Newly Infested Car Park, Cornwall

The_Slithy_Tove

My holidays this year took me to Cornwall, and to a nice, small, friendly little beach we go to frequently when down there. Presumably as a reaction to Covid (though who knows), they have replaced the wooden kiosk (with an attendant collecting the daily parking fee) with a PPC managed set up in the form of Initial Parking. Looking at the arrangements, it appears on the face of it to be less aggressive than some of the others that we see, but only time will tell.

Positive points

• The parking fees are not unreasonable. It used to be £4 for the day, regardless of how long you were there, with a small reduction after 3pm. £4 now gets you 4.5 hours, which is usually enough.
  
• They allow you to top up parking, and pay at any point before departure, so fairly flexible. No idea if it works!
  
• First half hour free. No need to mess around with the machines if you are staying only for a short time.
• Initial are BPA rather than IPC.

Negative points

• The signage is ugly with signs all over the place. Too many different signs with different information on them.
• Pay by phone is pointless as there's pretty much no signal on any network. The nearby cafe does have WiFi, but I never got the code. At least with contactless payment, "touch points" were limited to entering info on the screen, and a quick spray with my alcohol spray straight after :-)
• Never had to wait behind more than one or two cars on entering in the old days, where cash payment to the attendant was quick and easy. Even with a few machines, payment was slow, with queues as people struggled with both the process and the bright sunlight making them hard to read.
• No apparent link-up between pay machines and ANPR cameras. So even though it says you pay for time on site, the ticket issued by the machine shows the time of payment and the expiry time N hours later. Considering you can pay any time before departure, this is very misleading. No idea what the ticket says when you do a top-up, and whether it's aware of the previous payment.
• The payment machines will accept any VRN, even one which hasn't entered the car park. Yes, I tried!
• The lengthy terms and conditions are generic and refer to a lot of irrelevant information, such as permits (there are none), marked bays (there are none).
• You pay up to 9pm. They do evening events and the cafe is open late some evenings. Previously it was free parking.
• They can't spell - spot the rather outrageous spelling mistake* on the main tariff board.

I have uploaded photos of the prolific signage here. 

Incidentally, they have not applied for planning permission or advertising consent for the signage. Being an awkward person, I have raised this with Cornwall council. Let's see what they come back with.

What would be interesting to know, but we cannot find out, is the nature of the contract between the landowner and Initial.

• How is Initial paid? If it's one of these "free" services with them only making money from the PCNs, then there will be trouble. If it's a fixed fee or a percentage of takings, then they have less incentive to be b****rds.
• Do they have the right to sue for unpaid parking charges?
• Does the landowner have the right to cancel PCNs?
• Does the landowner really understand what they've got themselves into?

Keep your eyes open for Caerhays/Porthluney Beach car park on the forum. As of a couple weeks ago, they were still tinkering with the ANPR camera, so every chance it's not fully working yet.

* The spelling mistake, in case you missed it, is "Please park considerably" 

Umkomaas

Initial have been issuing numerous tickets at Fistral of late. They're the third or fourth PPC to infest Fistral, seems to be quite a turnover, maybe as a result of complaints?