Letter of claim received from DCBL for Hospital parking fines

IAS93

Dear all,

I'll try and make this quick but I need some advice on a 'Letter of Claim' received from DCBL representing DPO/GroupNexus for hospital parking fines. For the record, I am a medical doctor who commenced at this hospital from August 2017 to July 2018. According to this letter I received 17 parking fines to a total amount due of £2550.00 (I know this is ridiculous). I have moved around a lot of times between hospitals for my training so my address has always been changing. When I started at the Trust there was a delay in receiving my parking permit and I had to park in the staff car park as I had no other option. 

Anyways, as per advice from this forum I sent DPO/GroupNexus a SAR which they didn't reply to, I also sent a letter to DCBL who replied with:
"Please note, our Client issued the Parking Charge Notice to you on 4th August 2017 for being parked in a restricted area and the other Parking Charge Notice’s were issued for not displaying a valid pay & display ticket, permit or scratch card on the day of each event. Our Client issued each Parking Charge to you correctly and the time to appeal has now lapsed.

 

We have been instructed on behalf of our Client to collect the balance of £2550.00 as per the Letter of Claim. You now have 30 days from the date of this email, at which point the balance will be due. You can seek debt advice during this time."

Now as a medical doctor receiving parking fines in the hospital I'm working at, I know it sounds quite ridiculous. I have been trying to get in touch with the General Managers at the hospital for some evidence to be used if taken to court. Now, my questions are :

1. What (evidence) do I need in the event I get taken to court?

2. Do I have a chance in this case, or should I just pay up? (I really don't want too pay, it would be difficult financially)

3. Should I get a solicitor?

Thank you all for your time reading this,

Best Wishes,

Doc I

Half_way

You have not been fined, who/what is the name of the private parking contractor the hospital use?

 Have you read up on the NHS parking principles for Staff, patients and Visitors, its here:

 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nhs-patient-visitor-and-staff-car-parking-principles/nhs-patient-visitor-and-staff-car-parking-principles

So:

 1: should be covered in the newbies thread, you said there was a delay in obtaining your permit, does this mean you were parked with permission

2: do you have a chance if you were directed to park there by the hospital then yes.

 should you pay - definitely not, also odds on they have added additional charges also known as double recovery and/or abuse of process.

3: Solicitor - you will need one that specialises in private parking these are few and far between, others who post on here are far more knowledgable and have actual experience in dealing with Parking companies in court 

Coupon-mad

1. What (evidence) do I need in the event I get taken to court? 

Better showing your evidence of being a permitted doctor, NOW and getting your MP (and others, see below) involved.

2. Do I have a chance in this case, or should I just pay up? (I really don't want too pay, it would be difficult financially) 

  We win almost every case!!  No paying.

3. Should I get a solicitor?

No need.   

Reply robustly to DCBLegal and copy in your MP and make a formal complaint to the CEO of that NHS Trust.  Also, tell your MP about the new Parking (Code of Practice) Act 2019 which is working on new rules to come in next year ('the Knight Act ').  Ask your MP to step in and email Robert Jenrick and Sir Greg Knight and ask those MPs between them, to find out what on earth the Department of Health & Social Care's Hospital Car Parking Program Board is doing if they are letting the BPA and IPC steer their meetings in favour of what the parking industry want (Jeez...) and are not staying up to speed with the new 'Knight Act'.  

I recall reading the BPA and IPC Tweet about the first meeting of that 'program board' about a year ago and despaired that the NHS and Dept for Health were giving them such a voice on such a critical area of parking policy.   There should be NO WAY that a Doctor, nurse or other staff member can be sued.  It is easy to exempt staff, without paper permits.  If ANPR firms can't do that then they are not fit for purpose.

I wonder if Group Nexus are proud of this sort of crap?

The NHS Trusts appear to have no fair and reasonable control over their contractors.

Fancy publicity to shame these scumbags?  

Email Piers Morgan.  

He has been scathing about this scam by horrific NHS parking firms. DON'T Let him offer to pay it. NO-ONE SHOULD BE PAYING THIS.

If you don't do the above you will get a court claim and we will help you defend (and win, because your defence is there is no legitimate interest behind the charges) but do you know what, I want MPs to learn about this NOW.  And I want the CEO of the NHS Trust to hear about this crap.

Coupon-mad

Just found a new NHS Briefing paper from this week, which gives a load of stats (stats and no substance) that suggests to me that no-one has joined up the dots between the Knight Act (MHCLG) and the NHS car parking policy (Dept for Health).  It is ridiculous that the Dept for Health are making 'parking policy' decisions without any regard being paid for the progress of (or even the existence of) the Knight Act and the new Code of Practice designed to stop the worst practices of the parking industry.

