Help please - Euro Car Parks Ltd in Stockport

cuyeonie

Hello.
I've had a look through the main thread, and tried to look through another few minor threads to but I can't seem to find cases which match mine.
I would really appreciate some help and advice on my case!

I received a letter from Debt Recovery Plus about a PCN from Euro Car Parks Ltd.
I haven't received a PCN before, so completely missed the appeal etc.
This is because the PCN was sent (both times) to my old address and not my new one, even though I had updated the address on my driver's license months before the PCN was issued.

I replied to Euro Car Parks Ltd with this letter:

I appeal and dispute your purported 'parking charge', as the keeper of the vehicle. I deny any liability.

There will be no admissions as to who was driving and no assumptions can be drawn, nor was there any agreed contract. You must either rely on the POFA 2012 and offer me a POPLA code, or cancel the charge.
A Parking Charge Notice was issued with a parking ticket for parking at Wellington Street Stockport (Euro Car Parks Ltd) in March... for my Vehicle Registration Number... I believe this Parking Charge Notice has been issued unfairly due to the following reasons.
It clearly states in the letter from Debt Recovery Plus Ltd that
!!!8216;Details were originally sent to the address provided by the DVLA for the registered keeper of the vehicle at the date the parking charge was issued [!!!8230;] Due to there being no response following correspondence sent to this address, [!!!8230;] a tracing service which has provided the above new address as your most current address!!!8217;.
Firstly, I would like to strongly argue that this is an unfair and incorrect statement. I have not received a letter of a Notice to Keeper at all, which is a condition that must be met and therefore have not received the required information required by the POPLA 2012, paragraph 8 and 9, within the relevant period, from Euro Car Parks Ltd.
After moving address in ..., DVLA was clearly notified of the new address in ... In addition, this is a later date than expected due to DVLA previously failing to deliver an updated driving license to the new address.
Therefore, I strongly disagree that !!!8216;details were originally sent to the address provided by the DVLA for the registered keeper of the vehicle at the date the parking charge was issued!!!8217; as I have not received any letter including !!!8216;original details!!!8217; from Euro Car Parks Ltd regarding this Parking Charge Notice to my address, despite having received clear clarification from DVLA that my address has been updated by ..., as visible on my driving license.
I deem it strongly unfair that due to both Euro Car Parks Ltd and DVLA!!!8217;s failure in regards to my new address (in which I clearly followed the legal requirement for the vehicle keeper to update the DVLA to a change of address, well before the Parking charge date of ....), I have been notified to pay £160.00 fee because of their faults and having to utilise DRP as a tracing service.
I deem it strongly unfair that the amount due to pay is £160.00 due to both the failings of DVLA and Euro Car Parks Ltd, in which if they did not make their fault of using an incorrect address, I would have firstly been given the equal and rightful opportunity to appeal, and I would have been given the opportunity to receive a reduced Parking Charge Notice fare if paid earlier.
The British Parking Association and the International Parking Community state you shouldn!!!8217;t be charged more than £100 !!!8211; unless the parking company can prove your parking offence made them lose this much money. In this case, I believe that even if the £160.00 charge is still a loss by utilising DRP, which is due to both their failures, then this extra fee should not be passed on to keeper of the vehicle.
Furthermore,
Should you fail to cancel this PCN, I require the following information with your rejection letter:

1. Provide all images taken of this vehicle on that day and the signs at the material location and do not withhold any images or data later relied on for POPLA or court.
2. Explain why you operate in disregard of the GDPR and ICO rules. Nowhere do you inform the public of their right to subject access - why not?
3. Provide all correspondence sent to the keeper of the vehicle including details of the its registered address in which correspondence was sent to, and the details of the alleged amount of time overstayed.
4. Provide a copy of the written agreement which gives the firm lawful authority to enter into a contract with the driver to seek recovery of the charges.
4. Provide an explanation of how you have received my consent to process data relating to me or this vehicle, in order to use the !!!8216;Debt Recovery Plus Ltd!!!8217; tracing service.
If offered in your rejection letter (email expressly disallowed, see 'formal note' below) I will use POPLA and not the 'IAS' which has been exposed in Parliament as unfair and compromised by a conflict of interests with the IPC. The BPA were also heavily criticised and both appeals systems were condemned - hardly surprising for an industry where so-called AOS members admitted in recent years to letting victims 'futilely go through the motions' of appeal and saying on camera 'we make it up sometimes' (BBC Watchdog). As you will know, firms of your ilk were unanimously criticised in 2018 as operating an 'outrageous scam' (Hansard 2.2.18).

I will also be making a formal complaint about your predatory, aggressive and unfair conduct to your client landowner, as well as complaining in writing to my MP and ensuring that they are appraised of the debate where Parliament agreed by way of unanimous conclusion: ''we need to crack down on these rogue companies. They are an absolute disgrace to this country. Ordinary motorists...should not have to put up with this''.

Formal note:

Service of any rejection letter/POPLA code and/or any legal documents by email is expressly disallowed.

All responses to me from this point forward must be made by the Royal Mail postal service. Regardless of any MCOL online system, in this case, service of any court claim must only be made by first class post to the latest address provided by me.

I understand there's no need to reply to DRP so I haven't. I've read that usually most people go for the 'not clear signage' angle, but I'm unable to travel to the car park it's issued from and get photographs there.

I then received this reply by email (not by letter even though it's stated in my response):

The Parking Charge Notice (PCN) has been sent to the address of the registered keeper of the vehicle at the time that the PCN was issued. This address has been provided by the DVLA and it is your responsibility to keep the DVLA updated with your current address so that you can be contacted there. It is also your responsibility to make arrangements to receive your post if you do not have access to your registered address.

The car park is operated by Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR). Cameras capture an image of vehicles entering and leaving the car park and calculate their length of stay on site.

Signage is clear drivers must purchase a valid pay and display ticket for the duration of their stay.

A ticket matching your registration was purchased for £2.80 this would have entitled your vehicle to park for up to 2 Hours/Minutes according to the clearly displayed tariff.

Your vehicle entered at /// and exited at /// , a total stay of ... and .. minutes.

The P&D/permit purchased did not cover the date and time of parking and therefore the notice has been issued correctly and will remain payable.

With further reference to your -Subject Access Request (delete as applicable) I have duly passed to our Data Protection Manager who will respond in due course

Please contact Debt Recovery directly with regards to payment on 0208 234 6775 | 0141 301 2355.

All/any communication must now be with Debt Recovery Plus.

which also had pictures of the car and the license plate as well as the following attachments:
ibb.co/jqGrjd
ibb.co/epQOxy

Please can I have some advice on what to do next? How should I proceed from here?
Thanks so much in advance.

KeithP

Whilst you you may have updated the address on your Driving Licence, did you change the address on your vehicle's Registration Document?

You need to reply to ECP telling them your new address and your new address is the only address that should be used from this point on.

As you already know, you can ignore DRP.

As you cannot travel to the car park, why not look on google street view and see if the signs can be seen there?

Googling car park name signs may also help.

Could try searching this forum for other incidents at the car park.

cuyeonie

Hi. Thanks for your reply KeithP. I'll make sure to change the address on that other document too.
I'll also send the letter to ECP as well.
I'll try and get the pictures (tried street view and google images but not very clear) - but are you suggesting that I send another email/letter with the standard format of not clear signage?
All ECP have done is said that I should talk with DRP about payments now...
Thanks!

KeithP

cuyeonie wrote: »

...are you suggesting that I send another email/letter with the standard format of not clear signage?

No.

All I'm suggesting you send to ECP is the change of address notification.