Odd situation with parking at work

HurdyGurdy

I work for the local council. We have a big car park, but it still gets overly busy, and there were lots of people parking on verges, hatched areas and double yellow lines.

So they have now introduced parking permits. Anyone now caught parking in unauthorised areas is issued with a warning, and repeat offenders will be fined. (This doesn't affect me, as I get to work early before all the spaces get filled up. And if I am a bit late, my daughter lives just around the corner, and I can leave the car there.)

So we were talking about this at lunch today, and we couldn't decide if the council has the authority to issue fines. I know that generally speaking, unless you receive a ticket in a council RUN car park, you don't have to pay, but couldn't decide if our car park at work is council run or classed as privately owned. No one, to my knowledge, has actually been fined yet, but quite a few have received warning notices. These are issued by the caretaker. It's not private parking contractor.

What do you think?

pappa_golf

council land , non applicable for POPLA , therefore no appeal system available , which defeats POFa2012


unless they hire a IPC company , who cannot read or abide by POFa2012

Guys_Dad

What does the entrance sign say about penalty charges????

Coupon-mad

HurdyGurdy wrote: »

I work for the local council. We have a big car park, but it still gets overly busy, and there were lots of people parking on verges, hatched areas and double yellow lines.

So they have now introduced parking permits. Anyone now caught parking in unauthorised areas is issued with a warning, and repeat offenders will be fined. (This doesn't affect me, as I get to work early before all the spaces get filled up. And if I am a bit late, my daughter lives just around the corner, and I can leave the car there.)

So we were talking about this at lunch today, and we couldn't decide if the council has the authority to issue fines. I know that generally speaking, unless you receive a ticket in a council RUN car park, you don't have to pay, but couldn't decide if our car park at work is council run or classed as privately owned. No one, to my knowledge, has actually been fined yet, but quite a few have received warning notices. These are issued by the caretaker. It's not private parking contractor.

What do you think?

Ask the Council if the site is covered by an Order, or look on the Council website at the Parking Places Orders to check. If not, then they can't issue real penalties under the TMA 2004.

And neither can Councils operate Council-owned car parks 'as if they are private land'. Nor can they get the DVLA data of any registered keeper on a contract law basis. Local Authorities are not allowed by the DVLA to get data outside of the TMA.

Council car parks are places where Councils are not allowed to use ANPR or contract law... (read the Dept for Transport, Robert Goodwill letter):

http://notomob.co.uk/discussions/index.php?topic=4512.0

http://www.legalbeagles.info/forums/showthread.php?50822-Government-Proposes-Ban-on-Use-of-CCTV-and-ANPR-in-Civil-Parking-Enforcement

You may like to point all this out fairly urgently to the Council Line Management at the site, before the Council do something silly... High Wycombe Council are still banned from getting DVLA data, AFAIK. They are still sore after their slapped wrist for trying to operate their car parks as if they were private land and have had to suck it up. Their fault. Hat tip to bargepole for sussing them!

Horsham Council were recently sussed too, by me...slightly different situation though. It rumbles on.

They are trying something very shoddy and unfair in some of their car parks. In their case, they are ducking getting DVLA data (they must have found out they can't - or maybe they've been banned, who knows). Whatever the reason, they are not issuing PCNs, but retaining VRN data contrary to the DPA anyway (harvested by an ANPR system they can't use as intended!) keeping a list of stored data then processing it to finally stop a driver up to a year later, trying to hold that driver accountable for hundreds of pounds from previous visits (imagine if you'd just bought the car...):

Horsham Council has gone VERY QUIET since I helped a victim write a letter and an FOI request was lodged:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=106734

Imagine, they actually think it is OK to operate car parks neither under the TMA nor under any other kind of scrutiny. No Adjudications, no-one to account to for the lack of contractual signs, no rules for the Council to keep to, no signage guidelines to care about (worse than a PPC).

And their Legal Dept is writing letters threatening legal action, after scared drivers verbally give their name and address. The Legal Dept seem not to know quite what they are doing nor what a parking team can/can't do, under the applicable laws.

And they also have the added interest of a barrier that remains up already in the morning and late afternoon, letting cars in and out like a honey trap, with no signs able to be read at the entrance. So lots of people have mistakenly thought for months, quite reasonably, that this car park is free.