Trosley Country Park £130 fine

JSF79

Please help!
Today we received in the post a letter from Debt Recovery Plus (DRP) saying that because we'd parked and ignored signs demaning payment we were being fined £130!! Putting aside the fact that where we parked there was no payment machine (we only discovered there was a dedicated car park with pay and display machines on a subsequent visit) the sudden demand for £130 seems wholly exhorbitant and over the top. How can they justify such an outrageous fine for about £2 worth of parking charges?


I cannot tell you how upset my wife and I are about this, we simply do not have that kind of money and I am also very angry at this sort of gangsta style extorting of money that is apparently snactioned by our own council.


Is there anything I can do to fight this? YOur help and advice wouyld be greatly appreciated.

Umkomaas

If that's your real name, you should change it to a pseudonym. If so, please PM 'Crabman' or 'soolin' (board guides) to get it changed.

Did you receive other documentation about the parking charge well before the involvement of DRP? If so, which parking company?

Read about handling (aka 'ignoring') debt collectors in post #4 of the NEWBIES FAQ sticky.

Not sure why/where you think your council should be involved?

Fruitcake

It is not a fine.

Debt collectors can be safely ignored.

Please edit your post as advised if you have used you real name by replacing all of the text with something like, Personal information being removed.

Then read the Sticky thread for NEWBIES that tells you how to proceed, and also why it is safe to ignore debt collectors before starting again, but leaving out information about who did what. We only want to know about The Driver and The Keeper, who are two different people as far as this site is concerned.

Redx

read this about debt collectors and IGNORE DRP

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5035663

DRP are debt collectors and did not issue any pcn , a private parking company probably issued it (name them)

DRP are powerless and can only send out nasty letters, do not read them , put them all in a folder for 6 years

a google search reveals its ECP

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/parking_arrangements_at_trosley

strange that the council call them PENALTY CHARGE NOTICES

Those without an appropriate car parking ticket would then be
served with a Penalty Charge Notice Enforcement letter by Euro Car Parks, with the Penalty Charge payable to Euro Car Parks

Edna_Basher

As Redx has highlighted, Kent County Council (in its wisdom?) has awarded a contract to Euro Car Parks (ECP) to manage its car parks at all of the Council's country parks, including Trosley Country Park.

In fighting this charge, you have the added bonus of having the chance to land ECP in a lot of trouble with the DVLA.

You will see that on the original Notice to Keeper, ECP will have claimed that they had the right to use the provisions of Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 ("POFA") to claim unpaid parking charges from the vehicle's keeper. This claim was not valid because this car park (being owned and provided by a local authority) is not relevant land under POFA. ECP had no right to make this claim and you have a valid case that ECP have misused your registered keeper data that they obtained from the DVLA.

Kent County Council could also find themselves in trouble with the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) for allowing ECP to introduce ANPR control to these case parks - the Government does not allow the use of ANPR in council-owned car parks.

Coupon-mad

Nothing to worry about, read all the links given about this amusing stage of ignoring debt threatograms. Not sure why you missed that advice which has been consistent on this forum for a decade, never contact debt collectors re a private PCN.

I've ignore Euro Car Parks letter chain myself, quite funny really. Relax!

extorting of money that is apparently sanctioned by our own council.

Complain! But do not say who was driving in the Council complaint. They need to get angry people complaining. In fact you need to register a clear 'objection to processing' your data under the DPA (Google: 'objection to processing Section 10 DPA').

You will see that on the original Notice to Keeper, ECP will have claimed that they had the right to use the provisions of Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 ("POFA") to claim unpaid parking charges from the vehicle's keeper. This claim was not valid because this car park (being owned and provided by a local authority) is not relevant land under POFA

We agree and the Council's own data controller remains liable. You can sue ECP and the Council for data misuse, compensation as discussed on other threads can be £250 - £750. Get the objection to processing in to ECP and the Council, written from the registered keeper - NOT AS DRIVER!

JSF79

Thanks everyone for some great information. Sorry I missed the sticky threads, I did conduct a search but obviously didn;t use the right search criteria!


I will get stuck into processing the information you've given me, I'm very gratefull.

JSF79

PS. Sorry to ask a basic question but how do I PM Crabman as per the advice? I've run a search for him but come up blank. Sorry I'm probably being very dense...

Umkomaas

John_Fuller wrote: »

PS. Sorry to ask a basic question but how do I PM Crabman as per the advice? I've run a search for him but come up blank. Sorry I'm probably being very dense...

There is a sticky authored by Crabman, 'The Parking Tickets Board Sticky' (4th one down), just click on his name, then click on 'Send Message'. Crabman is very helpful.

fisherjim

You might find this thread enlightening:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5585920