What's the issue everyone has with parking tickets?

Deastons

I'm not too au fait with the issues with private parking companies. But it seems that people think they don't have to pay the tickets, but then watching things like Can't Pay We'll Take It Away and a recent documentary about parking, the evidence there is that people do have to pay the charges.

Surely, if you park against the rules (stay too long, don't park within the lines etc.) you deserve the fine?

System

Surely, if you park against the rules (stay too long, don't park within the lines etc.) you deserve the fine?

The headline issue is correct but the devil is in the detail which is why there is a constant attempt to "raise standards"

Any liability will be contingent on a number of factors that have to be evidenced and factual. That's the devil in the detail.

Guys_Dad

When a private parking company demands £100 for breaking one of the it t&c whilst thieves get conditional discharges in court, the disparity is obvious.

Since I have no input to soft court sentences, I choose to target those other thieves who prey on drivers. Just read a few of the scams they try to get away with and search for double dipping, doctored photos, ignoring POFA etc.

fisherjim

Deastons wrote: »

I'm not too au fait with the issues with private parking companies. But it seems that people think they don't have to pay the tickets, but then watching things like Can't Pay We'll Take It Away and a recent documentary about parking, the evidence there is that people do have to pay the charges.

Surely, if you park against the rules (stay too long, don't park within the lines etc.) you deserve the fine?

Your knowledge is seriously lacking, for a start a PPC can't issue "fines" and they have just found an easy way to make money, their value as car park managers is seriously questionable.


How can you monitor disabled bays with ANPR, do you understand double dipping?


What do you think about a PPC harassing a deceased driver's family because the car they drove to the supermarket in over stayed?


I believe you will find that a PPC was also the subject of an episode of Can't Pay We'll Take It Away as the debtor!


Do you know about UKPC's numerous suspensions from obtaining data from the DVLA due to falsifying evidence?


What about the blatant disregard by many PPC's of grace periods, signage rules etc etc.


Then there's blatant lying, using debt collectors threatening court when they can't, using web forms that default to trap you into admitting you were the driver.


Actively targeting the disabled, and hospital patients because they are vulnerable.


Add to that the bill going through parliament to clean up this unregulated industry where even MP's called them cowboys.


Even reading a couple of pages on this forum might enlighten you instead of taking at face value a couple of scraping the surface TV programmes.

Computersaysno

Deastons wrote: »

I'm not too au fait with the issues with private parking companies.

And therein lies the issue.....


You're ignorant in this area, yet seem happy to shove in your tuppence worth with an ill-informed Daily Mail approach.


Educate yourself before coming on here and spouting tripe.


No offence intended....I'm just firing from the hip, like yourself.

esmerobbo

Quite simple really the product is sold as car park management, yet it does not manage car parks.

waamo

They aren't parking companies, they are ticketing companies. None of these companies assist you in finding a parking space or managing the amount of vehicles in a car park.

They use anpr technology to penalise people who stay too long. They don't monitor disabled spaces or parent and child spaces as that doesn't generate enough income for them. The people who may actually benefit from them end up being the people penalised by them.

With residential parking if there isn't a parking problem they have to create one in order to survive. No tickets means no income for them. Invariably it's the residents who end up paying.

Parking control done properly can be a real benefit but sadly none of these companies do it properly.

NeilCr

Wow.

You do like living dangerously!



As usual IamEmanresu speaks sense.

The headline is good and I am quite happy to say there have been occasions when I have been glad to see someone ticketed. I got caught once (council ticket) and paid up because I knew I was in the wrong.

But, as previous posters have highlighted, the PPCs take advantage and there is little or no regulation which means they can, at times, run riot. I, as will be apparent, am not quite as zealous as some on here (which is not a criticism of anyone!) but it is sill a deeply flawed system. I take Guys Dad's point about inequalities in penalties - but, there are others generally more unfortunate who I prefer to spend my time assisting - if I can. We all have our different priorities.

Having said that reading this forum has opened my eyes a lot and, perhaps, that is something you should do to get an alternative view of how it works

I don't necessarily agree with waamo entirely about residential parking. If there is no problem quite often PPCs won't be called in by the ManCo. However, if they are there they certainly do create additional issues for residents and should only be used as a last, last resort.

I wholeheartedly agree with waamo's last sentence, though.

The_Deep

It is a bit like clamping, which it has taken over rm, it is legalised extortion, but hopefully not for mush longer, read this


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 House of Commons recently

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

and complain in the most robust terms to your MP. With a fair wind they will be out of business by Christmas.

Snakes_Belly

I find it unbelievable that someone who starts a fire in a national park that damages 200 acres of land, destroys wildlife and their habitat and takes days to put out does not get fined. Yes, it was not arson but was careless behaviour with no thought for anyone or anything.

LawlessGoose

Deastons wrote: »

Surely, if you park against the rules (stay too long, don't park within the lines etc.) you deserve the fine?

Deastons, from now you cannot park on your own driveway without displaying a permit issued by me. If you fail to do so you agree to pay me £100. Before you say you don't have a permit I already sent one. However, a replacement is available for the bargain price of £10. Them's the rules.

I think that's the usual level of legal standing the PPCs have after looking through court transcripts. At least with respect to PPCs operating on Leasehold land.