So...

trisontana

It's front-page news in today's Times, with quotes from the CA and RAC as well as the QC who represented Parking Eye. The CA has highlighted the implications that this ruling on general consumer law.

matttye

Has anyone ever considered just abiding by what it says on the signage?

I've parked in hundreds of places and never had a ticket. Just pay for plenty of time.

The_Slithy_Tove

HO87 wrote: »

I'm less convinced that they would completely overturn the effect of the judgment - that would be a very substantial job - but they may set limits in respect of parking situations.

Yet the SC seem to have rewritten the law. In a nutshell, I summarise the decision as "A charge/payment for breach of contract is now allowed to cover the normal costs of running your business AND a profit, and is no longer limited to restoring the innocent party to the pre-breach state." That is a BIG thing, and reaches far beyond parking. If all the other riff-raff (to which we can add the likes of all telcos/ISPs, who are as greedy and uncaring as PPCs) jump on this bandwagon, then action will have to be taken. Trouble is, between now and then, there's going to be an awful lot of grief.

The_Slithy_Tove

matttye wrote: »

Has anyone ever considered just abiding by what it says on the signage?

I've parked in hundreds of places and never had a ticket. Just pay for plenty of time.

You really don't get it, do you? Just read through these forums to see that it's nowhere as simple as that.

fisherjim

matttye wrote: »

Has anyone ever considered just abiding by what it says on the signage?

I've parked in hundreds of places and never had a ticket. Just pay for plenty of time.

Don't worry your time WILL come to join the club, car won't start, ticket in wrong corner of the dash, double dipping scam, car stalls in a don't let your car stall here or else area!

esmerobbo

Unfortunately it's our own fault! Meaning the public in general, we could put them out of business in a short time if we stopped contravening the landowners conditions.

I know there is a lot of conning going on but the vast majority of charges issued are probably issued for breaching the conditions. Most of us agree the conditions are usually set to trap people, and in a lot of cases are insufficient for the area they are designed to protect.but we can still read them and abide by them.

We can also choose to go somewhere else if we see an PPC operating in the place we wish to visit.

It is not too difficult I have been driving for 42 years and only ever had one council parking ticket. I did receive a few as the keeper which brought me here as I had an haulage business, so my drivers got a few. Since they were pre POFA they were all ignored or played with.

I am now disabled so when I take my wife shopping I sit in the supermarket car park while she shops. Having an interest in this issue I watch, and when you see some of the things that go on you can see why it is an easy catch for the PPC's.

Time limits are a bit more difficult but if the limit is made clear to you then you should be able to abide by it. I know some are set purposely low to catch people. However we have the choice to go elsewhere if we don't agree.

Before I get flamed I am not supporting what I see as a parasitic industry, I am simply saying it is of our own making, and as with all parasites they will take advantage.

Hopefully things will change to make it fairer to both the driver and the landowner, or we can become more selective in where we park, and in what we do.

bazster

matttye wrote: »

Has anyone ever considered just abiding by what it says on the signage?

I've parked in hundreds of places and never had a ticket. Just pay for plenty of time.

Hmmm, lemme see.

- Faking timestamps to make it look like people overstayed when they hadn't;

- Issuing charges for overstays to people who actually visited twice, and refusing to cancel them;

- Issuing camera-generated tickets to motorcycles, even though this is impossible because they only have a rear number plate (they present the daylight photo of the rear number plate as the "in" photo, and an infra-red photo from a later visit as the "out" photo; because only the number plate is visible in the IR photo, you can't see that it's the rear of the vehicle again);

- Ticketing people for overstays when they were actually stuck in congestion trying to leave the car park;

- Ticketing people for overstays when they actually spent 30 minutes driving around looking for a space;

- Ticketing people for overstays at motorway services when the "in" and "out" photos are on opposite carriageways!

- Ticketing people who simply drove past the car park, or parked in an adjacent car park;

- Ticketing cars parked on the public highway.

And many, many more sharp practices, all part of the daily routine in PPC-land.

bazster

esmerobbo, if it were possible to influence the behaviour of 90% of motorists it would be even easier: simply have them all not pay. The parasites would all be out-of-business in a fortnight. Unfortunately you just can't get to all those people.

esmerobbo

bazster wrote: »

esmerobbo, if it were possible to influence the behaviour of 90% of motorists it would be even easier: simply have them all not pay. The parasites would all be out-of-business in a fortnight. Unfortunately you just can't get to all those people.

Oh so true!

Johno100

bazster wrote: »

The government has already indicated that it has every intention of intervening.

Responsibility for this area moved from the Department for Transport to the Department for Communities and Local Government a while ago. The DCLG (which has already imposed various restrictions on council ticketing including a near-ban on cameras and a 10-minute grace period) immediately began a consultation ("Parking reform: tackling unfair practices"), which has now finished and we await an announcement of the recommended course of action, which may include new legislation.

That was the previous government, when Eric Pickles was SoS for DCLG and seemed to take a personal interest in parking matters. Whether there is the same will in that Department or the government generally in this parliament we are still to see.