Scotland - new advice?

ike2112

Hi,
I have read the newbies section and 'Posting on the Parking Board – your help please'; have used this board in the past for useful advice without the need to post as its full of great info.

However a recent letter from a parking company has made me begin to wonder if the advice relating to Scotland is outdated.

In the past it was simple; if the charge was incorrect or unreasonable and related to parking near a store etc, write to them and it would go away. Otherwise, ignore the letters as any charge is almost impossible to enforce and the only court attempt I was aware of around 2-3 years ago made a judgement but my understanding was didn't set a precedent.

Now however my wife and I parked our car in a retail park next to a tram stop and left the car for ~4 hours. I believe it is private land. We did this twice within a week as there was an event on in the city nearby that we took our kid to. This car park has been there 15 years and it was long ago they stopped bothering people parking there as the car park is never even half full anyway. There are signs up, a couple small ones, but nobody pays any attention since its long been known it wasn't enforced, they used to ticket cars and stopped maybe 10yr ago.
However this time we received 2 parking charge notices. Seems that since the tram stop was introduced nearby last year they'd seen an increase in use of the car park, and have started using cameras to police it again.

Further, the letter we received included this paragraph:
Parking charges are enforceable in Scotland - Decrees issued
To see a selection of court judgements that our clients have obtained against people who haven't paid, go to debtrecoveryplus co uk or for more information on the Supreme Court ruling, go to supremecourt uk /cases/uksc-2015-0116.html. To view more information about a Scottish motorist who recently lost in court and had to pay £2560 after previously claiming that she couldn't remember who was driving her vehicle, go to debtrecoveryplus co uk / scotland.

The letter is from Debt Recovery Plus Ltd (DRP) and the 'creditor' is UK Parking Control Ltd.

All advice relating to Scotland that I can find on here is dated more than a year ago (most 3+ years old). Can anyone clarify please?

(I've edited links with spaces as the forum wouldn't allow me to post otherwise).

fisherjim

Debt Recovery Plus:
The current instructions are to ignore these liars as always.

UKPC:
As long as they don't know who the driver is the advice is still ignore.

pogofish

ike2112 wrote: »

Hi,
All advice relating to Scotland that I can find on here is dated more than a year ago (most 3+ years old). Can anyone clarify please?

Newbies Sticky, main posts:

Last edited by Coupon-mad; 30-06-2017
Last edited by Coupon-mad; 03-10-2017
Last edited by Coupon-mad; 16-09-2017
Last edited by Coupon-mad; 21-09-2017

How on earth does this manage to be over a year ago..?

ike2112

pogofish wrote: »

Newbies Sticky, main posts:

Last edited by Coupon-mad; 30-06-2017
Last edited by Coupon-mad; 03-10-2017
Last edited by Coupon-mad; 16-09-2017
Last edited by Coupon-mad; 21-09-2017

How on earth does this manage to be over a year ago..?

There is no way to determine what was edited from the original info, and as I said having used this board before I was aware the info pertaining to Scotland was unedited and any edits were around more recent additions relating to England & Wales. Linking to a video that's now 5 years old also made me wary - it may actually be worth an update on this (even by Watchdog, might be worth a letter or two to them).

Things have happened in Scotland since the original posts, companies are trying harder to push court proceedings here when in the past they never bothered, and 2 of them that I know of have indeed won their case, in conflict with the advice here (albeit those accused were major flaunters of the parking restrictions). My concern was that either of these may have set a precedent in Scottish Law that would alter the advice.

But I believe I now have my answer.

ike2112

fisherjim wrote: »

Debt Recovery Plus:
The current instructions are to ignore these liars as always.

UKPC:
As long as they don't know who the driver is the advice is still ignore.

Thank you for your clear response

pogofish

ike2112 wrote: »

There is no way to determine what was edited from the original info, and as I said having used this board before I was aware the info pertaining to Scotland was unedited and any edits were around more recent additions relating to England & Wales. Linking to a video that's now 5 years old also made me wary - it may actually be worth an update on this (even by Watchdog, might be worth a letter or two to them).

Things have happened in Scotland since the original posts, companies are trying harder to push court proceedings here when in the past they never bothered, and 2 of them that I know of have indeed won their case, in conflict with the advice here (albeit those accused were major flaunters of the parking restrictions). My concern was that either of these may have set a precedent in Scottish Law that would alter the advice.

No, nothing has changed in Scotland or with DRP - the entire purpose of the Newbies Sticky is to remain an up to date source of advice.

The recent cases they are probably referring to in Scotland have particular circumstances that make them differ very significantly from the norm - notably number of tickets involved making a higher court viable and that the driver had already identified themselves and effectively admitted responsibility before court even came-on the horizon.

This is more the exception proving the rule than any kind of new circumstances.