Disabled parking bay- PCN from UKPS ltd

Man0826

Dear

I was driving my 70years old disabled husband to do groceries shopping in wingyip store cricklewood last week and parked in the disable parking bay which we did displayed with the blue badge on dashboard. The car park is free up to 3 hours and we only stayed for around an hour only. And then on Friday we received a PCN from UKPS ltd (IPC member) saying unauthorised parking ,the reason why is we "without clearly displayed a valid disabled badge", the photo they attached showing the last number of the badge expired year is covered by the clock badge, (just one number)which is unknowningly to me. I guess it may slipped a bit when I knocked the car door.
And then I read through the newbies threads and sent an appeal to UKPS ltd. Of course,today I received their email and they rejected . I also wrote an complaint letter emailed to wingyip store and received no reply.  I will post my appeal letter and their respond below.   Can anyone please suggest what the next step is? What should I do now ? It is very stressful for me and my elderly disabled husband.
My appeal

Dear UKPS 

RE ticket reference xxxxx

I am the registered keeper of vehicle xxxxxx and am hereby exercising my right under IPC Code of Practice to appeal to yourselves and to IAS if you should reject this challenge.  

First, The driver will not be identified and I am now invite you to cancel the PCN as you know that I will not be naming the driver your only lawful reason to write to me no longer exists, since you cannot hold me liable under the POFA. Please do confirm you have deleted my data ,otherwise I will take my own action against you for continuing to process my data in clear contravertion of the Data Protection Act as you now have no reason to retain or process my data. 

Secondly, the keeper denies all liability to UKPS as your company clearly breaching the Equality Act 2010. You have not made a reasonable adjustment required under the Equality act with protected characteristics as you know and acknowledged that someone is disabled in the vehicle. Also, The blue badge scheme does not lawfully apply in private car parks, there is no requirement to display the badge in private car parks(although you can clearly see from the photogarph evidences, we still did displayed a valid disabled badge and may slipped a bit which unknowingly to me when I knocked the car door).  

I would like to cite a relevant case - Excel v Greenwood, Case Number 3QT60496 (4/10/2013) which was about a slipped Blue Badge, where the Judge found in favour of the defendant and held that Excel should have made a reasonable adjustment under the Equality Act anyway. 

By virtue of their disability, disabled people such as the driver/occupant can be more likely to forget or knock down our Blue Badge (more commonly than an able-bodied driver may forget or knock down any other sort of permit) but this sort of incident does not suddenly take away their lawful right to use the bay, nor does it take away the disability of course. 

Under the Equality Act 2010, the driver has 'Protected Characteristics' which extends to them the unequivocal right to use any 'reasonable adjustment' provided by any landholder/client/operator when visiting a customer-facing environment, including car parks. 

In short, the Act says that protected people and their carers can legally use any disability provision applicable to them, and in the case of a disabled bay this would be with or without a Blue Badge (the Act has nothing to say about permits and badges because the legal right is established by need). 

Any term that UKPS may have on their signs to the effect 'Blue Badges only' is null and void if the effect is to deny a disabled person the statutory right to use a reasonable adjustment without penalty. 

This continued attempt to pursue this 'charge' under these circumstances is unlawful harassment of, and direct discrimination against, a known disabled person who has clearly and reasonably established to UKPS that they are protected by the Equality Act 2010. 

In fact this is a free car park up to 3 hours and I was parked for around one hour, meaning UKPS/landowner had received no loss. I know that UKPS do not own this car park and you are acting merely as agents for the landowner/occupier, as a company UKPS has specifically breached your legal duties (and the on-site operative has breached his individual duties) under the 'EHRC Equality Act Code of Practice for Service Providers' which has been law since 2011. 'Service Provider' is a term loosely associated with UKPS and certainly applies to your landowner/occupier client in this car park, who will be receiving my formal compliant too. 

Last but not least, I am strongly request your company to cancel the PCN against me and choose your reply carefully as I am keeping all your letters safe in case they are needed in court. I will also reserved the right to claim against you after the event, since the remedy for Equality Act 2010 breach is monetary damages with far more legal backing than your Notice. 

I await your cancellation. 

Yours,  

And their reply:

FULL & FINAL RESPONSE WITHOUT PREJUDICE:

Thank you for your recent communication concerning the above Parking Charge. Please rest assured that our Appeals Manager has personally reviewed this case and carefully considered the various points raised. Their view, however, is that the Parking Charge is neither unreasonable nor unjust and so we will not be waiving this parking charge.

This is PRIVATE LAND that the landlord has installed parking regulations. One of the site terms and conditions stipulate that any vehicle using a disabled Blue Badge bay must CLEARLY display BOTH parts of the cards. Our Operative provided the following report:
"Vehicle parked & left unattended in a disabled badge holders bay. A blue badge was partially displayed with a time disc placed over the year, therefore the date couldn’t be verified and validated.
Unauthorised parking."
Therefore, the driver of the vehicle was in DIRECT CONTRAVENTION of the site terms and conditions. The signs are clear and have been audited and approved by the trade governing body, the IPC.

UKPS Ltd is still trying to resolve the situation and still willing to accept the reduced rate fee of £60, this offer is available for the next 14 days after which it will revert to the balance without the price reduction.

