How to enforce parking restrictions without being an a%&$ ?

hartebeestfootprint

Hi all,


My wife runs a small business, and pays about £1000/year (plus a fee to the council as part of her business rates) to lease 6 parking bays behind the office, which is on the edge of a small town centre. These are used by her staff, and she has put up signs identifying the bays as private parking etc.

Most of the time it's OK, but sometimes during the day, and quite often during the evenings and weekends, random people park there. Her business also runs evening and weekend events, so the parking is needed during these times (not all the time but it's real pain when she turns up to work and shoppers or cinema-goers have parked there instead of paying to park in the council spaces). We've tried putting polite and less polite notes on the cars, but they are simply ignored. There are a few repeat offenders who park there regularly. Soon the High Street (with lots of short term parking) is going to be closed for months of works, which makes us worry that unauthorised parking will increase as a result.

It's very tempting to contract one of the private land parking enforcement firms to enable us to have some real consequences for people parking in our spaces, and preventing our staff from using their bays. The shape of the carpark and the fact it's shared with 2 other businesses (we each have allocated sets of bays) makes it difficult to use a boom or posts to block the bays off.

I'm not keen to use fly-by-night type operators, and understand the frustration of people who've been harrassed by questionable enforcement.

So - what do you recommend for the owner of bays who pay a small fortune for the right to use them and are then blocked by people who can't be bothered to park legally and ignore polite signs and notices with impunity? The "trespass" route is pretty useless, and of course clamping and towing is outlawed, and nothing can be done to the vehicles even though they are on private land.

Are there enforcement companies who are reasonable, abide by the rules, etc? We would go with one of the "self-ticketing" options ie we would take our own photos and send them off to issue tickets, which would avoid the issue of over-zealous private wardens doing dubious things like taking photos to make it look as if a permit was not visible when it really was - in any case we know who all the people authorised to park are as they are all co-workers. I don't want to cause anyone unreasonable angst, all I want is for her to have the ability to use her own bays!

Thanks!

Fruitcake

Removeable or folding lockable bollards bolted or set in the ground would be one option. I believe it may be lawful to raise the bollards after someone has parked in certain circumstances provided there are warning signs, the same as it is lawful to lock entrance gates at the close of business.

Obtaining the vehicle keeper details from the DVLA and then sending them a warning not to park, or even a letter before claim is another option.

In certain circumstances it is lawful to move a car causing an obstruction.

Half_way

Where is this car park?

The only real solution would be physical barriers/gates/bollards.

hartebeestfootprint

Will the DVLA just hand over the registered keeper to a random caller who asks for them? I don't want to run a parking enforcement company, or spend a fortune on bollards which are a pain for staff to manage. Nor do I want to be issuing Small Claims Court actions when people just ignore warnings when there are no consequences - it takes a lot of work, and I have enough work chasing business creditors without having to add chasing local motorists.


The car park is behind an office building, and as I said, it's not practical to put physical barriers in place. Often we need to double-park to get all our cars in (this is permitted in the lease as long as we stay in our area and don't cause obstruction to others), and bollards would prevent that.



Cars parked there that shouldn't aren't causing an obstruction other than preventing us from parking in our bays so pretty sure it'd be unlawful to tow them.

waamo

There are no ethical parking companies. If they remove the problem they remove their income and they don't want to do that.

As the landowner you can do it yourself pretty easily. It's £2.50 to get the registered keepers details and the price of a stamp to send them a bill for £100.

You will be amazed at how many people simply cough up. If you get a persistent offender then take them to court.

twhitehousescat

hartebeestfootprint wrote: »

Hi all,


My wife runs a small business, and pays about £1000/year (plus a fee to the council as part of her business rates) to lease 6 parking bays behind the office, which is on the edge of a small town centre. These are used by her staff, and she has put up signs identifying the bays as private parking etc.

Most of the time it's OK, but sometimes during the day, and quite often during the evenings and weekends, random people park there. Her business also runs evening and weekend events, so the parking is needed during these times (not all the time but it's real pain when she turns up to work and shoppers or cinema-goers have parked there instead of paying to park in the council spaces). We've tried putting polite and less polite notes on the cars, but they are simply ignored. There are a few repeat offenders who park there regularly. Soon the High Street (with lots of short term parking) is going to be closed for months of works, which makes us worry that unauthorised parking will increase as a result.

