County Court Claim Form - Eastgate Wharf P&D one parking solution

mm0623

Hi all

I received a claim form from county court business centre, issue date is 22nd of January 2020.

I have spent a lot of time reading the Newbies thread over the last days and have searched so much on the forum and found some similar cases. I wrote a draft of my defence by copying some of their defence and editing them.

BACKGROUND

PPC: One Parking Solution
Date: 07/01/2017
Location:Eastgate Wharf P&D
Reason: Failure to display a Valid Payment

This car parks has two areas, one is pay and displays and the other is permitted only. The other one marked as "BRC" and I didn't notice it and bought a £1 ticket from the machine and displayed on screen. ( Original PCN stated , Contravention period: from 11:49 to 12:15.)

I was the driver on the day. When I received the PCN at first, I asked for my husband ( the keeper of the vehicle) to help me out. We appealed both OPS and PoPLA , but we lost both appeals with our ignorance as we didn't searched online and didn't know this useful and helpful site. We wish we'd come here sooner.

My husband wrote I was the driver and gave my name to OPS appeal. So we can't use the point of keeper's liability.

OPS has changed the signs on the parking recently, so I want to use this point to defence my case. Also, they made a mistake a send a letter before claim with another individual's data ( because the letter was double sided printed) . I wonder if I can use this point as well. (Breach of Data Protection Act 2018/GDPR)

I will post my defence next and would appreciate some guidance please .
This time I wrote it all by myself without my husband's help. My English is not perfect as I am not English native. . Thanks for your understanding.

Thanks in advance

mm0623

DEFENCE

I am XXXXX, defendant in this matter. It is admitted that the Defendant was the driver of the vehicle that day.
The Defendant denies liability for the entirety of the claim for the following reasons.

1.The vehicle, registration XXXX, may have been present on the material date in a !bay at XXXX, but this would have been for no longer than 14 minutes, well within the grace period specifically described by the Claimants own Trade Association's Code of Practice (British Parking Association Code of Practice; Clauses 13.1 and 18.5) which requires any driver to be given a minimum of 10 minutes to read any relevant terms and conditions before deciding whether or not to enter into a parking contract. The few minutes shown in the Claimant's photographs account for a driver reading signage to ascertain what the writing and acronyms on the tarmac (such as ‘BRC' which is not explained at the bays) actually meant, and to see if a permit would be needed, then leaving and not accepting any parking contract to leave the car in that space. The Defendant is not English native, so she needed longer time than usual.


2. The terms on the Claimant's signage are displayed in a font which is too small to be read from a passing vehicle, and is in such a position that anyone attempting to read the tiny font would be unable to do so easily without exiting the vehicle. It is denied that the Claimant's signage is capable of creating a legally binding contract.|

3. The signage at the site - given the minuscule font size of the £sum, which is illegible in most photographs and does not appear at all at the entrance - is NOT sufficient to bring the parking charge (i.e. the sum itself) to the attention of the driver.

4.The signage was inadequate to form a contract with the Defendant even if planning permission is in place

a) The Entrance sign tells “ Pay and Displays” only, and it is so difficult for
any drivers to notice there is reserved areas in the same car parking from
a car thus failing BPA CoP guidelines. (18.2)

b)The terms on a sign are not seen and the area is not clearly marked/signed with prominent terms, the driver has not consented to - and cannot have breached- an unknown contract because there is no contract capable of being established. The driver in that case (who had not seen any signs/lines) had NOT entered into a contract.!(Miss Vine vs London Borough of waltham forest CASE NO: CCRTF 98/1290/B2)

5. On the day in question the defendant had every intention to pay for parking and genuinely thought I had to the contracted terms. In Jolley v Carmel Ltd [2000] 2 –EGLR -154, it was held that a party who makes reasonable endeavours and reasonable steps, to comply with contractual terms, should not be penalised for breach outside of their control and outside of any contractual term within their knowledge.


6. The Claimant has changed the signs after this matter in between 2017 to 2019. The entrance sign is now “PRIVATE CAR PARK” from “ PAY AND DISPLAY” and the BRC bay sign added “RESERVED” sign and demarcated yellow line to show the difference between permitted and pay and display bays. It prove there was problems for the Claimant signs to form a contract with the former signs which not meet BPA CoP.


7. The Claimant is put to strict proof that it has sufficient proprietary interest in the land, or that it has the necessary authorisation from the landowner to issue parking charge notices, and to pursue payment by means of litigation.


8. The Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, Schedule 4, at Section 4(5) states that the maximum sum that may be recovered from the keeper is the charge stated on the Notice to Keeper, in this case £100. This Claim includes an additional £60, for which insufficient calculation or explanation is given, and which appears to be an attempt at double recovery.


9. The Defendant received a letter before claim by the Claimant dated on 2nd May 2017. The letter before claim was double printed and the other side of the page had another individuals PCN , location PCN issued at Cliftonville Court, Hove, BN3 3RX, includes personal datas such as name, address, VRM, PCN number etc. This is a personal data breach when companies send your personal data to someone else without your consent, or when your data is altered without your permission. (Data Protection Act 2018/GDPR) The way to handle personal datas by the Defendant is in question.


10. In summary, it is the Defendant's position that the claim discloses no cause of action, is without merit, and has no real prospect of success. Accordingly, the Court is invited to strike out the claim of its own initiative, using its case management powers pursuant to Civil Procedure Rule 3.4.


