Vehicle Control Services, No stopping in a queue...

nosferatu1001

Telling them you will add them as a defendant (part 20 CPR) to your counterclaim for misuse of private data, for which they are jointly and severally liable as they are the principal, may focus their mind a tad. If you want to go that route.
Your defence should be based on teh C-M defence draft, updated at para 16 and 17 . If there are byelaws in place meanin gthat keeper liabiltiy is IMPOSSIBLE, then of course that is added. 

ginger_bread_man

KeithP said:

Did you file an Acknowledgment of Service before or after 25th March?

AOS filed on the 22nd march. Why do you ask?

KeithP

ginger_bread_man said:

AOS filed on the 22nd march. Why do you ask?

The actual date of filing an AoS may affect your Defence filing date if too early.

With a Claim Issue Date of 20th March, and having filed an Acknowledgment of Service on 23rd March (22nd March being a Sunday), you have until 4pm on Monday 20th April 2020 to file your Defence.

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

To file a Defence, follow the guidance in this post:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/76880595#Comment_76880595

Guidance on creating a Defence is also in that thread - in the first post on that thread.

Don't miss the deadline for filing a Defence.

ginger_bread_man

Hi All
I have a court date set for a telephone hearing on the 3rd of September for the above matter now.  Helpfully, VCS have already submitted their witness statement, and I have had a good read of it.  The deadline is the 17th august for mine.
I am a little confused about the 'bundle' mentioned in the hearing letter from the court, and various places on this site,  we were supposed to agree on and submit - have VCS just ignored this and submitted theirs hoping that i don't, or is it separate?

This is the Witness Statement I have put together:

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

 

2. I was arriving at Bristol Airport Short Stay Car Park at the time of the alleged contravention, to pick up my partner from an inbound flight, and attach the ticket for the flight as EV/01.  The flight was delayed, and this is the reason for the material time being later than that of the ticket.

 

3. Upon arrival at the short stay car park entrance, there was a queue of a few cars waiting on the car park slip road to enter, as shown in photos EV/02.  Other drivers can be seen exiting their vehicles to see what was holding up the traffic.  It is possible that there was either a fault with the car park entrance barrier, or a vehicle at the start of the queue.

 

4. A no stopping zone exists on North Side Road, as shown in EV/03, and this is the area that the landowner allows the claimant to patrol, according to the terms and conditions of contract between the claimant and Bristol Airport Limited.  My vehicle, XXXX XXX, was stopped on the slip road entrance to the carpark as shown in EV/04, and EV/02, where the claimant are not permitted to patrol, presumably as it would be unfair for drivers to receive a penalty for entering the car park.   At no point was my vehicle blocking or stopped on North Side Road.

 

5. I contacted the claimant on 30/12/2019, as this was when I received the first communication from them regarding this matter, to appeal the charge, attached EV/05.

The claimant finally replied to me on 19/02/2020 with a template reply, stating that “we will not accept any disputes at this stage” and “We will not acknowledge or respond to any further correspondence disputing the charge”.   They maintained that they initially sent a notice to keeper (NTK) on 29/10/2019, and that no appeal was possible more than 21 days from that day, attached EV/06.

 

6. As I understand it, the no stopping penalty at the material site is designed to deter drop-offs and pickups along the main airport road (North Side Road) to keep traffic flowing.  It is therefore grossly unfair to target motorists queueing on a slip road to enter a car park, not blocking the north side road, with a parking charge notice for no stopping.

 

7. I invite the Court to dismiss this claim in its entirety, and to award my costs of attendance at the hearing, such as are allowable pursuant to CPR 27.14, please see EV/07.

Statement of Truth

 

I believe that the facts stated in this witness statement are true. I understand that proceedings for contempt of court may be brought against anyone who makes, or causes to be made, a false statement in a document verified by a statement of truth without an honest belief in its truth.

 

Signed

 

Dated

 Hopefully there is not too much waffle in there, I tried to keep it short... 

The evidence that the material location is not part of the patrol area came from VCS's witness statement docs, where the area is specified.  Is it okay to rely on this like I have?

Should I also attach the 'chefDave' style supplementary witness statement regarding inflating the charge over £100, with relevant attachments? 

Is it worth adding more about VCS being unhelpful and refusing to address this matter without taking it to court?

Any feedback is gratefully received, this will be the second grossly unfair ticket I have fought and hopefully won with the help of this forum.

Coupon-mad

Should I also attach the 'chefDave' style supplementary witness statement regarding inflating the charge over £100, with relevant attachments? 

Yes, but only if your defence didn't already nail all that.  You do need to mention abuse of process in your WS.

Why not simply search the forum for a surname cited as 'case law' by VCS...you know:

 'VCS Ward witness statetment'

'VCS Crutchley witness statement'

...because you MUST MUST MUST learn how to distinguish your case from those truly appalling decisions.  This has already been done before by people loads of times.  Read at least twenty other VCS Airport WS examples where someone has already done this job. 

Also search:

VCS Ransomes

...to find the argument about this being trespass twisted as if it's an agreed contract.  The Ransomes case has been well used by the most well-researched posters in your shoes.

Redx

The court order probably says you and VCS should agree a joint bundle , so VCS sent you their proposed bundle in order for you to see it , as they should do

I would suggest you send them yours to add to theirs for them to submit to the court as a joint bundle from the claimant plus defendant

No reason why you cannot also submit just yours to the Court as well as a belt and braces approach , just in case

In other words , comply with the court order , but also give the court your own too , twice is better than none at all

Coupon-mad

Sometimes an Order says there is to be a joint 'agreed' bundle.  Sometimes not. 

The OP must read what the court says.

Fruitcake

Please show the scammer's WS and exhibits for the regulars to pick over.

ginger_bread_man

After reading the order again, it says both parties submit a witness statement as normal, then at least 3 days before the hearing, submit the joint bundle if you can agree on one...  Which makes sense I guess.

Thanks for the other points above, I do some reading this week.

I'll attach the order and their witness statement here incase its of interest to anyone.  Their exhibits are another 53 pages that I can send too if anyone would like to paw over? Might take a minute to scan all that!

Castle

ginger_bread_man said:

After reading the order again, it says both parties submit a witness statement as normal, then at least 3 days before the hearing, submit the joint bundle if you can agree on one...  Which makes sense I guess.

Thanks for the other points above, I do some reading this week.

I'll attach the order and their witness statement here incase its of interest to anyone.  Their exhibits are another 53 pages that I can send too if anyone would like to paw over? Might take a minute to scan all that!

The contract with the Landowner would be interesting to see.