Parking Eye Court Claim Form - Please help

Redx

most people here (including myself) have no legal training and this is NOT a legal advice forum, its a consumer rights forum, so dont expect miracles, work with the valuable store of information provided and the goodwill of the legal eagles and teachers who help out here

I have read the WS (despite your opener about it being a defence, which it is not) for your wife and seems ok to me although as you say it seems long

I dont understand the point about splitting it

a SKELETON is just a quick bullet point summary of the legal arguments and isnt mandatory but lets people know the gist of the arguments, which the defence and WS + exhibits expand on

so just a quick narrative of the legal arguments of the case

this is submitted a few days beforehand (court plus claimant or their solicitors), plus the costs schedule, as I said earlier , BUT take copies of relevant stuff with you on the day

read other court case threads that have concuded, using the QUEEN search phrase "another one bites the dust"

better research will always help you , you cannot do enough of it , how do I know ? because I havent been to court but have read thousands of threads on here (plus some over on pepipoo)

hurtbuyer

Have been going through the whole pack sent by Parking Eye again - it contains all the legal pages, copies of all documents sent to me, signboard location map etc.

One thing that I am slightly confused by is that they call the document 'Response to Defence'. Is that different to the WS that they will need to send me or is this it?

I rang the court to check and PE have not sent any paperwork to them yet or paid the £25 fee.

I haven't managed to write up the Skeleton Argument yet but my hearing date is not until early May, so I have a bit of time to write that up and the costs schedule. I do need to submit the WS in the next 4 days though. Should I just go ahead and send the last version I posted.

The court also said that the WS and exhibits could be sent by email. Shall I just wrap everything into a word document, pdf it and send?

Based on my WS, would the advice be to base the Skeleton Argument around 'Signage Only' or do I have any other argument that I can use.

Most grateful for any advice.

Umkomaas

One thing that I am slightly confused by is that they call the document 'Response to Defence'. Is that different to the WS that they will need to send me or is this it?

It's to add pressure on you.

Their WS must come under a Statement of Truth, much nearer to the hearing.

A Skeleton Argument is simply a list of bullet points to remind you of the key points you want to cover (if allowed by the Judge) at the hearing. It's not for extending a particular defence point and certainly not for adding new points not already detailed in the defence.

You should submit it to the court a few days before the hearing (best alongside any cost schedule you are submitting) and copied to the solicitors and PPC at the same time.

Coupon-mad

A reply to Defence is optional and they have a template one, so they use it to upset you and think you have missed something. A Reply to Defence means pretty much nowt.

hurtbuyer

Thank you Coupon-Mad and Umkomaas.

So I will submit my WS with accompanying images now. I will get the SA and cost schedule ready in the meantime.

So at the moment I have this as my WS

************************

In the County Court at Cardiff, Cardiff Civil Justice Centre, 2 Park Street, Cardiff CF10 1ET.

Claim No. XXXXX

Between

PARKINGEYE LTD (Claimant)

and

Mr XXXXXX (Defendant)

Witness Statement by Mr XXXXXX (defendant)

1. I, XXXXXX of XXXXXX am the registered keeper of the car with registration number XXXXXX.

2. My wife Mrs XXXXXX residing at the above address was driving the car on the Xth of June 2018. She is a member of staff at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff

3. As she was the driver on the day, I attach her witness statement (XXXXXX) describing her position.

4. It is my position that the Claimant has no standing, or cause of action, to litigate against me or my wife in this matter.

5. I invite the Court to dismiss this claim in its entirety, and to award our costs of attendance at the hearing, such as are allowable pursuant to CPR 27.14.

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



Signature
Date

************************

and my wife's WS as

***************************

In the County Court at Cardiff, Cardiff Civil Justice Centre, 2 Park Street, Cardiff CF10 1ET.

Claim No. XXXXXX
Between

PARKINGEYE LTD (Claimant)

and

Mr XXXXXX (Defendant)

Witness Statement by Mrs XXXXXXXX (Defendant's wife and driver of the car on the day)

1. I, XXXXXXX of XXX Address XXXX work as a XXXXX for XXXXX in the University Hospital of Wales Cardiff. I attach an image of my identity card (Exhibit XXXXX).

2. I hold a general staff car parking permit for the car in question (XXXXXXX) whose registered keeper is my husband XXXXX. I attach a confirmation email from the Parking Department at the University Hospital of Wales (Exhibit XXXXX).

3. The management of car parking at the hospital changed to Parking eye on 5th June 2018, X weeks before the PCN was issued. All zones and signs including colour coding changed. Also a new ANPR system was started.

