Athena Parking Charge Notice 2017 (NOT LIDL)

anonsloth

A parking charge notice was recently received by Athena parking. From what I understand this firm mainly deals with LIDL car parks but the car park in question was a retail park of several smaller businesses (majestic wine, pets corner etc) offering free parking for an hour. the proposed charge states that the vehicle overstayed by 12 minutes. I understand that in most LIDL cases customers contact customer service and often get the charge cancelled but that is not an option for me.

Athena are now and IPC firm so I used the newbies ipc template to appeal by email however none of the questions were addressed such as "Who is the party that contracted with your company and are they the landowner?" and a generic rejection letter was sent stating that they will take enforcement action if not paid.

The letter finishes saying that one can appeal using the independent appeals service (IAS) however it seems this is almost always a bad idea? So assistance is needed in planning the next course of action. The sign said 10 minutes of leeway but I can't remember how it was phrased. In which case the proposed overstay is only 2 minutes and in a free car park that surely is resulting in no loss to the landowner, certainly not 90 pounds! The driver was shopping in pets corner however upon contact they state that they are not responsible for management of the carpark. Its not clear who owns the land.

Athena have seemingly never prosecuted anyone however the notion of debt collection / court letters is scary. Is this a case of ignore at this point or is there something that can be done?

DoaM

You seem to have answered your own questions.

An IAS appeal is generally pointless, and debt collector letters can be ignored.

So nothing more to do than wait and see if you get a LBC or court claim ... except of course to complain to the landowner to get the PCN cancelled.

Fruitcake

Take your own pictures of signs if you can, just in case they try court.

There is nothing else you can do now except ignore any bog paper you get from debt crawlers. The only thing you musn't ignore is a LBC/LBCC/LBCCC/MCOL.

Don't bother with an IAS appeal.

Complain to the landowner if you can find out who it is, and all the retailers on site. If you bought something you were a genuine customer, and if you didn't how is anyone to know you aren't a potential customer, or weren't window shopping? Tell them you won't be shopping there again if this isn't cancelled.
Leave negative feedback on social media and warn all your friends and family about this scam site.

Complain to your MP, Mrs May, and Andrew Jones MP that the scammers are not following the IPC CoP concerning grace periods.

Umkomaas

Athena have seemingly never prosecuted anyone however the notion of debt collection / court letters is scary. Is this a case of ignore at this point or is there something that can be done?

Often there's no 'next step', so don't seek one out, it's fruitless. The only way to kill this off is by paying them their blood money (we wouldn't even contemplate that) or a landowner cancellation.

Why do you feel a landowner cancellation is out of reach?

Trust us, there should be nothing 'scary' about debt collector letters, unless large red font has you trembling at the knees. They can't send the boys round, they can't issue court proceedings. Their letters are no different to scam emails offering you a chunk of £50million in exchange for your bank details, or telephone calls from 'Peter at Vindows Support'. Just laugh at them!

Neither should 'court proceedings' be scary. It's not the criminal court, just the small claims court - which is more like a tribunal than The Old Bailey. And do you honestly think that yours will be Athena's very first ever court claim when, from what will be pushing half a million tickets issued by the end of this year, they have never once launched a small claims court case.

http://www.bmpa.eu/companydata/Athena_ANPR.html

Guys_Dad

ANPR?

If so, I would appeal to IPC quoting them from their own Code of Practice. It seems to me that even if the notice gives you 10 minutes overstay, you are entitled to a further pre-parking time to read the t&c.


15. Grace Periods
15.1 Drivers should be allowed a sufficient amount of time to park and read any signs so they may make an informed decision as to whether or not to remain on the site.
15.2
Drivers should be allowed a sufficient amount of time to leave a site after a pre-paid or permitted period of parking has expired

anonsloth

DoaM wrote: »

You seem to have answered your own questions.

An IAS appeal is generally pointless, and debt collector letters can be ignored.

So nothing more to do than wait and see if you get a LBC or court claim ... except of course to complain to the landowner to get the PCN cancelled.

Thanks, any advice on finding out who the land owner is?

anonsloth

Thanks very much, any advice on finding out who the landowner is?

anonsloth

Guys_Dad wrote: »

ANPR?

If so, I would appeal to IPC quoting them from their own Code of Practice. It seems to me that even if the notice gives you 10 minutes overstay, you are entitled to a further pre-parking time to read the t&c.


15. Grace Periods
15.1 Drivers should be allowed a sufficient amount of time to park and read any signs so they may make an informed decision as to whether or not to remain on the site.
15.2
Drivers should be allowed a sufficient amount of time to leave a site after a pre-paid or permitted period of parking has expired

This is very useful information, thanks very much!