Grace Period?

fairygirl24

Hi, this morning I have received my very 1st parking eye notice. It states I was in the hospital car park for 22 minutes. However I'm sure there is a 20 minute grace period in the hospital (there are certain bays marked as such, but i'm sure its all bays) and it would have taken me more than 2 minutes to park and then leave. Have I got a case to win or is it not worth it? and how can I find out if the hospital has the 20 minute grace period? Thank You.

Half_way

As far as i know its 10 minutes, however some parts of the hospital may offer 20 minute frop off/short stay areas.
beat advice, read the NHS parking principles here https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nhs-patient-visitor-and-staff-car-parking-principles/nhs-patient-visitor-and-staff-car-parking-principles especially the piece that states the hospital is responsible, and contact the PALs department.
Also you may want to see if they are in breach of this section

Contracts should not be let on any basis that incentivises additional charges, eg ‘income from parking charge notices only’.

What hospital was this? some have boasted in the local press that the parking eye system s free for them as PE take all their income from parking charges

fairygirl24

Sunderland Royal. Thanks for the i do, popping out but will read it properly when I get back.

Autolycus2000

Regardless of whether it is a hospital or not you should have a grace period of 10 minutes on entry and a further 10 on exit - so 20 minutes total. Therefore, with a 22 minute stay you are over the limit - unless the hospital site has some special terms such as certain bays offering a free 30 minute drop off period.

You should edit your original post so as it does not imply who was driving. It will help your case a lot if PE don't know who the driver was. And some parking companies do read online forums like this one. So always refer to "the driver did this", "the driver did that", etc.

Redx

as mentioned above, put a strong complaint to PALS , without naming the driver (after reading the government guidelines)

and as mentioned above, edit your posts and always use the terms "the driver" and "the keeper" (the following words are "banned" = ME , MYSELF , I)

insist that they get the pcn cancelled asap, in writing

Coupon-mad

fairygirl24 wrote: »

Hi, this morning I have received my very 1st parking eye notice. It states I was in the hospital car park for 22 minutes. However I'm sure there is a 20 minute grace period in the hospital (there are certain bays marked as such, but i'm sure its all bays) and it would have taken me more than 2 minutes to park and then leave. Have I got a case to win or is it not worth it? and how can I find out if the hospital has the 20 minute grace period? Thank You.

Complain:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/68411852#Comment_68411852

...and win at POPLA. Pay particular attention to the signage, get photos.

You will be interested in this thread and if I were you I would send a pm to the OP to ask for his photos/share info:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5633563

Nasty shenanigans re signage changes re the 20 mins drop-off here. Even if it's not the same Hospital site, it's the same NHS Trust and they MUST hear people's wrath! His case suggests something possibly *dodgy* might have allegedly gone on.

fairygirl24

I emailed the hospitals advice place on Saturday and got a phone call this morning saying that they will cancel the ticket. I'm so relieved. Thanks for the advice.

Coupon-mad

And how dare they allow ParkingEye on site at all...ignoring the Government policy. Grrrr...!

Good result again though and every complaint can be seen as a nail in a PPC's coffin at a site.