Grace Period.

Lincs_Owl

I wonder if someone can help.
Last summer my wife parked in the car park at Home Bargains, Whitehaven for 2 hours 10 minutes 16 seconds, as timed by Parking Eye's cameras. The free parking period was 2 hours She was back to her car in 90 minutes but was suffering am asthma attack, so took her inhaler and waited 40 minutes until she felt well enough to drive the 10 miles home. She can more or less prove she has asthma by producing her inhalers and prescriptions. But it's impossible to prove she had an attack then, although I suspect a judge would believe her, on the balance of probabilities.
We have a court case due in 7 weeks and want to fight on two fronts.
First the asthma angle, but more importantly the period of grace angle.

The following is pasted from the British Parkins Association Code of Practice, which Parking Eye, as a member, must adhere to.

13 Grace periods
13.1 Your approach to parking management must allow a
driver who enters your car park but decides not to park,
to leave the car park within a reasonable period without
having their vehicle issued with a parking charge notice.
13.2 You should allow the driver a reasonable ‘grace period’
in which to decide if they are going to stay or go. If the
driver is on your land without permission you should still
allow them a grace period to read your signs and leave
before you take enforcement action.
13.3 You should be prepared to tell us the specific grace period
at a site if our compliance team or our agents ask what it is.
13.4 You should allow the driver a reasonable period to leave the
private car park after the parking contract has ended, before
you take enforcement action. If the location is one where
parking is normally permitted, the Grace Period at the end
of the parking period should be a minimum of 10 minutes.


I've underlined what I think is relevant. We are allowed TWO grace periods effectively. One before the parking period begins, plus a MINIMUM ten minutes after parking.

Can anyone understand why Parking Eye Ltd are still pursuing me? I can't. I didn't use POPLA but I can't see what difference that makes. I told the wife to ignore the letters, unaware that the law had changed since wheel clamping was prohibited. I didn't know that, so my fault. Parking Eye refuse to give me the 10 digit code now, saying I'm too late.

I can't see that they have a leg to stand on. I'm supposed to try and settle out of court so I'm thinking of writing to Parking Eye and offering them a nominal penny. Any thoughts anyone?

I've written to Parking Eye four weeks ago to ask what the period of grace is at that car park, plus other pertinent questions. They failed to reply. Any help might be useful. There's already apparently a precedent set. 2014 Preston. Parking Eye v Cargill 3JD 04749. 10 minute 51 second overstay was found to be within the grace period.

pappa_golf

you are correct , their is a grace period to read and understand the signage , and a grace period as you leave.


parking eye are using ANPR cameras at this location , those are situated at the entrance and capture your time on site NOT the time you have parked for


in this case http://parking-prankster.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/waiting-for-space-is-not-parking.html it was shown that driving around , looking for a place is not classified as parking.

Redx

also argue that their cameras may not be calibrated accurately and in any case they monitor TIME ON SITE and not actual parking time

there is up to say 10 minutes at the beginning to read and comply with the parking notices and 11 minutes OR MORE to depart at the end of the parking period

a medical emergency should also be taken into account, especially if she is protected under the EA2010

also there is the obvious NO LOCUS STANDII , no contract to pursue motorists between the landowner and themselves, so query it and make them prove they have a legal unredacted contract with Home Bargains or whoever the MA or landowner is

and NOT A GPEOL may apply, unless they pay to pharm this location (probably not but they did in the Beavis case)

so point out differences between your case compared to the Beavis case , no loss to the landowner etc

Lincs_Owl

Thank you Pappa and Redx. Parking Eye have paid the £25 court fee which surprises me. I've already written to them pointing out I believe we are within the grace period. Think they are just trying to frighten us into paying up.

Beavis parked for 56 minutes over his alloted time so although Parking Eye's literature tells me it sets a precedent, it obviously does not in our case.

Castle

Some useful information regarding the Equality Act:-
https://www.asthma.org.uk/advice/living-with-asthma/work/

Ralph-y

Hi .... have you already submitted your skeleton defense ?

you should IMHO have more than two defense points .........

have you looked at / purchased ?

http://www.parking-prankster.com/court-claim.html


Did you ever go back and complain to Home Bargains ?

I would be thinking of posting on all forms of social media to try and get them to call the dogs of .......

Parkinglie will not like it / may refuse to back down but any form of support from HB would be helpful .....

good luck

Ralph:cool:

Lincs_Owl

Hiya Ralph

We submitted a defence 2 months ago to Parking Eye and sent a copy to the court. That's before we came across the 'Grace Period' in the BPA code of conduct, so consequently we concentrated more on the asthma aspect.

Yes- I did complain to Home Bargains but they more-or-less just stated that Parking Eye were in charge of the car park and that I could appeal to them or POPLA. Too late for that it seems.

I intend writing back to Parking Eye in the next couple of days, with the stress on the grace period. In fact I believe PE are in violation of the BPA code of conduct by taking us to court. They should admit we were inside the grace period.

I've emailed the BPA and asked for guidance on the grace period(s) and asking them to sanction PE. They just replied that PE hadn't done anything wrong in their opinion. Surprise surprise.

I've already written my letter to PE but I just wanted confirmation from any experts on here that I have read the BPA code of conduct correctly. That's why I copied and pasted it in the opening post. Seems clear enough to me. Thanks for your help. The replies have all been quite useful.

I'm hoping PE eventually either drop the case, or just rely on their standard documentation(Beavis etc) in court rather than send a solicitor. Either way it will cost them plenty to get the £160 they are demanding.

Ralph-y

I am not an expert in defending court cases ... and so .... any thing I say should be taken in context ....... as such

IMHO you are wasting your time on talking with Parkinglie ...... they only want your money or a court win .......

Talking to them may well harm your case by telling them what you will say / submit :eek:


you really have to spent the remaining time on working out your case ......

I am not even sure as to how much you can add after your first defense

Call back to see the HB manager and tell him you require his details .... as he might be called ......

"Yes- I did complain to Home Bargains but they more-or-less just stated that Parking Eye were in charge of the car park "

is a complete crap out :mad:

you need to put pressure on him / them ........ contact the firm CEO ......


please please read through the links I gave you and await further more learned advice from the forum elders ........

as before

good luck

Ralph:cool:

Redx

dont forget you can ask the court for ADR by popla, if the judge orders it, PE would have to agree to it

I too dont see why you are talking to PE

any defence should go through the court, plus any other submissions AFAIK

Ralph-y

see .... more good advice already

Ralph:cool:

ampersand

op - you really should be going for/at Home Bargains CEO and via social networking sites, as Ralph-y advises above.

Is it not obivous? They who hire, also fire. If Home Bargains is not the landowner or land-holder, find out who is and use the same approach, making clear that they, as principal, will be joined in any action for which their agent, p.lie., is liable.

I wouldn't contact parkinglie any more. Deal with the organ grinder, not the monkey.

Try Joe Morris,[operations director, bro. of Tom, founder]
[EMAIL="joe.morris@tjmorris.co.uk"]joe.morris@tjmorris.co.uk[/EMAIL]

Accentuate the Asthma element of Equality legislation supplied by Castle :-)

I'm sure p.lie will send a solicitor if it goes that far. They like their expense-inflated pound of flesh - yours!
#
re: any comms. sent, these absolute rules apply:
- take printable screenshot of anything emailed.
- any letter stamped 1st class is deemed delivered within 48hrs [Court-defined validity]. Always obtain and retain free Cert. of Posting from any P.O. counter.
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More cross-posting apologies, Redx and Ralph-y:-)

You see, op? We're all saying the same thing to you. Please act accordingly.