I believe the facts contained in this Defence are true.

Name
Signature
Date


The_Deep

Also, they made a mistake a send a letter before claim with another individual's data ( because the letter was double sided printed) . I wonder if I can use this point as well. (Breach of Data Protection Act 2018/GDPR)

If you can locate the other person (Facebook, LinkedIn, 192.com), they might wish to take this up with the PPC/ICO. It would not be much use to you however.

[FONT=Times New Roman, serif][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]Nine times out of ten these tickets are scams, so consider complaining to your MP, it can cause the scammer extra costs and work, and has been known to get the charge cancelled.

Parliament is well aware of the MO of these private parking companies, many of whom are former clampers, and on 15th March 2019 a Bill was enacted to curb the excesses of these shysters. Codes of Practice are being drawn up, an independent appeals service will be set up, and access to the DVLA's date base more rigorously policed, persistent offenders denied access to the DVLA database and unable to operate.

Hopefully life will become impossible for the worst of these scammers, but until this is done you should still complain to your MP, citing the new legislation.

[/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2019/8/contents/enacted[/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]

Just as the clampers were finally closed down, so hopefully will many of these Private Parking Companies.[/FONT][/FONT]

mm0623

My questions are...

Q1. I've already appealed and said I bought a ticket from PDT machine, so that I shouldn't use defence #1?14-15 minutes is not a grace of period?

Q2. Can I use Their PCN was non POFA like sand26 did? PCN says contravention date is 07/01/2017 and date of sending is 07th February 2017.

Coupon-mad

We like dealing with and beating these OPS ones here in Sussex. Myself and/or ParkingMad will be happy to help you in court if you wish - the Brighton ladies team!

I have already added you to my allowed private messages list. Can you pm me a file copy of the POPLA evidence they fielded please? As in the photos, the images and evidence they gave to POPLA. I'd like to check a few things for you and you can trust me, I am a fixture on this forum and help people in Brighton and Worthing area courts.

Q1. I've already appealed and said I bought a ticket from PDT machine, so that I shouldn't use defence #1?14-15 minutes is not a grace of period?

You need to change #1 to say what really happened and that 'BRC' on the road was indistinguishable to a driver from 'P&D' especially given that the entrance words on the road at the time, said 'pay & display' and so did the nearest sign. You need to admit to driving and say what happened.

Q2. Can I use Their PCN was non POFA like sand26 did? PCN says contravention date is 07/01/2017 and date of sending is 07th February 2017.

No because you are the admitted driver.

I spoke for Sand26 in Court, and we won, as no doubt you noticed.

Le_Kirk

Who is named on the claim form from Northampton CCBC? That is the person who should be defending and writing the defence. Defences are written in Third Person, so you say "the Defendant" not "I" or "me."

If you bought a ticket you should use that in your defence. It depends what the POC states on the claim form. If they are claiming you overstayed the time paid for, then you can use Grace Periods. There are two, one at the start of the parking period and one at the end.

There is more to add to your defence if they are trying to claim more than £100 by adding "debt costs" of £60. Search the forum for the Abuse of Process thread by beamerguy and use the comment at post # 14 of that thread by Coupon-mad.

KeithP

mm0623 wrote: »

I received a claim form from county court business centre, issue date is 22nd of January 2020.

With a Claim Issue Date of 22nd January, you have until Monday 10th February to file an Acknowledgment of Service, but there is nothing to be gained by delaying it. To file an AoS, follow the guidance offered in a Dropbox file linked from post #2 of the NEWBIES FAQ sticky thread. About ten minutes work - no thinking required.

Having filed an AoS, you have until 4pm on Monday 24th February 2020 to file your Defence.

That's nearly four weeks away. Plenty of time to produce a Defence, but please don't leave it to the last minute.


When you are happy with the content, your Defence could be filed via email as suggested here:

Print your Defence.
1. Sign it and date it.
   
2. Scan the signed document back in and save it as a pdf.
   
3. Send that pdf as an email attachment to CCBCAQ@Justice.gov.uk
   
4. Just put the claim number and the word Defence in the email title, and in the body of the email something like 'Please find my Defence attached'.
   
5. No need to do anything on MCOL, but do check it after a few days to see if the Claim is marked "defence received". If not, chase the CCBC until it is.

Having filed your Defence, there is more to do...

1. Do not be surprised to receive an early copy of the Claimant's Directions Questionnaire. Nothing of interest there. Just file it.
   
2. Wait for your own Directions Questionnaire from the CCBC, or download one from the internet, and then complete it as described by bargepole in his 'what happens when' post.
3. The completed DQ should be returned by email to the CCBC to the same address and in the same way as your Defence was filed earlier.
4. Send a copy of your completed DQ to the Claimant - to their address on your Claim Form.

Of course everywhere I have written 'you' or 'your' I mean the named Defendant.

mm0623

thank you very much for all your advice.

Thanks, coupon-mad. I asked y husband to send POPLA evidence forward to me.
I will PM you by this Sunday.

Thanks, KeithP.
I was worried about the deadline. I will file an AoS by next Monday and produce my defence by middle of February.

mm0623

Hi, coupon-mad. I’ve sent PM, have you received them? I know you are busy and can’t check PM all the time. but I wonder if something wrong with what I’ve done...Many thanks x

Coupon-mad

My pm box is full and this weekend will mainly be a family time (anniversary of the death of a relative) so I will pick up on pm's and emails next week.