Disabled - Smart Parking Scotland

Perwinny

Just received debt collectors letter on behalf off Smart Parking from, advising parking fine from 2017 was still outstanding.
I moved in February 2020 , and for December 2020 decided on a redirection of mail to my new address for xmas. This is the first letter I have received since 2017. Do I contact Debt Collectors or not?
Disabled Badge Holder.

Coupon-mad

I say contact Smart and tell them your new address and to erase the old address. 

Also send them a copy of the Blue Badge with the first name and photo covered and state that an ''occupant of the car'' was disabled and the parking charge has no legitimate justification and the driver will not be named.  Write as the keeper in your name, but without saying who was actually driving or whose Blue Badge it is.

DO NOT CONTACT THE DEBT FIRM; THEY ARE SCUM.

I AM NOT TELLING YOU TO PHONE SMART PARKING, BY THE WAY...WE HATE IT WHEN PEOPLE DO THAT!

Meanwhile, complain to the retailer and get it cancelled.  As a Blue Badge holder you are entitled to more time when shopping and I assume this scam PCN is about an alleged 'overstay'.  That's not legal:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8488737.stm

This has been known for over a decade (that article pre-dates the Equality Act in 2010) but still retailers let horrific parking firms impose arbitrary time limits by filming every numberplate by ANPR, automatically dishing out fake parking fines.  Get your MP on board and remind him/her what Pete Wishart said in Parliamant about Smart Parking in Scotland:

https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2018-02-02/debates/CC84AF5E-AC6E-4E14-81B1-066E6A892807/Parking(CodeOfPractice)Bill

''This is a particularly useful Bill, which I strongly support. I believe that it is absolutely necessary. Private parking companies have become a curse in so many of our communities, and they are out of control in so many areas. They are a blight on communities, harassing motorists and driving tourists away from many towns and city centres. The city of Perth is plagued by these cowboys. I have received more complaints about one car park in Kinnoull Street than about any other issue in my constituency. That car park is operated by the John Wayne of all the cowboys, the appalling and loathed Smart Parking, a company that blights communities throughout Scotland, including Inverness, in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey (Drew Hendry). It distributes fines like confetti, and its so-called smart technology seems almost designed to frustrate motorists and harvest fines from them.

Self-regulation has obviously failed dramatically. The British Parking Association is as much use as a multi-storey car park in the middle of Gobi desert. The parking cowboys hide behind BPA membership to give a veneer of legitimacy. Every time I take up issues with Smart Parking, it just comes back to me and says, “We’re members of the BPA so it should be all right.”

What do our constituents think? Some 93% of participants in an RAC survey think a Bill aimed at tackling the issue is a good idea, so the right hon. Member for East Yorkshire is on to something here; 84% want fines to be proportionate to the contravention; 74% want fines capped; and 81% of motorists want a national standard on signs. The good news for the right hon. Gentleman is that 78% want a parking regulator that enforces good practice.

We have heard some of the things that should be included; I will make a couple of pitches, and I hope to serve on the Bill Committee to pursue them. When people receive PCNs, their rights should be included on them. Too often the parking cowboys dress them up as fines; they are not fines. They are not even effectively legally enforceable; what they are is a statement to say that the recipient has somehow breached the terms and conditions of using that private land, and if the parking company were to pursue them, it would have to go to the civil court and prove that they broke those terms and conditions.

I am also grateful that this will cover the whole of the United Kingdom, so that areas like mine are covered. My constituency has been particularly blighted by the parking cowboys and hopefully this will mark the beginning of their twilight months.''

BrownTrout

dpo@smartparking.com

D_P_Dance

Read what Pete Wishart MP said recently in the House of commons about Smart Parking. and complain to your own MP.

"I am sick and tired of receiving emails from people complaining about the behaviour of parking companies, telling me that they will never again visit Perth city centre because of the negative experience they had when they had the misfortune to end up in a car park operated by one of these companies. I have received more complaints about one car park in the city of Perth than about any other issue. That car park is operated by the lone ranger of the parking cowboys: the hated and appalling Smart Parking—I see that many other Members are unfortunate enough to have Smart Parking operating in their constituencies. It has reached the stage where one member of my staff now spends a good part of each day just helping my constituents and visitors to my constituency to navigate the appeals process.
…
The BPA does not have the ability to regulate these companies and has shown no sign whatsoever that it is trying to get on top of some of the sharper practices. The BPA gives a veneer of legitimacy to some of the more outlandish rogue operators by including them in their membership, allowing them to continue to operate. The Bill will oblige operators such as Smart Parking to amend their practices.

Perwinny

Thank you so much. I will write or e mail Smart Parking with the details. Hopefully that will be the end of it. Happy New Year to all!

Perwinny

Contacted DPO by e mail and changed address.
This is the e mail I got back:-

Good morning, 

Thank you for your recent communication.

Please note on the 17/01/2018, an appeal was submitted by the driver of the vehicle on the date of contravention.

Subsequently, the appeal was rejected on the 13/02/2018 via email.

Due to the length of time your PCN has been open, we have now referred this to a debt recovery company (Debt Recovery Plus) who are handling the matter on our behalf.

Please contact them directly if you wish to discuss this further.

Kind Regards,

Smart Parking Limited

Jenni_D

Hi ... I've read in the NEWBIES thread that the advice is to ignore debt collectors - wherever you are in the UK.

Can you remember if you came to this forum before making the first appeal? If yes then it is possible that you used the template appeal, so you won't have revealed who was driving. If not then you must assume that you did "out" the driver.

Regardless, still try to get a landowner cancellation (e.g. via a shop that you probably visited) but ignore anything except a formal letter before court action. As this is Scotland and only a single charge then the chances of court action following are negligible.

(Apologies to the regulars for jumping in and using your typical words)

Jenni x

Perwinny

Hi. I think the last charge was my first charge so I wasn’t sure what to do?  I sent an email to them explaining everything. Should have kept copy.
Think I then got in touch with yourself after that for advice.

KeithP

Perwinny said:

What do I do now?

Send Smart Parking a Data Subject Access Request asking them for all your personal information that they hold.
The appeal that you wrote will be amongst that.

Perwinny

Is there a specific form ? Or do I just quote this in email?

KeithP

There is guidance on how to create a SAR and where to send it at the beginning of the second post on the NEWBIES thread.