Parking Eye caught out

Innes123

The car park at Macclesfield General Hospital is ' managed' by Parking Eye who say the car park is private property. The ANPR cameras that record cars coming in and out are about 100 yards from the nearest public road..

Is it the case that cars on private property do not need to display a number plate and therefore visitors to the hospital could cover or remove number plates so that Parking Eye's ANPR cameras cannot monitor vehicles on site?

I did buy a ticket on the 15 times I visited my wife in hospital. I had a vague premonition I would get a Parking Charge Notice from Parking Eye so kept all my tickets. Lo and behold today I received a Parking Charge Notice demanding payment of £ 70.00 ( reduced to £ 40.00 for quick payment) . The notice says I entered the car park at 13.56 on 27th January and left at 1431 the same day. There are pictures of my car arriving and leaving. But I have a parking ticket issued at 1358 27th January, confirming my car registration and that I paid £ 2.20 for a two hour stay.

I hate Parking Eye and the misery they have caused thousands of people. I stand in the right. I can prove I had a valid ticket. I want to get something back from them as revenge. I want to make them pay for all the distress they have caused others. I'm thinking of demanding a sum in compensation for distress, time wasting, costs to prove my innocence.

Can anyone suggest what I should do, and how I should go about things to cause Parking Eye the maximum distress?

Quentin

Deal with your pcn in line with the advice in the newbies faq thread near the top of the forum. (ie follow the appeals procedure)


At the same time complain to the hospital about this.


And contact the local paper who should be delighted to run a story complete with pictures of your ticket/car/the PCN.


Macclesfield area seems to all feel the same way you do about the way the hospital employed PE, judging from all the bad publicity the hospital boss gets over this!

twhitehousescat

is there a VRN number printed on the ticket?does it match yours?

Innes123

Yes my full vehicle registration is on the "Pay and Display" type ticket and exactly as displayed in the ANPR photos on the Parking Charge Notice. I've checked it and others check it just to make sure I haven't overlooked anything.

Is there a solicitor out there who wants to make a case for claiming compensation?

Coupon-mad

Can anyone suggest what I should do, and how I should go about things to cause Parking Eye the maximum distress?

Contact the journalists interested in the story at Macclesfield Hospital:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5553960

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/71833461#Comment_71833461

http://www.macclesfield-express.co.uk/news/fury-fines-given-hospitals-parkingeye-8732413

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4072180/How-hospitals-betray-patients-doing-deals-parking-cowboys.html

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/driver-who-won-battle-parking-6230465

and send a complaint to the CEO of the NHS Trust who have been significantly put to some trouble they were not expecting, with all the complaints flooding in, so much so that they reportedly cancelled plans to extend ParkingEye to their other sites.

This is an awful, nasty, greedy 'penalty-frenzy' (worse than PPI claims) company with no redeeming qualities IMHO, a firm that should not be within a million miles of vulnerable patients.

Oh, and write to your MP and Mrs May and to Marcus Jones at the DCLG about your awful experience at the hands of ParkingEye.

Apparently the DCLG can't make their minds up how to protect consumers from this money-making machine industry, since 2015 when they promised to act when Mr Beavis lost at the Supreme Court whose out of touch Judges actually thought this was a business model for UK Penalty Law to be bent to support:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5542796

And appeal online to ParkingEye as per the NEWBIES FAQS thread:

But I have a parking ticket issued at 1358 27th January, confirming my car registration and that I paid £ 2.20 for a two hour stay.

Attach that ticket as proof of payment. Maybe you made a typo in the VRN or the keypad was duff? Still doesn't justify Hospitals ignoring the will of Parliament:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/hospitals-still-allowing-private-parking-firms-to-prey-on-visitors-with-penalty-fines-10047797.html

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nhs-patient-visitor-and-staff-car-parking-principles/nhs-patient-visitor-and-staff-car-parking-principles

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/481556/HTM0703NovemberUpdated.pdf

This is not about the Hospital making money, it's all about ParkingEye's greed.

Is there a solicitor out there who wants to make a case for claiming compensation?

No, and no-one is worth paying to do this for you. Why would you pay anyone who has little knowledge of this specific law when you can claim yourself, based on our free advice:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5585388

This is all over the forum right now. How to claim £250 or more in compensation.

Innes123

No, I don't make mistakes on things like car registration number. Thanks for the links. I will work my way through them. But I'm not bothered about getting the Parking Charge cancelled. I've got a valid ticket (and 14 other tickets from my visits either side of the one Parking Eye have sent the Parking Charge for) and don't care how far they take things against me. I want to present my valid ticket when it will hurt and embarrass them most.

My daughter fell ill in the middle of the night with severe stomach pains. It was so bad my wife dialled 999 for an ambulance. We didn't dare take her in the car in case she collapsed on the way, so followed the ambulance in the dark and rain to Macclesfield Hospital. I hate hospitals and stay away as much as possible so when we followed the ambulance towards A&E it was a place I hadn't been to in many years, certainly a time before there was any sort of payment system for parking. We never saw the parking signs in the dark, mounted up high, not least because we were part blinded by the blue flashing lights. My daughter was taken straight in and my wife and I in a state of real concern followed in after I had found a parking space to put the car in. There was no indication that we noticed in the area that it was a pay car park. To our minds it was free...like it always used to be. Fortunately they managed to diagnose my daughter's stomach pains quite quickly and she started to improve over a few hours, and we were relieved to go home after a long night. And then a few days later a Parking Charge demand came from Parking Eye. That's when I started to hate them

Quentin

You do need to stick to the advice in the newbies thread regarding appealing. Don't miss out on the POPLA code. Killing this will be much less time consuming (and less stress) than wanting a day in court!


You can still cane them by following the advice suggested.


(Is the pcn you mention in your #6 a different one to the one in your OP? Otherwise how have you now got a seemingly valid ticket?)

Innes123

(Is the pcn you mention in your #6 a different one to the one in your OP? Otherwise how have you now got a seemingly valid ticket?)

Sorry, please explain long hand

Innes123

Sorry, the story about my daughter was about a year ago. We got that Parking Charge cancelled by the hospital. That's why I was so meticulous about saving my tickets when my wife was in just recently

The_Deep

You do need to stick to the advice in the newbies thread regarding appealing. Don't miss out on the POPLA code. Killing this will be much less time consuming (and less stress) than wanting a day in court!

Perhaps he wants his day in court Quentin

Guys_Dad

Certainly a day in court with a victory showing the fallibility of ANPR with all the evidence the OP has will have some of the regulars rubbing their hands with glee!

Just one thing, double check that you haven't entered a zero as an alphabetic O.