Newhall Walk Parking, Sutton Coldfield - Tangled Web

Johno100

No, not a ticket for me.

Saw this on my local news website

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/anger-sutton-coldfield-car-park-14570785

In summary, the pay on exit system has been ripped out and replaced by ANPR, not enough machines leading to long queues, lots of overstays and tickets galore.

A spokeswoman from Jones Lang LaSalle, which manages the Newhall Walk car park, said: !!!8220;The two existing car park cash payment machines have been upgraded to take card payments and a third card payment machine will be installed over the next week.

!!!8220;Validation machines will also be installed in certain stores over the next fortnight which offer shoppers free parking subject to certain rules.

And the reason given for the introduction of ANPR:-

!!!8220;An ANPR system has been introduced to alleviate issues caused by having the barriers which frequently broke down causing traffic congestion and to introduce card payments to the site.!!!8221;

OK, so far the usual story of car park operator/managing agent/landlord likely being sweet talked into a change of system by a PPC so they'd make more money from PCN's.

But this is where it gets interesting. The news website have kindly included a photo (not great quality) of one of the signs at the car park.



Note the BPA AOS and BPA corporate logos at the bottom but no recognised name of a PPC anywhere to be seen and the contact details being a web address for

https://newhallwalkparking.co.uk/

The website is very basic, terms and conditions are blank, no contact details or corporate information about who is running it and once again no reference to a PPC. The domain name information comes back to Sagoss Ltd a software developer listed on the BPA Products and Services page.

And Newhall Walk Parking (or a variant there of) are not listed on the BPA AOS members list (or the IPC AOS list either for good measure).

The telephone number on the sign is the same one used by LCP Parking Services Ltd but that could just be some backend payment system implemented by Sagoss Ltd?

So on the information at hand, either there is a parking company somewhere behind all this in the shadows or the operators of the car park is misusing the BPA logos and getting keeper details god knows how.

Does anyone have any thoughts, or additional information before I start firing off some emails?

Castle

1-The website has no Privacy policy so breaches the DPA, and there's no mention of any Data Registration Number; so you may want to contact the ICO as a concerned citizen.

2-I wonder if the cameras have planning permission and the signs advertising consent; I doubt it.

3-The lack of corporate details on the website and the signs are in breach of the 2006 Companies Act; (not that Companies House will do anything about it).

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, aided and abetted by a handful of low-rent solicitors.

Parking Eye, CPM, Smart, and another 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 lose most of them, and have been reported to the regulatory authority by an M.P. for unprofessional conduct

Hospital car parks and residential complex tickets have been especially mentioned.

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 they will be out of business by Christmas.

Johno100

@Deep do you even bother to read the threads now before you copy and paste the usual?

Coupon-mad

The sign also has no parking charge, and no contraventions. And it's white on a black background which is an unclear combination to read, especially in the dark.

A dog's breakfast.

Never heard of the parking firm. They should be illegal, all banned and no new ones springing up.

The_Deep

Johno100 wrote: »

@Deep do you even bother to read the threads now before you copy and paste the usual?

I do, but I missed that one. If I post "the usual" 20 times a day and two people complain, that is 700 complaints for MPs to deal with in a year. We do what we can..