BW Legal LOC for NCP parking

Olly123

So here goes... First draft of our witness statement, our defence is posted on page 3 if you need to look at it but hopefully we've nailed all of the points :-)

I, XXXX, of XXXX, will say as follows:

I am the Defendant in this matter. Attached to this statement is a paginated bundle of documents marked SR1 to which I will refer.

1. The Claimant asserts that I entered into a contract with it, that I breached that contract and must pay a contractual charge, with further undefined and unexplained additional charges. It claims that I was in the relevant car park for a total of 1 Hour and 34 minutes, when only 1 Hour was permitted. It is these 34 minutes with which the Claim is Concerned.

2. Before I describe what happened on the day I parked in the XXXX car park, I confirm that the essence of my defence to this claim is that:
a. I did not breach the terms and conditions of parking
b. The Claimant's signage did not make it clear as to how soon upon entering the carpark a ticket must be purchased and the duration of the minimum Grace Period allowed, before the ‘contract’ began. Nor did the signage stipulate the minimum grace period allowed to exit the carpark, once the ‘contract’ had ended.
c. Wording on the signage did not stipulate that by purchasing a ticket from NCP, that I was accepting a contract with them, merely accepting their terms and conditions, which I did not breach.
d. The ANPR camera took photographic images of my vehicle entering the carpark but did not allow for time taken to look for a space (with sufficient room to get a young child out of a car), unloading a pushchair from the vehicle (so the child was kept safe around moving traffic), locating a ticket machine, reading the terms and conditions (which were not located next to the PDT Machine) and deciding to accept to them.
e. The same ANPR camera also took photographic images of the vehicle exiting the carpark but cannot prove that I was back at my vehicle within the time limit of my ticket, which I was.
f. Even if I did breach the terms, the Claimant is obliged by the compulsory Code of Practice of its own Accredited Trade Association (BPA) to apply separate grace periods of at least 10 minutes at the start and end of each period of parking to allow for potential delays in finding a space, exiting the car park and to allow time for drivers to find and read the terms and conditions offered.



On 6th July 2018 I was in XXXX with my, then 19 month-old daughter. I parked in the XXXX car park, as it was the closest to the two shops I had to visit in the town. I knew I only needed to visit two shops, therefore I would not be long using the car park, so this short-stay option was convenient for me.

It took me a few minutes to find a space and park in it as the car park was quite busy, I remember waiting for a few other cars to manoeuvre in and out of spaces before parking myself. When I got out of the car, I immediately unloaded the pushchair from the boot of my car, so as not to leave my daughter unattended in the car on a hot July’s day. Once I got my daughter out of the car and safely into her pushchair, we walked to the closest ticket machine I could see to select how long we needed to pay for. There were no Terms and Conditions sign posted at the machine I first visited so I walked to another machine to read and accept the conditions of parking, before I purchased my 1 hour ticket. Having brought the ticket, I made my way back to the car to display visibly on my dashboard. I clearly remember making a mental note of when we needed to be back to the car as my Daughter attended a Ballet Class later that morning and we needed to get back in time not to miss it.

I returned back to my car within the time constraints of the ticket but as I lifted my daughter up out of her pushchair she was sick over the two of us which then led to a delay in us getting cleaned up, my daughter re-dressed and settled, shopping and pushchair loaded away and eventually exiting the car park. It took me approximately 10-15 minutes to clear up the mess and re-load the car. I was aware, amongst the distress of the incident, that time was running out on my ticket. But as I was back at my car and clearly pre-occupied with my daughters needs, that I was not in breach of any terms and conditions. I had not read anywhere on any signage that I must have exited the carpark BEFORE my ticket expired. From using BPA approved carparks in the past, I had; in good faith, believed that as long as I had returned to my vehicle within the ticketed time, I would be okay.

Unfortunately, my young daughters case of illness was out of my control and unforeseeable.

I have considered the Code of Practice ("CoP") of the British Parking Association ("BPA"), of which the Claimant is an accredited member. A copy of paragraph 13 of the CoP, which relates to grace periods, is at page 1 of SR1. In order to be an accredited member of the BPA, compliance with the CoP is compulsory, and a copy of paragraphs 4.1 and 6 of the CoP is at page 2 of SR1.

Paragraph 13 of the CoP clearly states that a grace period is to be applied to parking. The CoP makes clear that such grace periods are to be applied both at the start of any parking period and also at the end of any parking period. The whole point of these grace periods is to allow drivers time to find a parking space, to read the signage, and to exit the car park once they have finished parking. Grace periods are not defined, but the CoP requires them to be "a minimum of 10 minutes" either side of the actual parking (paragraphs 13.2 and 13.4).

In this case, the data produced and relied upon by the Claimant shows that the period passing between my car entering and leaving was 34 minutes. Applying the "minimum" 10 minutes either side of the parking, the minimum total grace period I should have been allowed by the Claimant under its own compulsory CoP was 20 minutes. Whilst I accept that following the parking I was on site for around 30 minutes, this was, as explained above, due to circumstances out of my control and poorly displayed signage. It is worthy of note that the recommended grace period is a minimum of 10 minutes, and the Claimant should have exercised common sense and applied a greater grace period than the minimum to take into account the prevailing circumstances at the time. The issue the court is being asked to deal with is de minimis and the court's valuable time should not have been taken up with this matter.

I have repeatedly drawn these matters to the Claimant's attention, but it has refused to see reason.

The Court is invited to dismiss the claim and to award my costs of attendance at the hearing, such as are allowable pursuant to CPR 27.14.

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


Signature of Defendant:


Name: XXXX
Date:

Olly123

Hey everyone, any advice on the above? I've got time before I need to send it but just want to get it covered off before holiday next week if possible :-)

Thank you in advance!

Olly123

Ok, so we are going to send off the above tomorrow as can’t really delay any longer and think it covers off all of the points!

Just a quick question, shall I email the witness statements across to both the claimant and court or shall I send it another way?

Umkomaas

Email to the claimant and solicitors, hand-deliver in a neat, paginated file (use a ring binder) to the court. I thought this advice was clearly outlined in the NEWBIES FAQ sticky, post #2. Is it no longer there?

Olly123

I had looked but must of missed how to send it from the newbie post.

My apologies, I’ll print out and hand deliver to the court this week and send to the claimant/solicitors.

Thank you

Olly123

So this afternoon we've received a 60 page letter from BW legal with all of their witness statements etc, I haven't had a chance to read it as I won't be home until later but is this sort of size normal from them? I'm pretty sure anything document that's over 5-10 pages long must be a copy of paste job form their side :-/

Quentin

Yes, not unusual

Olly123

ok, phew... Got a bit panicky, I'll have a read through this evening and report any concerns!

Olly123

So I’ve had time to read through their witness statement.

Interestingly enough they’ve eluded to the one thing we’ve requested on a number of occasions which is the issue surrounding the ticket we purchased, at no point through this process would they tell us when we paid for a ticket and how long we paid for, until now.

Turns out we did pay but left the car park 30 minutes after the ticket expired, up until now we only had anpr to go on...

Some of what they’ve written is complete b**locks and they’ve used some evidence which will actually help us in terms of an email where we clearly stated to send us a letter in response but they’ve said we ignored their reply (it was an auto reply) asking for our full name although it’s in the email address 🤦🏼!♂️!

But overall I’m a bit worried seeing the ticket information now as it’s something we honestly weren’t aware of until now

Quentin

Having an email address that includes a name isn't proof of the actual name of the correspondent

That won't help you

Always comply with reasonable follow up requests in reply to your request otherwise you give the other side reason to do nothing

If you consider them unreasonable still respond pointing that out