NtK appeal letter and situation

1505grandad

I think you will find that it is the claimant that has to pay the hearing fee.

Good luck

Le_Kirk

Agree with 1505grandad, you seem to have misread your documentation. Read again and I think you will find you have to provide a Witness Statement (WS) by a certain date or a certain number of days before the court date. For help on writing a WS refer to NEWBIE sticky post # 2.

typeractive

Hi all,

This is my first draft witness statement. I'd appreciate any support and advice on it. I think it's lengthy, but important to get the information in?

Thanks!

---

I, NAME, of ADDRESS, am the Defendant in this matter, and will say as follows.

1. On DATE I arrived at the BUSINESS NAME premises in ADDRESS. This was my first visit to this site with the purpose of making brief enquiries. My visit to the premises was less than 10 minutes as I was on route home from work and not using the facilities. When using any of these gyms, the member inputs their unique code into a turnstile entrance which logs the visit. My gym records (appendix 2.1) indicate all of my visits have been at the ALTERNATIVE branch until DATE, two days after the alleged recorded parking offence.

2. The car park is what would be described as an open access car park with no physical barriers or obstacles to deter a visitor from parking (see images in appendix 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4 and 3.5). There is a low level sign which guides visitors to the BUSINESS NAME either into the!‘customer parking’!or!‘deliveries’!areas. Following those signs I entered the area indicated as ‘customer parking’. There was no additional information relevant to the terms and conditions of the car park visible on entry.

3. The car was parked in a bay outside the BUSINESS NAME, within close proximity to the entrance of the business. There was no visually prominent signs in place to suggest entering the car park was met with specific terms and conditions.

4. I entered the BUSINESS NAME, made my enquiries and left. I would approximate my visit to be a maximum of 5 minutes upon leaving my vehicle, entering the building and returning to my vehicle, at which point I left.

5. A few days after I was shocked to receive a parking charge from UKCPS with a demand for an unreasonable request of £100, but this would be reduced to £60 if paid within 14 days.

6. I returned to the BUSINESS NAME premises in TOWN to inspect the site and also ask the management about these parking charges on their site. My findings are as follows:

a). The signs are not clear enough to make it explicit that the site has terms and conditions to the average motorist. The first visible sign has a large white P with a surrounding blue background which looks significantly like a regular parking sign (see image 3.6). In a smaller typeface there is text that highlights “Private land” and “conditions apply, see main signs for full details site managed by UKCPS”. Please note the erected sign is slightly different to the witness statement supplied by the claimant (annex 2). Upon searching the site for other (assumed) ‘main signs’ the terms are outlined in a very small font. These signs are not visible upon initial entry to the car park, and the area they apply to is not explicit which is confusing for any motorist utilising a shared car parking facility.

b). The BUSINESS NAME staff explained that other motorists has been caught out with this ‘scam’, and one visitor in near identical terms had their parking charge revoked as a local MP had intervened. I have contacted my local MP to ask for any such evidence which I am yet to receive.

c). I requested the land owner’s contact details as I understand the land owner has the authority to revoke parking charges. As you can see in the email (4.0) titled ‘EMAIL TITLE’ sent from the land owner’s property manager on the DATE to the BUSINESS NAME were supplied with the following information “The parking patrols will commence next Wednesday the DATE the signs are due to be erected on DAY, you will have a 10 minutes grace period”. The erected signs do not provide any acknowledgement of this 10 minute grace period, which I believe is an element of false advertising and strengthens my argument that UKCPS have not operated in an ethical manner as I was parked for less than 10 minutes and the evidence supplied by UKCPS does not indicate my entry or exit timings. As outlined in my defence the provided photographs date and time stamps commence at XX/YY/ZZ HH:MM, and conclude at XX/YY/ZZ HH:MM totalling a documented time of XX:XX if the camera instrumentation is calibrated and accurate.

7. UKCPS have then continued to harass me with numerous attempts of communication using ‘baiting strategies’ such as offering to lower the fine (still beyond any reasonable cost for a parking payment) and utilising debt recovery companies which has caused an element of stress (annex 5).

I believe the facts stated in this Witness Statement are true.

Signature
Date.

Coupon-mad

OK, a good start and it is not too long, because you need more evidence. Don't call any evidence 'annex' or 'appendix'. Just your initials then a sequential number.

I would remove all this narrative from #1 and leave it as a shorter point:

and not using the facilities. When using any of these gyms, the member inputs their unique code into a turnstile entrance which logs the visit. My gym records (appendix 2.1) indicate all of my visits have been at the ALTERNATIVE branch until DATE, two days after the alleged recorded parking offence.

You need a point about the IPC Code of Practice mandatory grace period being 10 mins in car parks where parking is allowed, such as this one (quote it and show the page as evidence). Remember that a Judge may not know this, so this is vital evidence.

You need to talk about there being no 'legitimate interest' in penalising visitors of BUSINESS NAME, distinguishing this case from ParkingEye v Beavis [2015] UKSC 67.

You could also have a point about promissory estoppel, given that the business was promised that its visitors/staff would have 10 mins grace and whilst nothing told you about this time limit at the time, it would have been something the business itself was relying upon when accepting you as a visitor with a legitimate brief enquiry. Effectively, they extended that promise to you, and thus there cannot be a valid contract that penalises you for visiting for less than 10 minutes.

You also need points asserting that the sums UKCPS have added to the claim are unrecoverable in law and due to the Beavis case - for that wording, see post #14 of beamerguy's Abuse of Process thread. This is damage limitation in case people lose and is very important to argue.

And you need to file & serve your costs schedule at this stage, we recommend.

Le_Kirk

My visit to the premises was less than 10 minutes as I was on route home from work

Should be: -

My visit to the premises was less than 10 minutes as I was [strike]on[/strike] en route home from work

typeractive

Thanks Coupon Mad.

