Gutted and confused - Milton Keynes Parking Charge Notice

oo03sjw

Help please, read and searched, just want to clarify best course of action and my understanding.

Spent the day at thecentre:mk yesterday, for the first time.

Parked in what looks like Milton Keynes 2 - the main car park out of door 11 at the back of Next and under the bridge.

Bought a ticket in the 'pink' cheapie zone - 40p per hour - £2.80 for 7 Hours from the same row as we parked in. Clearly displayed in the window.

Returned after shopping to have a PCN for failing to display, issued by NCP Ltd. Code B9 - seen at 11.45 and ticket issued at 12.00.

I note on the parking ticket that the logos on the bottom are Vinci Park and Milton Keynes Council and yet the PCN is issued by NCP?

The notice is for £70/£35.

I have emailed the centre Customer Service and requested that the ticket be cancelled - awaiting reply.

Please advise the next course of action, do I paste the Newbie letter to NCP on email? Wait for thecentre:mk reply? Wait for NTK letter?

Thanks in advance. As you can imagine it did put a dampener on an otherwise great day.

Ralph-y

while you await a more personal reply

please read through

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4816822

and forum search ' Vinci Park'

Ralph:cool:

Guys_Dad

You have parked in the NCP car park and not the council one run by Da Vinci, it seems. There are a couple of areas that the City Centre own and the rest is the council. If you look here http://www.milton-keynes.gov.uk/streets-transport-and-parking/parking/parking-maps-for-central-milton-keynes and then download the parking map, you will see what I mean.

Lots of people make the same mistake and, unfortunately, whilst the council are happier to cancel tickets, NCP are more reluctant.

Redx

there have been several threads with a similar story on here, some have had the details of the different car parks added so people can see where they have slipped up when buying tickets for the car park they parked in (wrong ticket machine etc)

if its an NCP car park, you need to send the template letter from the NEWBIES sticky thread, to NCP

buying a council ticket doesnt help when you are in an NCP car park

oo03sjw

Thanks for the quick reply Guys Dad, now I'm even more confused. I have looked at the .pdf as you said and I have also looked at the NCP car parks MK2 website (can't show link as newbie) which just has an arrow on the corner of North 11th Street and neither indicate which is which, as far as I can tell.
Bearing in mind we purchased a ticket in the row we were parked, how is anyone supposed to know which is which?

It looks as though we parked in E1 if that is any help?

That said, if we have parked in the wrong place completely innocently what is the next step, do we still appeal to NCP? or wait for NTK? or what?

Thanks again for any further info.

Sorry guys, crossed posted while I was composing this reply - now seen the other suggestions and will send letter to NCP.

Redx

always wait until the NTK comes, the NEWBIES sticky thread tells you this, unless its a hire car

nigelbb

The NCP scam at Milton Keynes Centre is my Specialist Subject as a charge there led me into the world of private parking. Here is a link to my original thread. https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4500141

I doesn't seem that the situation has changed much in the last couple of years as this must be such a money spinner for NCP. Someone local needs to report this to Trading Standards as there misleading signage & lack of demarcation between council & NCP parking is deliberately designed to entrap the unwary. A simple measure would be a clear sign on the ticket machine simply stating that there are two car parks & to be very sure that you were purchasing a ticket for the correct car park.

In my case NCP dropped the charge without acknowledgement when I sent a robust appeal combined with lobbying the MK Centre. If they hadn't it would in any case have been easily overturned at POPLA on misleading signage plus 'not a GPEOL' .

Google Street View of the area is dated July 2014 so well over a year after I visited but the situation is still the same. This link shows very clearly how the scam operates. The cars in the foreground are parked on the street with the ticket machine behind them. All other parking spaces are in the NCP car park with no fence between. It's obvious that a driver can park in the NCP area then purchase a ticket from the council ticket machine a couple of metres from where they parked & be none the wiser that they have not purchased the correct ticket.

https://www.google.com/maps/@52.046278,-0.755302,3a,75y,264.91h,93.54t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1s2u5XsGy7EpMJUi4dWFcUlw!2e0?hl=en

Redx

that is definitely one of the threads I have read on here about this , plus your comments on other similar threads and some by guys dad too

knew I had seen it before, so thanks for the reminder

oo03sjw

Thanks nigelbb and Redx, all very interesting and completely overwhelming that this situtaion not only exists but also has dragged on for so long.

Having read through the links and comments, as mentioned I have emailed the centre management asking them in the first instance. I now await the NTK, with my ticket and PCN document filed for future reference.

Thanks again, I'll update as and when.

oo03sjw

So, my letter arrived today, dated 14.5.15.

Just before I bottle it and just pay the damn thing, my understanding is that I now reply with the standard letter from the stickies and take it from there?

Anything else?

Thanks in advance.

ColliesCarer

yes - send the letter from the stickies - be prepared that it will more than likely be rejected but don't get dispirited if that happens - it's expected.

The aim of the first appeal is to get a POPLA code out of them and you'll get rid of it at that stage

p.s. if posting take to post office and get a free certificate of posting