4. According to Parking Eye, general Staff Parking zone signboards are in yellow and white with no time limit restrictions. Visitor parking zone signboards are in blue and white and have a 4 hour stay restriction.

5. The University Hospital of Wales site is huge and there are several thousand car parking spaces spread across multiple zones. According to Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, 16000 cars use the site every working day. When the parking system was totally overhauled the only way to work out where one can or cannot park on a daily basis was to look for signage.

6. The signage for parking zones, buildings, departments and warnings are in completely mixed and inconsistent colours, styles and sizes across the whole site and has been made worse through Parking Eye’s new system of signage. It is very difficult even for staff who use the site regularly, let alone sick patients who visit.

7. There is no maintenance and most signage is run down. It is evident that Parking Eye took over parking management on 5th June 2018 and randomly posted some of their own signboards without any logical thought about how drivers would understand and distinguish the different types of signs. The only people disadvantaged are busy staff and patients, a significant number of whom are not from Cardiff but come from all over Wales for the most critical treatments. The state of affairs is no different even today, ten months after Parking Eye have taken over.

8. On the XXth of XXXX (XX weeks after the change of management) as I arrived for work in the morning and was looking to park the car (registration no. XXXXX), I turned right from XXXXX Street (which is the main street running around the hospital campus) into a parking zone where I could see two ‘yellow and white’ staff parking sign boards in the distance indicating a general staff car parking zone (Exhibit XXXXX). As I drove in, there were 9 different signboards of different colours, sizes, and text facing me as described below (Exhibit XXXXX)

a) A ‘Half blue - half white’ sign board showing names of three buildings separately in Welsh and English showing straight arrows on the right (Exhibit XXXXX)

b) A yellow and white board further ahead on the right in English saying it was a staff parking zone (Exhibit XXXXX)

c) A camera picture sign board below the above yellow and white board (Exhibit XXXXX)

On the left there were a number of signboards as below, some of which cover each other and a few bent by what looked like have been hit by vehicles but not repaired. (Exhibit XXXXX)

d) A yellow and white board in Welsh similar in style to ‘b’ above indicating that is was a general staff parking zone. I am not a Welsh speaker.

e) A full yellow sign board with black text warning against walking with ‘high heels’, partly covered by the above Welsh signboard ‘d’ and the 3 signboards listed in ‘f’.

f) 3 faded red signboards with text in white and grey in different sizes, some faded signage repeating the building names in the white and blue boards but adding some more hospital department related signs.

g) The red boards are covered partly by a ‘danger’ sign board which is bent at an angle and is not legible at all. One of the red signs has being lying on the ground for months and no one has fixed it back.

I was entering the car park during the peak morning rush hour between 8am and 8.30am and as expected for such a large staff car park, there was a queue of cars behind me as hospital staff were arriving for work. It is humanly impossible for a normal person to read through every one of the sign boards as described above, let alone make a guess about a signboard that is not there.

At this point, there were two options for me - to go straight into the large car park inside or turn left to enter another very small car park which had a handful of spaces. (Exhibit XXXXX)

9. As explained in 8b above, amongst all the signs as listed there was an English yellow and white sign saying 'General Staff Parking' and a similar one in Welsh indicating that both the areas were general staff parking zones. As can be clearly seen from the images, there were no ‘blue and white’ signs indicating that the small car park on the left was a visitor parking zone.

10. As I drove in, I could see a space available in the small car park on the left and hence turned left and parked in the space. There were no blue and white visitor parking signboards in view. (Exhibit XXXXX) shows the area where I parked and the absence of any further signboards.

11. As can be seen from the ANPR images (Exhibit XXXXX), I entered and exited the car park using the same path. Parking Eye in their response to defence claim state that this is the exit from the small car park and that the entry to the car park is from another end at the far end, thus making it a one-way system. As can be seen from the photographs, there were no signs anywhere to indicate to me that this was an exit path and hence not for left turn entry. This also creates a hazard for drivers as the path is narrow and drivers unknowingly drive into the car park in the wrong direction in a one-way system (of which there is no signposting whatsoever).

12. Parking Eye refer to the small car park where I parked as ‘Public Car Park XX’ and upon investigation I found that the large staff car park is called ‘Staff Car Park YY’. So Parking Eye are claiming that the exit from Public Zone XX joins the entry/exit of Staff Zone YY and users are expected to guess that this is the case without any signposting whatsoever.

13. Parking Eye claim to be a member of the industry body British Parking Association (BPA) and follow their regulations. The BPA website page stipulating signage requirements at

https://www.britishparking.co.uk/News/know-your-parking-and-traffic-signs/159294

states:

Parking on Private Land:

Car parks associated with supermarkets, hospitals, leisure centres, retail parks, shopping centres etc. are usually private land and parking is managed using the laws of contract or trespass.