It's very tempting to contract one of the private land parking enforcement firms to enable us to have some real consequences for people parking in our spaces, and preventing our staff from using their bays. The shape of the carpark and the fact it's shared with 2 other businesses (we each have allocated sets of bays) makes it difficult to use a boom or posts to block the bays off.

I'm not keen to use fly-by-night type operators, and understand the frustration of people who've been harrassed by questionable enforcement.

So - what do you recommend for the owner of bays who pay a small fortune for the right to use them and are then blocked by people who can't be bothered to park legally and ignore polite signs and notices with impunity? The "trespass" route is pretty useless, and of course clamping and towing is outlawed, and nothing can be done to the vehicles even though they are on private land.

Are there enforcement companies who are reasonable, abide by the rules, etc? We would go with one of the "self-ticketing" options ie we would take our own photos and send them off to issue tickets, which would avoid the issue of over-zealous private wardens doing dubious things like taking photos to make it look as if a permit was not visible when it really was - in any case we know who all the people authorised to park are as they are all co-workers. I don't want to cause anyone unreasonable angst, all I want is for her to have the ability to use her own bays!

Thanks!

There are a few repeat offenders who park there regularly.

however , the majority are not

getting a company (or yourself) to take to take a photo , will not magicly remove the car from your space , in fact they will not know what they have done for 14 days


now , you or your wife etc park there , BUY A CLAMP !!! and after placing signs around YOUR area , place the clamp on one of YOUR cars
when people see a clamp , they will park elsewhere

hartebeestfootprint

There are no ethical parking companies. If they remove the problem they remove their income and they don't want to do that.

As the landowner you can do it yourself pretty easily. It's £2.50 to get the registered keepers details and the price of a stamp to send them a bill for £100.

That's a thought - though why not use someone Self-ticketing UK to do the legwork? They only send enforcement notices to people who I photograph, they don't send their own wardens. Essentially it's the same as me paying DVLA for details and then running an enforcement campaign, small claims court enforcement, etc.

Fruitcake

hartebeestfootprint wrote: »

Will the DVLA just hand over the registered keeper to a random caller who asks for them? I don't want to run a parking enforcement company, or spend a fortune on bollards which are a pain for staff to manage. Nor do I want to be issuing Small Claims Court actions when people just ignore warnings when there are no consequences - it takes a lot of work, and I have enough work chasing business creditors without having to add chasing local motorists.


The car park is behind an office building, and as I said, it's not practical to put physical barriers in place. Often we need to double-park to get all our cars in (this is permitted in the lease as long as we stay in our area and don't cause obstruction to others), and bollards would prevent that.



Cars parked there that shouldn't aren't causing an obstruction other than preventing us from parking in our bays so pretty sure it'd be unlawful to tow them.

A landowner can obtain keeper details using a paper request form. I think, but am not absolutely certain that a leaseholder/landholder/agent can do this as well.

As above, I have never come across an ethical unregulated private parking company.

I would have thought that preventing a staff member parking in their designated bay because another vehicle is parked there is by definition obstruction.

Unfortunately I don't think there is an easy solution to your problem.

Coupon-mad

Often we need to double-park to get all our cars in

And...guess what will happen to your staff if you let a scammer in? Yep.

Lockable posts in the bays works, and surely can fit, if there's a bay then a post fits.

hartebeestfootprint

And...guess what will happen to your staff if you let a scammer in? Yep.

What will happen? Absolutely nothing because I will only use one where the staff takes their own photos and send them to me to enforce - and I have a list of all their reg numbers and they can tell me if they have a different car to usual. There are only 10 of us, it's easy to manage internally.

If I do this, is there any concern with using an enforcement company instead of doing all the legwork myself? I have some experience using debt collectors to enforce payment of private debt, and it's time consuming and expensive.

Lockable posts in the bays works, and surely can fit, if there's a bay then a post fits.

How do I prevent people from parking between the lockable posts, ie straddling the white line?

Coupon-mad

By placing the posts close enough that a car can't park between and if that means 2 small posts with a little chain, that will work well.

is there any concern with using an enforcement company instead of doing all the legwork myself?

You are asking the wrong person. 'Enforcement companies' are plain scum.

I make my views crystal clear - IMHO the entire industry SHOULD be banned and landowners SHOULD deal with their own land, with posts, barriers and polite signs.