VCS Parking Charge

kgill82

Hi all,

I’m new to this thread so need a little help.

I was visiting a supplier recently and their car park was beyond full. There is no on road parking (all double yellow lines) and I noticed an empty office across the way. I saw no signs except one that instructed drivers to reverse park. I saw nothing relating to any parking restrictions.

I looked around for parking metres/pay and display boxes but there were none. I even popped a note in the windscreen to say that I would move the vehicle if needed.

I returned an hour or so later for a parking notice and later received a PCN from VCS for £100 (reduced to £60 if I pay in 14 days). It says it was Contravention 94) Parked without displaying a valid ticket/permit. But there was nowhere to obtain this. The office building was closed, and has a to let sign outside. There were no pay & display metres to get a ticket from either.

Should I pay this or appeal!? Looking on Google Images there was a sign back in April 2017 but I don’t recall that sign being there end Feb 2018. Plus if the office is empty, why would VCS still be monitoring the car park?

The area was unit 7 Boundary Court in Castle Donington.

Hope you can help.

Thanks.
Concerned Driver.

Quentin

Everyone is politely asked to read up on this in the Newbies FAQ thread near the top of the forum before starting a new thread

Go there to learn about the game you are now caught up in and how to deal with this..

Throughout here you are advised never to reveal who was driving

You need to edit your post to remove details of who was driving

If you have inadvertently used your real name as your forum name then ask MSE to change it to something completely anonymous

The ppcs monitor this forum and can use your posts against you

Umkomaas

Plus if the office is empty, why would VCS still be monitoring the car park?

If it's obviously empty, there's more of a temptation to fly-park there, then there's more money to be made by VCS. That's why they are still 'monitoring' it. Whether they still have a contract to do so if the entire site serviced by the car park has been abandoned, that's an interesting question. But not for now.

As Q advises, the NEWBIES FAQ sticky is your first port of call. Post #1 will be enough to start you off. But please note, it is not a skim-read.

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.

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.