Parking Eye Invoice at Macclesfield Hospital

dga1965

Redx - great point in #31


Just sent the following email to my MP Stephen O'Brien who helped my daughter last year with a passport issue. Is this what you meant by action!! My name has been redacted with xxxxx




From: xxxxxxxx
Sent: 17 April 2015 16:42
To: 'obriens@parliament.uk'
Subject: parking charges on private land








Dear Mr O’Brien,





I am writing to you about the despicable practices being carried out by “Car Parking Companies” on private land. My own wife, a nurse and a health visitor, recently received an “invoice” (they are not fines – I have been reliably informed on the excellent Money Saving Expert Forums) for £100 for not paying for car parking at Macclesfield Hospital. The reason for this was that they offer payment by mobile phone and, as is well documented, mobile phone reception is patchy around the hospital to say the least. She spent most of the meeting, much to the consternation of her colleagues and manager, attempting to make payment but couldn’t. She was unaware that she could have done it later but didn’t know this as the signage there doesn’t make I clear. Parking Eye refused to even contemplate the evidence (mobile screenshots) put forward that she had attempted to pay but couldn’t .





I am now forced to go through a farcical process of appealing to the Independent Scrutiny Board for Parking Appeals on Private Land, not on the basis of a genuine attempt to make payment of the said parking charge, but on the basis of several broadly legal principals, one of which is that the invoice amount is not a genuine pre-estimate of loss. I am reliably informed that nearly all of these appeals are successful. Why are you all as MPS not doing something about this? One quick look at the Money Saving Expert Forums (here’s a link)





HAD TO REMOVE LINK TO MSE FORUM AS NEW USER



and on here..





HAD TO REMOVE LINK TO PARKING PRANKSTER FORUM AS NEW USER





and you will see that this problem is not only extensive but positively viral – look at the number of views on MSE for some idea of the scale of the problem. And these are only the ones who find this site!!!





In a further development to this I recently went to Liverpool airport to pick someone up and stopped on the double red lines for 10 seconds to read the Parking Company sign. From reading the MSE forums I am likely to get an invoice for this. Read the post in the Parking Tickets and Fines forum and search for Liverpool airport to see what is happening on a daily basis here. It is abhorrent and is based solely on monetary greed and preying on the vulnerable. There is no reason at all for these random charges. As someone on the forum pointed out – they are saying its for security purposes – so the car bomber gets a fine through the post 2 weeks after stopping his car on the double lines? No it’s not for security. Its monetary greed.





I appreciate that you have a very important date in your diary for next month and that that is understandably taking up most of your time at present but I would be grateful if you would take this up robustly on your return to parliament in the same manner in which you helped my daughter with her passport last year when she was going to Costa Rica volunteering. She has some wonderful pictures if you ever want to see them!





I would welcome the opportunity of discussing this with you in more detail at one of your surgeries after the Election as the above is really only a small snapshot of the problem.





Good luck next month!!





Kind Regards,





xxxxxxxxx

Redx

clearly if you contact to this MP again then you need to also point out that Eric Pickles department now has jurisdiction (Communities section) and not the DfT and that its clear this section is conducting a survey of these bad practices in order to try to do something about it , same as they did recently over council and road parking and ANPR spycars (same as VCS operate at JLA)

plus you can point out this was also debated in the house of commons in late august or early september as far as the NHS was concerned due to these issues too

good letter BTW

dga1965

Thank you Redx, as said I have done it before and by coincidence the Bolton Council issue involved Eric Pickles and did involve, amongst a long list of irregularities, something along the lines of voting malpractice by said Council.


As Mr O'Brien is one of the more active MP's I am hoping he is returned (which he should be) next month. I am also expectant that I will meet up with him to progress this.


(rant coming) I am apoplectic with anger that ordinary people should have to go through this elongated process to clear themselves. Thank god for people like you in this forum or we would all be appealing on mitigation grounds and losing every time!! !!!!!! I am angry now, this is taking up so much time. Makes me all the more appreciative of all you forum experts.


:T

dga1965

BTW. Wife wants me to drop it and pay. NFC I politely informed her!

dga1965

to anyone reading this. Please feel free to copy and adapt my email to my MP in #32.


it took me 15 minutes to write that email and send it to my mp. it will take you much less if you use my email as a "template" (sorry Redx )


you have used these forums and taken the help and not an inconsiderable amount of time from the Forum Experts so please give a little back.


Given the amount of people using these Forums an email from everyone to their constituent MP using the forums would just about cover all the MP's in Westminster. Now there's a thought!!

Redx

I thought he was stepping down at this election as he has a Humanitarian UN AID CHIEF post waiting for him ?

dga1965

You are of course correct Redx. Hadnt realised that! I will of course re send the email to the new MP regardless of Political Colour!!

dga1965

I just DO NOT F****ing believe it.
My wife has just got ANOTHER ticket from Parking Lie. This ones even worse.


Having learnt the lesson from last time (see post #1 above) she decided to pay with cash this time.


She entered the car park at 9:58 and purchased the ticket for 5 hours (receipt kept of course) with a time stamp on the ticket of 10:04. She left the car park at 15:03. So technically 5 hours and 4 mins from going through barriers to going out through the barriers(when you take into account the "seconds" on the time stamp before I am pulled up on my maths . But parked for less than 5 hours according to the ticket she purchased. So £70 for spending 4 mins extra between the barriers!


Are these barstewards having a total laugh!!!


No need to post advice this is just for info.

dga1965

Just a quick question. Is it worthwhile telling these idiots that the ticket was bought for 5 hours and she left the car park 4:59 mins later or just go straight to the usual advice letter?

Redx

use the template letter

add an extra point that says that the driver driving round a car park is not parking and the time purchased for actual parking was correct, any extra time arriving or leaving is not parking time, add a scan of the ticket as proof of paying for parking

they already know this as they lost in court to ivor pecheque on this point at fistral beach car park in newquay

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

the BPA CoP also indicates about 10 minutes grace on this point too

now you can see exactly what we are up against