Hospital employee parking charge

WombatNo1

The driver tried to park in the car park of the hospital, where they work as a nurse, one morning recently, They have a permit entitling them to park onsite as they work both community and hospital. It is notoriously short of staff spaces. They did 2 full circuits of the site before giving up and parking on a yellow hatched area. It was in no way hazardous or obstructing. (my recollection is that the hatching is positioned where it is because of historical access). This meant they had 10 minutes to get to a clinic where patients were waiting to be seen.
The ticket states payment of £60 unless paid within 14 days then it halves to £30. I don't think the driver should have to pay to go to work when they already have a valid permit simply because the trust can't provide enough legitimate spaces. There is an appeals process but a friend said if the driver appeal then they acknowledge guilt??? There is reference to the hospital contacting DVLA for keeper details if they refuse to pay but as the same hospital department provides the parking permits for employees as posts the charge notices, it doesn't need to.
At the very least I think the charge is excessive.
Any advice/opinions please?

Quentin

Get your employer to get it cancelled.

Are you in a union? See if they will help

System

I got a ticket for parking on site at 9pm on easter monday. I asked about appealing it because im staff and i thought the parking charges were 8-8 otherwise id have just paid in the multistorey. They basically said ive got no chance so i just left it thinking it would go away. The trust were very fast at increasing the fine and threatening a ccj (less than 2 months)
I ended up paying £180 to avoid the ccj.

Fruitcake

tessiesmummy wrote: »

I got a ticket for parking on site at 9pm on easter monday. I asked about appealing it because im staff and i thought the parking charges were 8-8 otherwise id have just paid in the multistorey. They basically said ive got no chance so i just left it thinking it would go away. The trust were very fast at increasing the fine and threatening a ccj (less than 2 months)
I ended up paying £180 to avoid the ccj.

You were given terrible advice. Every PCN is appealable and even if this went to court, you would have ended up paying no more than you have already, and probably less. Of course, with our help you would have stood a very good chance of winning
You can't just be given a CCJ. There is a whole process involved. You would have to go to court, and lose, and be ordered to pay and fail to pay within a prescribed time before getting a CCJ. If you paid the judgement you wouldn't get a CCJ.
If you had appealed there is a better than 50-50 chance you would have paid nothing.

Please read the NEWBIES and tell everyone you know to do the same if you get a PCN.

Also complain to your MP about this unregulated scam.

waamo

Your friend is a bit of an idiot. Appealing it clearly is not admitting guilt. Who issued the ticket? Is it the hospital themselves or a private company employed by the hospital?

Fruitcake

Wombat, please edit your post to remove information about who did what. Only ever refer to The Driver and The Keeper, who are two different people.

Once you have done that, please read the Sticky thread for NEWBIES, then send the appeal template you will find there.

Do not say who was driving. Do not say things like I parked ...
Send the template exactly as it is.

Complain to your boss, and Union rep if you have one, and your MP.

These are some of the comments made by the MPs in Parliament concerning the unregulated parking industry (Feb 2018):

https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2018-02-02/debates/CC84AF5E-AC6E-4E14-81B1-066E6A892807/Parking(CodeOfPractice)Bill

''Rip-offs from car park Cowboys must stop''; unfair treatment; signage deliberately confusing to ensure a PCN is issued; ''years of abuse by rogue parking companies''; bloodsuckers; ''the current system of regulation is hopeless, like putting Dracula in charge of the blood-bank''; extortionate fines; rogue operators; ''sense of injustice''; unfair charges and notices; wilfully misleading; signage is a deliberate act to deceive or mislead; ''confusing signs are often deliberate, to trap innocent drivers''; unreasonable; a curse; harassing; operating in a disgusting way; appeals service is no guarantee of a fair hearing; loathed; outrageous scam; dodgy practice; outrageous abuse; unscrupulous practices; ''the British Parking Association is as much use as a multi-storey car park in the Gobi desert''; and finally, by way of unanimous conclusion: ''we need to crack down on these rogue companies. They are an absolute disgrace to this country. Ordinary motorists and ordinary residents should not have to put up with this''.

These are the exact words used, so you should quote them to your MP in a complaint and ask him/her to contact Sir Greg Knight MP if he wants further information about this scam.

[Deleted User]

Are you Oxford perchance? The OUH Trust are one of the few that effectively run their own parking and enforcement, rather than subcontract. They also have form for suing their own employees...

The_Deep

This is an entirely unregulated industry which is scamming the public with inflated claims for minor breaches of contracts for alleged parking offences.

Parking Eye, Smart and a smaller company have already been named and shamed, as has Gladstones Solicitors, and BW Legal, (these two law firms take hundreds of these cases to court each year). They nearly always lose) and have been reported to the regulatory authority by an M.P.

MPs are especially concerned about parking charges issued at hospitals and residential sites.

The problem has become so rampant that MPs have agreed to enact a Bill to regulate these scammers. Watch the video of the Second Reading in the HofC recently.

http://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/2f0384f2-eba5-4fff-ab07-cf24b6a22918?in=12:49:41

and complain in the most robust terms to your MP. With a fair wind most of these companies may well be put out of business by Christmas.

Fruitcake

Johnersh wrote: »

Are you Oxford perchance? The OUH Trust are one of the few that effectively run their own parking and enforcement, rather than subcontract. They also have form for suing their own employees...

Dorchester (Dorset), Southmead (North Bristol), and Weston General (Somerset) hospitals all run their own as far as I recall.
Dorchester is a BPA member but I'm not sure about the others.

WombatNo1

Quentin wrote: »

Get your employer to get it cancelled.

It was my employer who issued it :mad:

@Fruitcake

Wombat, please edit your post to remove information about who did what. Only ever refer to The Driver and The Keeper, who are two different people.

Done :T

@waamo it is the hospital/trust itself

It is Hampshire Hospitals (Winchester)

Quentin

Worth still asking your Manager and union to intervene!


Do appeal - ignore the suggestion from your friend that an appeal = admission of "guilt"!