anything, so I emailed them last night and received a reply today that the reply they sent me on 11 Nov (somewhere above), was that reply. Just emailed them back saying that that reply in no way answers any of my complaint:

I am sorry, but this is just not good enough from your Trust. Firstly, I wrote the Chief Executive personally and whilst I appreciate he is on annual leave, out of courtesy, I would expect a personal reply from him or his Acting CEO, Simon Crawford.

Secondly, how can the reply of 11 Nov 14, address the points to my letter of 22 Oct 14 (which I attached to my email yesterday), when it quite clearly states it is in response to my email of 17 Nov 14 and doesn’t even refer to my letter of 22 Oct, which was my formal reply to your reply? And in no way does the letter of 11 Nov address all the issues of my letter of 22 Oct.

To illustrate how you have not fully answered my complaint, I will take the headings of each of the sections of my letter dated 22 Oct 14:

1. Breach of Equality Act – you have tried to answer that point, however you have not addressed any of the issues I have raised on why you have breached the Equality Act.

2. Notice to Keeper / Blue Badge Scheme – not even mentioned in your reply of 11 Nov 14.

3. Number of Disabled Bays – Not mentioned.

4. Parking Charge Notice – Not mentioned.

5. British Parking Association – Not mentioned.

6. Freedom of Information – Again not mentioned. I have since received the information, but do you think it’s acceptable that your Trust breaches the FOI Act? Although it is happy to breach the Equality Act, so why not the FOI Act as well…

7. Contact with the Trust – Again not mentioned. I have severe doubts if members of your Trust even read the correspondence that I send, as on more than occasion I have asked for all correspondence to be via email and yet I have had to chase up a soft copy after receiving a hard copy through the post and also as illustrated above you have failed to respond to any of my points of complaints.

Further to the breach of Equality Act and why you have not made reasonable adjustment, I will explain further. My wife had been in hospital for some time, due to her condition (went into more detail in hospital email). So can you please explain to me how you have made reasonable adjustment in this case, to comply with the Equality Act 10?

In your reply of 11 Nov 14, you state that the parking penalty was for breach of contract. I take it, that you are aware that the hospital cannot charge penalties and all you can claim for is a genuine pre-estimate of loss? So can you please provide me a breakdown of your genuine pre-estimate of loss? This goes for all parking penalties issued by the Trust, so you are fraudulently claiming money from your patients and visitors that you are not entitled to.

With reference to meeting Gary Munn, I would be more than happy to, however I don’t think it is practical, as I live 4 hours away. I will be prepared to travel, if the Trust reimburses all of my expenses, or if Gary is due in the Plymouth area any time soon, again I would be more than happy to meet him. I am also willing to have a telephone conference with him, in which case this Friday afternoon would suit me best or video call over Skype?

Lastly, are you aware that APCOA have failed to produce any evidence to POPLA and therefore I have had my appeal upheld? Now, if your/their case was so strong, why would they fail to contest it. I told you at the very start of this saga, that I would win.

This the reply to the above:





They are just not getting it and we are going around in circles now, anybody got any suggestions?

C-M? Prankster? Anybody?

Coupon-mad

I think I would wait for the GPEOL that they say APCOA are supplying them with and which they will forward to you. Could be interesting.

The maybe take them up on the conference call so you can explain the problem with 'limited' disability provision (limited' is handily their word there in the letter and it matches the word in the Equality Act 'unenforceable terms')! It's not about the number of bays, it's about putting a cap on who gets free parking on a first come first served basis without justification. There is nothing stopping them simply saying 'any Blue badge on a car = no charge.' Nothing at all to stop them doing this literally with a change of policy overnight - and it would be perfectly easy to 'police' as well.

I think these emails are getting misunderstood and they are not seeing your point.

Fergie76

I know a lot of people post here and on PEPIPOO, but I have also just posted there: http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=95183

Castle

I would suggest contacting the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) and point out the unreasonable delays in replying to your FOI request; and then get the ICO to apply some pressure.


At the same time, keep chasing the DVLA and BPA and telling them it's a very simple question; is there a contract with Apcoa Parking UK or not?

I would keep the Police out of it until the hospital admits there's no contract or "come up" with one.

Fruitcake

I agree, they just don't get it.

What part of the BPA CoP don't they understand? Do not ticket a car displaying a blue badge. There is nothing in the CoP that says the vehicle has to be in a bay with a pretty picture on it.

Perhaps you need to send a separate email for each individual paragraph. Pictures might help as they don't seem to be able to understand plain English.

bazster

Send them a Letter Before Claim from your wife, demanding £500 compensation for injury to feelings arising from their breach of the Equality Act 2010.

Fergie76

bazster wrote: »

Send them a Letter Before Claim from your wife, demanding £500 compensation for injury to feelings arising from their breach of the Equality Act 2010.

I have seen you mention this before Baz and am very interested in this approach as a last resort, which I feel we are getting close.

I will have the telephone conference with them and see how that goes.

I decide to go down that route and it does actually end up in court, would it be my local court or theirs?