The contract that UKPS Limited has with the owner or occupier of the land (which authorises UKPS Limited to enter into a contract with the driver requiring the payment of Parking Charges in respect of parking of the vehicle on the land) contains a confidentially clause and as such we are not in a position to provide the contract to you.

As a member of the Approved Operator Scheme, UKPS Limited are audited by the IPC to ensure that we have all relevant contracts in place. UKPS Limited will provide the court with a copy of this in full if they require it, or can provide a written statement to this effect from those party to the contract. We are also more than happy to provide confirmation to the independent assessors that we are authorised to manage parking at this site. We can confirm that parking management at this site has been contracted to UKPS Limited.

All of our signage is fully compliant with the guidelines set our within the IPC Code of Practice and we reject the notion that it is in any way unclear or ambiguous.

The highest court in the UK, the Supreme Court, has unambiguously confirmed that parking charges issued on private land are fully enforceable. In the case of ParkingEye v Beavis (2015) UKSC 67 their Lordships stated that private parking charges were enforceable because they served a legitimate interest and were in the interests of the public generally. The case confirmed that the amount of the charge does not have to reflect any loss that might have been caused by breach of the terms and conditions of parking.

The Supreme Court decision is binding law on all other courts throughout the UK.

Another Court decision: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-39478203

Please be advised that all photographic evidence can be viewed by typing:

pay.theukps.com

in to you top address browser.

We appreciate that this is not the outcome you will have hoped for. Unless you have any additional information that you have not already brought to our attention this decision is final.

In light of the contents of this letter you now have a number of options:

1. Payment offer of reduced rate for the charge above at the reduced rate of £60; to UKPS Limited. PLEASE REFER BELOW FOR PAYMENT OPTIONS AND ADDRESS DETAILS.

2. If you are not happy with our decision you can contact the IAS (www.theias.org) standard Appeals service within 21 days of this appeal being declined.

3. If you choose to do nothing the parking charge will automatically increase after 14 days from the date of this letter to £100 and the matter will be passed to our debt recovery agent, at which point you will be liable to pay an additional charge of £60, in accordance with our terms and conditions of parking and further charges will be claimed if Court action is taken against you. Any unpaid Court Judgement may adversely affect your credit rating.

PLEASE DO NOT IGNORE THIS LETTER, UKPS LIMITED REGULARLY TAKES MOTORIST TO COURT WHO IGNORE THEIR PARKING CHARGES.

Payment Methods
Bank Transfer
Account UKPS LTD
Account No: 25006760
Sort Code: 30-99-15

Or Cheque / Postal Order
UKPS Ltd
Central Office
The Hangars
Harbury Lane
Leamington Spa
CV33 9SA

Kind Regards

UKPS Ltd Appeals Team

Sorry for the long paragraph

Le_Kirk

If you have read the NEWBIE sticky - you say you have - you will know that the IAS is generally to be avoided.  You have tried Plan A (ignored by Wing Yip) and you have appealed.  You have to wait for the inevitable debt collector letters and possibly a letter of/before claim and then the court claim form.  Just make sure, if you move that you keep the PPC informed of change of address - you don't want a surprise CCJ.

Man0826

I will do nothing and wait for the LOC letter. 
I probably will go in store and bring my receipts (prove I am a genuine customer) and complaint to the store manager in the meantime.

Man0826

We are very upsetting about receiving this PCN. Just want to make sure we are following the right path.

Le_Kirk

Man0826 said:

I will do nothing and wait for the LOC letter. 
I probably will go in store and bring my receipts (prove I am a genuine customer) and complaint to the store manager in the meantime.

Quite right too.  Be careful where you park!  One assumes that Wing Yip contracted with the parking company so they are responsible for the actions of the PPC.  It may be that Wing Yip don't own the land and that the true owners organised the PPC, in which case you should ask who Wing Yip pay their rent to.

1505grandad

A heads-up  -  if you appealed as keeper only and a claim is made against you it would not be relevant to defend as such as the driver has been outed:-

"In fact this is a free car park up to 3 hours and I was parked..........."

Man0826

Thank you.
One more thing I want to add, the letter sent to my address from UKPS ltd, they spelled my first name wrong . Should I do anything about it?

Le_Kirk

Sometime they use this as a way of getting you to contact them and say things that might lead them to know the driver's name! 

D_P_Dance

Send them a copy of the badge, read this wrt protected characterists

https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/equality-act#:~:text=Protected characteristics,-Find out more&text=These are age, disability, gender,, sex, and sexual orientation.

and threaten them with a counter claim for disability discrimination if they do not cancel but take this to court,

Complain to your MP

Man0826

D_P_Dance said:

Send them a copy of the badge, read this wrt protected characterists

https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/equality-act#:~:text=Protected characteristics,-Find out more&text=These are age, disability, gender,, sex, and sexual orientation.

and threaten them with a counter claim for disability discrimination if they do not cancel but take this to court,

Complain to your MP

I will definitely try this 

Man0826

Le_Kirk said:

Sometime they use this as a way of getting you to contact them and say things that might lead them to know the driver's name! 

Luckily I asked . I almost want to correct them.