I've removed some of the gym details as suggested. Also sourced information on the 10 minutes grace period from the BPA, IPC (not quite as detailed) and also some advice from the RAC website:

"c). I requested the land owner’s contact details as I understand the land owner has the authority to revoke parking charges. As you can see in the email titled ‘EMAIL TITLE’ sent from the land owner’s property manager on the DATE to the BUSINESS NAME were supplied with the following information “The parking patrols will commence next Wednesday the DATE the signs are due to be erected on DAY, you will have a 10 minutes grace period”. The erected signs do not provide any acknowledgement of this 10 minute grace period, which I believe is an element of false advertising and strengthens my argument that UKCPS have not operated in an ethical manner as I was parked for less than 10 minutes and the evidence supplied by UKCPS does not indicate my entry or exit timings. As outlined in my defence the provided photographs date and time stamps commence at XX/YY/ZZ HH:MM, and conclude at XX/YY/ZZ HH:MM totalling a documented time of XX:XX if the camera instrumentation is calibrated and accurate. UKCPS Limited are a member of the The British Parking Association. In accordance with the British Parking Association publication “BPA Approved Operator Scheme Code of Practice Control and enforcement of parking on private land and unregulated public car parks Version 7 - January 2018” under section 13.2 on page 9; If the parking location is one where parking is normally permitted, you must allow the driver a reasonable grace period in addition to the parking event before enforcement action is taken. In such instances the grace period must be a minimum of 10 minutes. In addition UKCPS are an Accredited Operator of The International Parking Community. In accordance with the Accredited Operator Scheme Code Of Practice v.6 1st April 2017 page 12, section 15.1; Drivers should be allowed a sufficient amount of time to park and read any signs so they may make an informed decision as to whether or not to remain on the site. As published on the legal and advice section of the RAC website; Operators who are BPA members are supposed to abide by the BPA code of practice which drivers should be given a 10 minute grace period. If you haven’t received a 10 minute grace period between when the ticket expired and parking notice was issued, you should have good grounds to appeal.

I also added in another section but wasn't sure how to word the promissory estoppel:

d). Given the communications from the land management company (BUSINESS NAME), and in accordance with the IPC and BPA codes of conduct as outlined above, I believe UKCPS understand the need to provide motorists a grace period though have neglected to follow this conduct. The BUSINESS NAME was provided with information about the 10 minute grace period and extended that promise to myself as a visitor, and thus, therefore cannot be a valid contract that penalises me for visiting for less than 10 minutes."

Coupon-mad wrote: »

You need to talk about there being no 'legitimate interest' in penalising visitors of BUSINESS NAME, distinguishing this case from ParkingEye v Beavis [2015] UKSC 67.

Managed to find this case. Is there a particular paragraph I'm looking for? Just unsure what I need to reference to from this case.

You also need points asserting that the sums UKCPS have added to the claim are unrecoverable in law and due to the Beavis case - for that wording, see post #14 of beamerguy's Abuse of Process thread. This is damage limitation in case people lose and is very important to argue.

I found the post you made on that thread, do I copy your entire post word for word, and add it into my witness statement? (obviously changing the * to numbers), I'm just conscious the witness statement will be huge. I also seen the links that I will need to print out and add into my evidence pack.

And you need to file & serve your costs schedule at this stage, we recommend.

I will send this with my witness statement, and the pack of evidence I am using. Do I just put this on its own separate page? e.g:

Page 1 - witness statement
Pages 3 - 13 - evidence including images, emails, and so on.
Page 14 - Costs schedule

In other news I had a response back from my local MP today - unsure if it is worth including?

"apologies for the delay in responding to your email. Whilst this Office has had some small successes in overturning parking notices in exceptional circumstances, this has only been when the notice has first been issued. We have not dealt with any subsequent actions taken by a Parking Company. Due to Data Protection rules, I am sorry but I am unable comment on individual cases."

Sorry for all the questions on exactly what to include and where. I have spent a lot of time searching for information and trying to get my head around how to quote cases such as Parking Eye Vs Beavis etc I just want to make sure I'm including the correct sections.

Thanks - nearly there!

Oh, does anyone have the link to the site that provides the number of cases each parking company has taken to court, and also the number that they have won / lost?

KeithP

typeractive wrote: »

Also sourced information on the 10 minutes grace period from the BPA, IPC (not quite as detailed)...

What's the point of that?
An IPC AOS member does not have to abide by the BPA's CoP.

typeractive

KeithP wrote: »

What's the point of that?
An IPC AOS member does not have to abide by the BPA's CoP.

Hi Keith
I thought it might help seeing as they are a member of the BPA. The IPC code of practice isn't quite as specific with the 10 minutes. I can remove it if people think it's wise?

Can anyone help on my other queries in my previous post on:

• How to quote the Beavis Case in my witness statement
• If I need to copy the entirety of CouponMad's post 14 in beamerguy's 'Abuse of Process' thread into my witness statement
• Worth inputting my response from the MP where they have had small successes overturning parking notices.
• Where I file my costs. I know to do it at this stage - is this just on it's own page?
• Where the link to the number of PPC court appearances and wins is.

The witness statement should be the easy stage but I'm finding it hard. Really appreciate it if people can help me to get it in the correct order. I know you're all working hard to help people like me and I really appreciate it. I've got this far but I feel a bit stuck.

Umkomaas

The only Code of Practice that matters is the IPC's.

Le_Kirk

I found the post you made on that thread, do I copy your entire post word for word, and add it into my witness statement? (obviously changing the * to numbers), I'm just conscious the witness statement will be huge.

Yes, you do, if you are referring to post # 14 but make sure it gels with whatever else you've written and doesn't duplicate anything.