Typically, a principal sign will be displayed near the entrance to the car park describing who the car park is for and if there are time limits on how long it is possible to stay and details of any charges or free periods that may apply. Local signage in and around the car park may provide more information including how much you will be charged if you do not comply with any of the terms and conditions for using the car park.

Private parking operators who are members of an Accredited Trade Association (ATA) must adhere to a Code of Practice which provides guidance for size, placement and content of signs.


As Parking Eye very clearly did not adhere to the basic requirement for display of a ‘visitor parking zone’ sign at the entrance of the car park, it is in violation of BPA’s code of practice and they are falsely claiming compliance. It is thus giving the public, BPA and the land owner a false sense of being a legitimate industry standards compliant parking management company.

14. Upon receipt of the PCN, I visited the car park and took photographs to verify this. I also attach a (Exhibit XXXXX) googlemaps street view image showing the view going in to the car parks from Heath Park Way.

15. The small car park is proportionally much smaller than the larger one. I attach two google maps satellite view images (Exhibit XXXXX) (unlabelled) and (Exhibit XXXXX) (labelled) to show the relative size of the areas. Given that both have a common point of entry and the lack of any blue and white visitor parking signage, it is not possible for anyone to logically think that the smaller car park is not part of the same parking zone as the bigger car park and hence has different terms and conditions for parking. Also there is no indication whatsoever to say that it is not a path for entry.

16. I also draw attention to the fact that both car parks have been staff parking zones in the past under Indigo Car Parks before ParkingEye took over the management of the site. It was a ‘pay and display’ parking zone for staff permit holders only and not for visitors. I attach a googlemaps street view image from March 2017 (Exhibit XXXXX) which has signposting clearly showing that the whole area was ‘Pay and Display Permit Holders Only’ zone. XX weeks after the new parking system was introduced, it was impossible for me to know that the zones had changed without proper sign posting.

17. Parking Eye also reference the ‘Parking Eye vs Beavis’ case in their response to defence. It can be said clearly that there is no parallel between this and the Beavis case as the Beavis case as a basic premise had very good signposting and the overstay took place inspite of that. In my case there was no signposting which led me to park in a car park where restrictions applied rather than where I was permitted to park without restrictions.

18. My husband Mr XXXXXX (as registered keeper of the car) received a PCN notice in the post stating that there had been an overstay in the car park referring to it as a public car park zone XX.

19. It is my position that the Claimant has no standing, or cause of action, to litigate against me or my husband in this matter.

20. I invite the Court to dismiss this claim in its entirety, and to award our costs of attendance at the hearing, such as are allowable pursuant to CPR 27.14.

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



Signature
Date

***************************

hurtbuyer

Any advice on the above WS.
Please also - is it advisable to send the WS' and evidence by email to the court.

Umkomaas

Please also - is it advisable to send the WS' and evidence by email to the court.

What does the NEWBIES FAQ sticky, post #2 advise on that?

KeithP

Sorry, I won't be commenting on the content of your Witness Statement, but the usual guidance offered here is to hand deliver your WS and evidence to the court.

It is a court local to you isn't it?

If you were to email it, you lose all control over its presentation.
But if you hand deliver, you will be able to present it neatly in an indexed binder or folder. You will be able to use colour to your advantage, e.g. photographs, highlights, etc.

There are limits on how much a court will print. Sorry, I don't know what those limits are - you will need to find out.
It would be more than a little disappointing to find out on the day that the judge has only seen half your evidence.

hurtbuyer

KeithP wrote: »

Sorry, I won't be commenting on the content of your Witness Statement, but the usual guidance offered here is to hand deliver your WS and evidence to the court.

Have I done something wrong in my Witness Statement?

KeithP wrote: »

It is a court local to you isn't it?

If you were to email it, you lose all control over its presentation.
But if you hand deliver, you will be able to present it neatly in an indexed binder or folder. You will be able to use colour to your advantage, e.g. photographs, highlights, etc.

There are limits on how much a court will print. Sorry, I don't know what those limits are - you will need to find out.
It would be more than a little disappointing to find out on the day that the judge has only seen half your evidence.

Yes, the court is very local to me and I understand your point totally. I will hand deliver. Will I get some kind of acknowledgement saying that they received it like I would if I send via a courier?

KeithP

hurtbuyer wrote: »

Have I done something wrong in my Witness Statement?

Not that I can see.

It's just that I do not feel able to offer good advice in that area - for any Witness Statement - not just yours.