Parking Eye v Disabled Parker

HazelLynn

Below is a copy of a letter I plan to send to Parking Eye in defence of a "letter before action" claim recently received does anyone suggest I add anything else to the letter.

Further to your letter to my daughter, Melissa Addison, addressed to my property I wish to raise the following points prior to any proposed county court action;

1) The judgment in Beavis v Parking Eye was successful based upon commercial justification (the fact that without such charges no parking spaces would be available) and that the judges felt the charge made by yourselves was not unconscionable and extravagant as the sums involved where similar to the charges enforced by local authorities.
2) Your ticket was issued as she parked on double yellow lines and not for a “breach” of the parking time limit at this time.
3) Melissa parked on double yellow lines within the car park having displayed my son’s badge correctly as per the guidelines laid down by the Blue Badge Parking Scheme, as there were no spaces available. There are no signs in the car park in particular on the disabled bays nor any yellow lines on the side of the kerb indicating such actions are not allowed.
4) Clearly, commercial justification therefore for such a charge is not applicable as your company and the landowner had failed to ensure any disabled spaces where available. I would say there is a case to argue that as per the Asda Trafford Centre there is a need to ensure there is an attendant at these premises who prevents anyone abusing the disabled parking system by parking in these spaces when not entitled to. I would say failure to provide such a person could be construed as a breach of the Equality Act 2010 as such a step in such a popular location as a shopping centre is not unreasonable.
5) I assume the Asda as this location is your primary client, if not, please forward the contact address for your client so I can get their opinion on these possible breaches of the Equality Act 2010 and the way their disabled customers are treated.
6) The BSI British Standards, "Code of Practice for the design of buildings and their approaches to meet the needs of disabled people", recommends that commercial premises with designated off-street parking have one space for every employee who is a disabled motorist, plus 5% of the total capacity for visiting motorists and a further 4% should be enlarged standard spaces. Although unsure of the exact number of parking spaces I can tell you for sure that this car park does not meet the requirements outlined above and therefore is in possible breach of the Equality Act 2010 and the duty within it to ensure reasonable steps are taken for a disabled person to have access to the property. The BSI standards have been accepted in previous cases as persuasive and a good reference point for a Court as to what is reasonable provision.
7) I did challenge the ticket back in September 2013, where I simply forwarded a copy of our son’s Blue Badge and a letter outlining the points made in section 3 of this letter and awaited your comments, you chose to ignore this letter and after hearing nothing from you we assumed our defence had been accepted.
8) The next time we heard from you was in September 2014, a year later. Naively I thought as it has been a year that perhaps your company trawls through old cases such as Melissa’s in the hope that people pay as they have forgotten the facts, lost any evidence to mount a defence or simply do not want any more hassle and chose to ignore this letter. I felt it was a form of harassment and as I had evidence to prove I had mounted a challenge to this claim back in 2013 was confident I could fight any further action. I find it interesting that again we hear nothing from you for eight months and only hear from you now, as you have been successful in your action against Mr.Beavis.
9) As already stated the judges in Beavis v Parking Eye felt your charge was not unconscionable and extravagant as the sums involved where similar to the charges enforced by local authorities. Using the same argument means that in Melissa’s case no charge should be levied, as local authorities do not enforce time limits on Blue Badge Holders nor issue fines to them unless they have breached the terms of the Blue Badge Scheme, i.e. parked in a restricted area. As this did not occur then a local authority would not issue a fine.
Attached is a copy of my son’s disability badge, which as you see had been in force for some time.

Amazing how brave they get now a precedent may have been set roll on the supreme court date.

Half_way

What happened when you got in touch with the land owner/car park owner?
In most cases the land owner is responsible for the actions of their agents, in this case parking eye.
what did the car park owner do or say?
why are you chasing the monkey when you could be going for the organ grinder?

fisherjim

One point I would pick up is that you have stated she parked on double yellow lines as per guidelines in the blue badge scheme.
The blue badge scheme is not applicable on private land, and I think it says this in the booklet.

keepitlegal

fisherjim wrote: »

One point I would pick up is that you have stated she parked on double yellow lines as per guidelines in the blue badge scheme.
The blue badge scheme is not applicable on private land, and I think it says this in the booklet.

That is correct, but...
The Traffic Signs Manual 1 section 1.20 states....'United Kingdom signs are crown copyright and may not be reproduced without permission', if the landowner does not have that permission then they are in breach of the crown copyrights.
PE may have a problem!!!

Keepitlegal

Fruitcake

Remove your daughter's name and any other personal details from your original post ASAP.

Fruitcake

Complain to the BPA that parking lie have not followed the code of practice that requires them to cancel a ticket once they have been made aware that one of the occupants of the vehicle was disabled. Same complaint to ASDA plus inform them that as principle, they are responsible for the actions of their agents, and this may constitute a breach of the Equality Act 2010 for which ASDA are jointly liable.