It is as if Hospital car parks are on another planet.

Umkomaas

They were clearly using the full extent of the grey matter endowed upon them when they came up with this pearl:

Cars offer generally faster travel times to acute hospitals

Modelled journey times from residential neighbourhoods to acute hospitals show that they are quicker for most of the population to reach by car than public transport, cycling or walking. In 2017, an estimated 99.7% of the population could access an acute hospital by car within 60 minutes, compared to 86.2% of cyclists and 87.2% of people walking or travelling by public transport.

I'd certainly pit my car against any patient with an acute need trying to beat me to the hospital by walking ....... or even cycling! 🤦‍♂️

Coupon-mad

It reads to me as though someone is blinding the Dept for Health's ''NHS Parking Program Board'' with statistics to avoid talking about the elephant in the room...the fact that Wales and Scotland manage to operate their car parks free (except for a handful of rip-off idiotic schemes signed years ago which sign their rights away to parking firms and industry who are in it for the money).

I did notice that Wales has said that, regarding enforcement, any charges for breach should be no more than the sum charged by the local authority.  

I bet the BPA and IPC haven't drawn that to the Program Board's attention and suggested it should also be the case in England and Scotland.  

Redx

the DPO at Nexus has 30 days to respond to your SAR, if its longer then email a chase up query about the SAR and give 7 days to reply or you will report NEXUS to the ICO

its your right under GDPR, dont let it lie, chase

IAS93

Coupon-mad said:

1. What (evidence) do I need in the event I get taken to court? 

Better showing your evidence of being a permitted doctor, NOW and getting your MP (and others, see below) involved.

2. Do I have a chance in this case, or should I just pay up? (I really don't want too pay, it would be difficult financially) 

  We win almost every case!!  No paying.

3. Should I get a solicitor?

No need.   

Reply robustly to DCBLegal and copy in your MP and make a formal complaint to the CEO of that NHS Trust.  Also, tell your MP about the new Parking (Code of Practice) Act 2019 which is working on new rules to come in next year ('the Knight Act ').  Ask your MP to step in and email Robert Jenrick and Sir Greg Knight and ask those MPs between them, to find out what on earth the Department of Health & Social Care's Hospital Car Parking Program Board is doing if they are letting the BPA and IPC steer their meetings in favour of what the parking industry want (Jeez...) and are not staying up to speed with the new 'Knight Act'.  

I recall reading the BPA and IPC Tweet about the first meeting of that 'program board' about a year ago and despaired that the NHS and Dept for Health were giving them such a voice on such a critical area of parking policy.   There should be NO WAY that a Doctor, nurse or other staff member can be sued.  It is easy to exempt staff, without paper permits.  If ANPR firms can't do that then they are not fit for purpose.

I wonder if Group Nexus are proud of this sort of crap?

The NHS Trusts appear to have no fair and reasonable control over their contractors.

Fancy publicity to shame these scumbags?  

Email Piers Morgan.  

He has been scathing about this scam by horrific NHS parking firms. DON'T Let him offer to pay it. NO-ONE SHOULD BE PAYING THIS.

If you don't do the above you will get a court claim and we will help you defend (and win, because your defence is there is no legitimate interest behind the charges) but do you know what, I want MPs to learn about this NOW.  And I want the CEO of the NHS Trust to hear about this crap.

Thank you very much for this reply. Honestly its outrageous. I'm not a person who complains alot but with COVID and the hours we are having to putting at the hospitals at the moment, to coming home and receiving appalling letters like this - it's just completely unacceptable. 

Being a member of staff/ or a patient should be enough for an exemption, but now I'm being fined over £2,500 for showing up to work and looking after sick patients.
I will be e-mailing my local MP, and the person(s) you have mentioned.

Again, thank you for your advice. I will keep you all posted with regards to updates. 

beamerguy

We have been instructed on behalf of our Client to collect the balance of £2550.00 as per the Letter of Claim. You now have 30 days from the date of this email, at which point the balance will be due. You can seek debt advice during this time."

Could you please list the breakdown of £2550 as DCBL are well known scammers

Half_way

One other quick thing, you haven't been fined

IAS93

Half_way said:

One other quick thing, you haven't been fined

Haha yes I know, it's just being hit with a £2550 fine and seeing a large proportion of LOCs being taken to court. It's just something I don't have the time to be dealing with. Thank you for your help.