Parkingeye Northampton

Marie577

Hi, any advice would be much appreciated.
In March 2019 I parked at Lings Forum Leisure Centre for a total of 17 minutes to drop my daughter a party. I had not realised I needed to enter my registration details into the machine as the first sign I saw stated it was for use of patrons of the facilities only, which we were. I had to queue to park and also wait for the parents to arrive before leaving my daughter which I why I was there for 17 minutes. I have since realised the other signs do state you are required to enter your registration details into the terminals so do not feel I can defend myself on this ground. I had not seen this forum before and have now got to the point where a court date has been allocated and I now need to submit my witness statement to the court tomorrow. I have recently suffered a loss of a family member which is why I am getting round to this now.
The fine print on the signs do state a period of 10 minutes is permitted before entering the registration details and I wondered if I could use the defence that the BPA allows for a 10 minute grace period outside of the agreed parking allowance and that the 7 minutes were used to find a parking space? 
Any advice on this would be very much appreciated as I am unsure whether to just settle outside of court

D_P_Dance

PE's signs leave much to be desired.  Some judges have thrown out court claims because of it, read this

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5972164/parking-eye-signs-oxford-road-reading

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 in some cases, cancellation. 

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,

Just as the clampers were finally closed down, so hopefully will many 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.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2019/8/contents/of these Private Parking Companies.

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

Fruitcake

Look at the BPA CoP that was in use in 2019. This allowed two grace periods each of at least 10 minutes. Quote the relevant paragraphs from the relevant CoP.

Also have a look at this case where Parking Eye lost because the judge stated that driving around looking for a space is not parking.

http://parking-prankster.blogspot.com/2014/03/waiting-for-space-is-not-parking.html

Marie577

Thanks so much, that's very helpful

Le_Kirk

Marie577 said:

Hi, any advice would be much appreciated.
a court date has been allocated and I now need to submit my witness statement to the court tomorrow. 

Presumably you have already submitted a defence!  Your witness statement is "in support of my defence as already filed" which means that you write your WS in your own words as a narrative, telling the story of what happened on the day and subsequently.  You need to support and back up what your defence said with your words and photographic evidence, signs etc.  Have you seen the NEWBIE sticky?  In there is a defence about a ParkingEye hidden keypad (I know it is a defence but there might be something useful you can take from it).  Whilst yours was not hidden, it clearly was not obvious on the sings otherwise you would have seen it and dealt with it at the time.  However, you would have had to park, go inside and register, why did the PPC not have a keypad at the entrance to the parking area where you could have reached it through your window - this seems like entrapment to me - and anyway they have your VRM because they use ANPR, what do they do with it having recorded it a second time?  Just my thoughts!

Marie577

Le_Kirk said:

Marie577 said:

Hi, any advice would be much appreciated.
a court date has been allocated and I now need to submit my witness statement to the court tomorrow. 

Presumably you have already submitted a defence!  Your witness statement is "in support of my defence as already filed" which means that you write your WS in your own words as a narrative, telling the story of what happened on the day and subsequently.  You need to support and back up what your defence said with your words and photographic evidence, signs etc.  Have you seen the NEWBIE sticky?  In there is a defence about a ParkingEye hidden keypad (I know it is a defence but there might be something useful you can take from it).  Whilst yours was not hidden, it clearly was not obvious on the sings otherwise you would have seen it and dealt with it at the time.  However, you would have had to park, go inside and register, why did the PPC not have a keypad at the entrance to the parking area where you could have reached it through your window - this seems like entrapment to me - and anyway they have your VRM because they use ANPR, what do they do with it having recorded it a second time?  Just my thoughts!

my defence referred to lack of signage and being there for legitimate purposes, to be honest I've probably done it all wrong I wish I had discovered this forum sooner. I have been back to the site recently and there does seem to be more than adequate signage advising patrons to enter their registration details upon entry to the reception area, I just must have looked at the sign which read 'for patrons only' and went ahead and parked. Although I am unsure if the signs have been added since March last year as they look quite new. Do you know if it is acceptable to include references to the BPA code of conduct and precedents to support my defence within my witness statement or do they need to be included separately? 

Le_Kirk

It's a code of practice and you can use parts of it to support your defence and witness statement.  You just refer to your evidence as Exhibit XXX_001 (where XXX = your initials) and print the relevant parts of it (if you are supplying paper WS).

Marie577

Le_Kirk said:

It's a code of practice and you can use parts of it to support your defence and witness statement.  You just refer to your evidence as Exhibit XXX_001 (where XXX = your initials) and print the relevant parts of it (if you are supplying paper WS).

Got it, thank you

Coupon-mad

There are example WS around, including one I wrote on @Bexon's thread.

Marie577

Just thought I would update on this and advise I have put in a complaint to the leisure Centre in question who responded straight away and tried to intervene. Unfortunately they have spoken to ParkingEye and they have said it is now at the point that they cannot intervene. 
It is such a shame as the leisure centre have been very cooperative and had I thought to do this during the earlier stages I could have saved myself a lot of time and stress.

Redx

That is why the Newbies thread tells everyone to complain to the landowner or retailer , plan A , go to the organ grinder and get action asap , the monkey doesn't get off your back unless it's master intervenes

Get the leisure centre to write a WS on your behalf stating they do not wish you to be taken to court and they support your defence , get it signed and dated and ensure the litigation team at PE receive a copy