Hey
guys,
A
friend has received a PCN from Park Watch and I have offered to look into it
for him. I look at these pages from time to time for info and they have helped
me a lot in the past so thanks to all the volunteers for all your hard work and
words of wisdom.
In mid-December he was out and about with his son in Rugby, Warwickshire and took longer than
expected so was concerned that his sugar levels were dropping due to his
diabetes. To be on the safe side he needed to get some food pretty quickly so dropped his son off to
buy a hot dog and told him he would ring him to arrange a pick-up point. After
driving around, he couldn't find anywhere to park so pulled into the Service
Area of Rugby Central Shopping Centre 50 yards from where he had dropped his son off. Once stopped he gave
him a quick call and told him to walk down the road and hop in. Rather than
break the law, by eating on the move, when his son arrived, they quickly ate
the hot dogs before going on their merry way. He never turned the engine
off or left the vehicle. He was only there a few minutes and no vehicles
entered or left the area during that time so there was no obstruction caused.
This is day zero.
Day 8 a PCN arrived from Park Watch issued on Day 6 demanding £100 with CCTV
stills showing his vehicle.
My friend admits that he meant to challenge/appeal the invoice but misplaced it with
all the rush of Xmas. He only found it (in his printer scanner of all places!)
when he received a Reminder Notice on day 37 dated Day 35. Unfortunately, he
has missed the 28 day “appeal window” although I doubt it’s worth bothering anyway
and from everything I have read it is a notional time period made up by the PPC?
So far, he has not engaged with the company in anyway. He took some photos and
I can upload or paste redacted copies of the letters if anyone would care to
have a look.
My advice to him has been to ignore it until such time as he receives a court
summons. The “Do Nothing Approach” as it is known. Please correct me if I’m wrong.
Having spent a few hours perusing the forums if they do pursue the matter there are, I believe, some interesting anomalies and
potential areas of weakness with their signage but I’m sure you experts will
put me straight. 😊
1) Despite stating a Parking Charge of £100 there is no machine or any
indication of how to pay for the parking as it is not a car park. It is a Delivery
Yard that services the backs of the shops in the shopping precinct. They are
nearly all closed at the moment. How can you pay if there are no details of how
to? How can you have a sign stating “No Parking” and at the same time “Parking
Charge £100?” I have copied this defence from a pepipoo thread and wonder if it
applies to my friend:
“- the sign about 'no parking' is prohibitive
and does not offer any consideration/any licence to park at all, so the
contractual breach cannot apply in this case - you cannot breach a contract
never offered."
2) The sign nearest to where he stopped incorrectly states
that Park Watch manage the site on behalf of “Clock Towers Shopping Centre.” It
became “Rugby Central Shopping Centre” in 2017. Neither exists as a company
that I can find.
3) Other signs further away state that “Defence-Systems Limited T/A Park Watch”
is authorised by the landowner etc….
I believe that another thread brought up the issue of Park Watch being a
completely separate registered company to Defence-Systems and therefore not allowed
to harvest keeper data from the DVLA in a breach of Data Protection nor is it a
member of the BPA despite its logos stating that it is but it is unclear how
this played out although the £60 payment was refunded:
(I can't post a link as I'm a 10 year old noob but just search MSE for "Defence-Systems Limited" and "Park Watch" and "Rugby")
I’m not sure if this thread is still relevant five years later?
So what next please? What do we do now? Any advice appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
