Please help LIDL's Athena ANPR Ltd civil Parking Notice £180!!!

lloydstsbstolemylife

Hello, please help my mother and I. My mother needed help to get her shopping as she is old and has health problems and is a blue badge holder, registered disabled. We have both received civil parking notices to the tune of £180, (£90 each). After complaining to Lidl's they have emailed me the following reply and im not sure what to does the letter states we dont have much time left, lnotice sent to us is issued on the 29th, from our shop on the 27th., my mother is considerably upset as this is a lot of money, the whole point of going to Lidls is to save money. Anyways this is what they sent me.

Dear xxxxxxxxx



Re: Parking Charge

Thank you for contacting us regarding the above.

Lidl UK GmbH is a national retailer. As such, we have stores in locations with limited parking space and in common with many of our competitors, our store car parks are abused to a significant and detrimental extent. We have therefore judged it necessary to take measures so that our stores parking facilities are available first and foremost to our customers.

In order to ensure that sufficient parking spaces are available at all times to our customers, Lidl employs third party contractors to monitor and control many of our car parks.

The 10 minute period you refer to is for non-customers ie taxi drivers who are only dropping off/picking up in the car park. In order to obtain the allowed parking time you must register your vehicle details in store, instructions on how to do this are displayed on the signs in our car park.

To enable us to assist, can you please send us the following:

· Permission to pass your details to our Car Park Management Company for appeal*

· A receipt, this may be for the date of the contravention or prior visits

· The Parking Charge Notice Number

· Your Vehicle Registration Number

* In order to quickly resolve your request, we would like to pass your details to our Car Park Management Company so they can get in touch with you directly regarding your appeal. As the company who manage our car park, they will be able to assist you further with this. For Data Protection reasons, we need your permission to do this. Please let us know if you agree with the transfer of your details?

Please send these details direct to the address below, quoting your reference or reply directly to this email (without deleting the subject line):

Customer Service Department
Lidl UK
Tailend Farm
Deans Road
Livingston
EH54 8SE

We hope that we can bring this matter to a speedy conclusion. Thank you for taking the time to contact us.

Yours sincerely,
For and on behalf of Lidl UK GmbH


Danielle Shankland
Customer Service

[T] + 44 (0) 370 444 1234 / 0800 977 7766
[E] customer.services@lidl.co.uk

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I'm hoping someone can help us.

Thanks

Fruitcake

Please tell us the dates of the two alleged incidents and the corresponding dates you received the letters from Athena?
This assumes you didn't get windscreen tickets, and that you are in England and Wales.

You should read the Sticky thread for NEWBIES then send the IPC template you will find there to Athena. One template for each incident. Copy and paste, do not edit.

It won't hurt to pass the vehicle details and any receipts to Lidl, but on no account say who was driving. I'm assuming you are the keeper of the vehicle (you haven't said) so that is how you refer to yourself. You only otherwise refer to "the driver" and "a disabled occupant."

There is no such thing as a register of disabled people in the UK as far as I know. The blue badge scheme does not apply on private land, but the Equality Act 2010 does, and Lidl must make allowances for disabled people as a result.

The signs about having to enter a vehicle registration must be inadequate otherwise the driver would have seen them, and why didn't the cashier mention it as well?

I would write to the CEO of Lidl and say you and your mother will become ex customers if this isn't resolved.

I would also find somewhere else to shop then send the CEO copies of the receipts every month to show how much you have not spent in Lidl as a result of their predatory parking company they employ.

lloydstsbstolemylife

both incidents were on the same day as my mother needed help to do her shopping at Lidl's in Huntingdon, cambs, England. Shes is the registered keeper of her car and i am for mine.

Date of shop: 27/09/2016
Date of notice: 29/09/2016

we both received a Civil Parking notice in the post after the parking got our details as the registered keepers from DVLA, under 'reasonable cause' (i assume), after speaking to DVLA I was told reasonable cause was the reason why they would give out someones details.

the allowed duration is apparently 1:30, i took 2:06.56

lloydstsbstolemylife

soz i am new to forums, i never use them at all, don't like registering for things. I have my own mental health issues to deal with.

Fruitcake

OK, so read the NEWBIES thread and send the IPC template you will find in Post 1. One template for each letter you have received.

That's the important bit done. Do not reveal who was driving, and do not miss the appeal deadline which may be 21 or 28 days.

After that you can either ignore anything and everything you get from Athena for the next six years, especially the silly debt collector begging letters, or you can make a second stage IAS appeal and then ignore anything and everything you get for the next six years.
This second stage is a kangaroo court and you stand an eighty percent chance of your appeal being rejected, so why bother?

Take your time reading the NEWBIES thread, concentrating on the stuff about IPC/IAS memes, which is the trade association that Athena belong to.
They don't care bout you and only want your money.

Lidl don't care about you or they would not have employed Athena.

Complain to the CEO and send the info requested by Danielle Shankland, but making sure you never mention who was driving, and then never set foot in a Lidl again.

Half_way

I'm pushed for time at the moment as this deserves a longer reply.

A few bits in brief:

first of all do not worry do not get stressed over this, you have found the right place.

Secondly, it looks like you have been fobbed off with some sort of template letter from Lidl, or wherever that came from

And...
Lidl are liable for the actions of their agents, it is lidl that should be telling the car parking company to cancel.
Also you need to play the Equality act card, as lidl are jointly and severally liable for any possible breach. you must puch this at Lidl and tell them that you are minded to pursue this matter under the Equalities act legislation of they chose not to cancel ( after informing them of the disability), or if they already know about the disability and that was a follow up letter tell them that they must cancel you are also minded to follow this up as a breach of the Equalities act, plus you expect a full apoology and details on what steps Lidl will take to ensure that this never happens again to either yourself or anyone else.

lloydstsbstolemylife

Should I give them my personal details and ask them to appeal on my behalf whilst also including the information you state above?

Fruitcake

lloydstsbstolemylife wrote: »

Should I give them my personal details and ask them to appeal on my behalf whilst also including the information you state above?

No.

Do your own appeals using the IPC template.

In parallel, send the requested info to Danielle but DEMAND a cancellation. State that both vehicle keepers have disabilities that are protected characteristics in accordance with the Eqaulity Act 2010 and you require Lidl as the principle to tell their agent, Athena, to cancel the parking invoices.

lloydstsbstolemylife

ipc template ok, will go look for it. thanks ^^

Coupon-mad

I stand by what I suggested earlier and don't believe that the first paragraph about grace periods is relevant at all:

Yes give them the registered keeper's details of both cars and proof about your Mum needing help and more time to shop (blue Badge copy).

NO, do not 'ask them to appeal'. Instead, by email, TELL them to cancel the PCNs as Lidl and their agents are both jointly and severally liable for a breach of the Equality Act 2010. Ask for confirmation that both PCNs have been cancelled and the BOTH cars are added to the store's ''white list'' to ensure you never get a PCN again.

Tell them that if they will not do this then their 'uncivil' parking notices have driven you both away forever. Give Athena and Lidl seven days to respond, set them a clear time limit at the end of your email and make sure both VRNs and both PCN refs are quoted in the subject line.

I'd also suggest you remove 'demand'. Telling a CEO of a Retailer that you require a PCN to be cancelled doesn't need the words 'I demand'.

lloydstsbstolemylife

do they have a white list?