Private parking: Government Consultation

Hurtlocker · 27 April 2015 at 7:10PM

Thanks for sharing...
This needs to make it onto the weekly newsletter ASAP! :money:

Shell2015 · 27 April 2015 at 7:33PM

Well this seemes to be a major problem, how many members of the public actually get to know about these consultations?

Granted I am sure some of the responses will be less educated on these matters, but I assume the more people who respond the more likely action will be taken.

Honestly it would be handy if the media tweeted it or published it in the national press... even if it is the Daily Mail....

Hurtlocker · 27 April 2015 at 11:43PM

Hello, most of the links given post to a PDF file, but I think it would be more helpful (and more likely for people to fill in) if we give the link to the Goverment's online survey (copied from the PDF)

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/MVFQBFX

:money:

trubster · 28 April 2015 at 12:12AM

Q1 " Do you think there are problems with how parking on private or public land is regulated, or the behaviour of private parking companies?":

YES

Q2 If you answered Yes to Q1, what do you think the problems are with parking on private land, or the practices of parking control companies managing parking on private or public land?:

Private Parking Companies are ripping off the public. They impose silly limits like 1 hour on a huge retail park then "Fine" £100 for spending money in shops. I am spending more money than ever online with Amazon, sadly costing the government money as Amazon profit's are taxed in Luxembourg.

I very rarely visit retail parks or shopping centres nowadays, especially as one Private Parking Company threatened to take me to court when they failed to make "Reasonable Adjustments" to disabled persons. It ended in the landowner paying over £500 in compensation to get me to drop the matter.

Private parking companies should not be allowed to hold the public to ransom. £100 to some people is either a day's wage, or a weeks benefit money. They are taking food out of childrens mouths and laughing all the way to the bank.

Q3 If you answered Yes to Q1, what steps do you think the Government should take to rectify these problems?:

Stop these people bribing the DVLA to obtain keeper details. If the landowner doesn't want people to stay longer than X hours without paying Y per hour, install a barrier system with a pay machine.

Ban the use of ANPR in private car parks, these are extremely unreliable, they do not recognise all vehicles, all the time. If you visit the same car park twice in a day, there is a massive chance you will get an invoice for the time you first entered to your last departure. The technology is flawed and it has been proven many times.

Take action against companies that deliberately flout the rules of the BPA, all parking companies have breached the ATA's code of practice, yet the DVLA and BPA/IPC are not doing anything about them, to protect the steady revenues.

4. Are you able to offer any evidence to support a case for change, or examples of best practice?

Yes, I have been hounded by many parking companies for not displaying a blue badge, despite a note being left in the vehicle and a disabled VED being displayed, a blue badge has NO MEANING at all on private land, insisting on one is discrimination. Yet the private parking companies still made me go all the way to the independent appeals service to get the notice cancelled, which was on a technicality rather than the true reason.

I am aware of someone in a similar situation, the IAS refused the appeal and he is still being hounded by the private parking company.

Also, I have had tickets as a result of 2 visits being recorded as 1, showing that the ANPR systems are a farce. Even then the PPC's make you go all the way to the independent appeals service.

Many vulnerable people think these are real fines and pay up without question, even when they did nothing wrong.

5. Do you think there are other steps the Government could take to ensure that parking supports local shops and high streets?

YES

6. If you answered Yes to Q5, what steps do you think the Government should take to help support local shops and high streets, for example by increasing the provision of free and competitively priced parking spaces?

Enforce planning permission restrictions. Many shops like "ALDI" have been given planning permission for stores to be built when they state the car park is available for 3 hours for local shoppers.

Once the store is built, they change it to 90 minutes for customers only whilst in the shop and the councils don't do anything about it.

If I knew I could park for £x per hour, I would, but when an ANPR system detects I enter at 11:58 and pay for 1 hour at 12:05 when I have parked the car, then leave the car park at 13:04, I will be sent an invoice by a PPC because I overstayed.
Parking time is Parking time, not time waiting for a space etc.