County Court Claim - NCP Parking outstayed by 20 mins

KeithP

Monseymoo said:

I believe that the facts stated in this defence are true. I understand that proceedings for contempt of court may be brought against anyone who makes, or causes to be made, a false statement in a document verified by a statement of truth without an honest belief in its truth.

As well as copying and pasting stuff, you do need to think just a little bit.   

That statement, at the bottom of your Witness Statement, states that you believe this Defence to be true.

Monseymoo

Thanks @Jenni_D that makes sense I found the version and its paragraph 13.3 which states:
"13.3 Where a parking location is one where a limited period of parking is permitted, or where drivers contract to park for a defined period and pay for that service in advance (Pay & Display), this would be considered as a parking event and a Grace Period of at least 10 minutes must be added to the end of a parking event before you issue a PCN."

As a result I've updated my paragraph to now read
10. Paragraph 13 of the CoP version 8 (current at the time of my parking) clearly states that a grace period is to be applied to parking. The CoP makes clear that such grace periods are to be applied both at the start of any parking period and also at the end of any parking period. The whole point of these grace periods is to allow drivers time to find a parking space and to read the signage prior to commencement of the period of parking, and time to exit the carpark once they have finished parking. Grace periods are not defined, but the CoP requires them to be "a minimum of 10 minutes" either side of the actual parking (paragraphs 13.3). It is worthy of note that the recommendation is a minimum of 10 minutes, not a maximum. 

The only paragraphs I have now copied are the CoP which is relevant then the statement of truth.  I know its not long but I'm not clear what else I can really add other than going on about how many people were in the queue at the time in customer services whilst I waited to get my wallet after being handed in, the weather - it was raining and windy causing more havoc to getting a brolly up and panicking if my wallet was someone in on the floor?  Should I be adding other references to cases that I quoted previously in my defence or is the information I put in my defence enough to be included alongside this WS?  I'm not sure I should be asking for compensation but then is it worth a go I'm not sure - sorry Im feeling the pressure here and just want to give it my best shot 
@Coupon-mad @Redx @Le_Kirk @KeithP

Monseymoo

Ok guys update I have been through their WS and found a few holes:

1 - they have stated that CoP state that 

“Pursuant to the paragraph 13.3 Code of Practice, the grace period allowed for up to 10 minutes for the Defendant to vacate the Car Park”

The actual text from the CoP at the time states the following which is not reflecting of their statement above:

“13.3 Where a parking location is one where a limited period of parking is permitted, or where drivers contract to park for a defined period and pay for that service in advance (Pay & Display), this would be considered as a parking event and a Grace Period of at least 10 minutes must be added to the end of a parking event before you issue a PCN.”

As such I have added a new paragraph in to call this out see paragraph 11 in my updated statement below these paragraphs.

2 - I overstayed by 21 mins paying from 11.10am leaving at 12.31, I entered the car park at 11.07am in their WS they ahve stated:

"It is irrelevant whether she lost her wallet, she could have simply increased her parking by accessing paybyphone application and making payment to cover for the additional 24 minutes"

 I have therefore added another paragraph to call this inaccuracy out in paragraph 12 below.

I have also beefed up the main paragraph around the events in paragraph 4 but would be really grateful for anymore feedback???

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Updated WS feedback please:

In the County Court at XXXXX
Claim No. XXXXXX
Between
National Car Parks Limited
and
XXXXXX(Defendant)

Witness Statement

1. I am xxxx xxxxx, of xx xxx Road, Bournemouth, xxxx xxx the Defendant in this matter. I will say as follows:

2. On 26th January 2020, I parked my vehicle registration No. xxxxx in the NCP car park at Bournemouth Terrace Road, Bournemouth, BH2 5NN.

3. I purchased a ticket using the Paybyphone app on my mobile for 1 hour of parking starting at 11.10am.

4. I entered the local town from the car park and carried out some shopping, around 50 minutes later I returned to my vehicle.  Upon entering my vehicle and opening my bag I realised that my purse was not in my bag.  Understandably concerned I first went through my vehicle floor to see if it had fallen out of my bag.  Upon not finding my purse I then began to retrace my steps from the car park back into the Primark shopping center lift (photograph Exhibit A) which takes a customer to the main level of the shopping store at address :

Primark

48 - 54 Commercial Road

Bournemouth

United Kingdom

BH2 5LR

During this time I carefully was checking the ground in case the purse had fallen out.  Its worth noting that on the day in question the weather was bad with heavy rain and strong winds, trying to look on the ground retracing my steps for my purse in such conditions added time.  I approached the security guard in the entrance of the store and asked if a purse had been handed in, I was asked to go to customer services where a purse had been recorded.  Given it was a busy Sunday and the store is incredibly big (Exhibit B showing size of the store) I then made my way upstairs to the customer services area where I had to queue for at least 5 minutes.  I was then asked to identify personal items in the purse to validate my identify which I did, I then returned back to my vehicle using the lift up into the car park.

5. I got into my vehicle extremely grateful but understandably distressed following the concern over the potential loss of money and personal items within my purse.  The car park at the time of returning was very busy given it was peak shopping time on a Sunday.  The access between spaces is very tight and there is not much space for people waiting for spaces to sit in their vehicles (Exhibit C).  Due to the busyness of the car park I had to maneuver around other vehicles waiting to park and others exiting which also added to the time it took for me to exit, which was recorded by photo at 12.31pm.

6.  Purchasing another ticket after losing my purse was at the time the last thing I was considering given the immediate panic and distress I was under. 

 

7. I have included evidence of my purchased ticket in the car park (Exhibit D).

8. I have contacted Primark to ask for any evidence of the property being handed in however have been advised that all property logs are destroyed after 3 months.

9.  I have considered the Code of Practice ("CoP") of the British Parking Association ("BPA"), of which the Claimant is an accredited member. A copy of paragraph 13 of the CoP, which relates to grace periods. In order to be an accredited member of the BPA, compliance with the CoP is compulsory.  The significance of being a member of the BPA and subscribing to its CoP is that the Claimant is only entitled to ask the DVLA for the details of a car’s registered keeper if it is a member (so without membership a private parking company would not be able to function without the ability to trace drivers/registered keepers).

10. Paragraph 13 of the CoP version 8 (current at the time of my parking) clearly states that a grace period is to be applied to parking. The CoP makes clear that such grace periods are to be applied both at the start of any parking period and also at the end of any parking period. The whole point of these grace periods is to allow drivers time to find a parking space and to read the signage prior to commencement of the period of parking, and time to exit the carpark once they have finished parking. Grace periods are not defined, but the CoP requires them to be "at least 10 minutes" (paragraphs 13.3). It is worthy of note that the recommendation is a minimum of 10 minutes, not a maximum. 

 

11. In the Witness Statement from the Claimant dated 2nd June 2021, paragraph 21 states

“Pursuant to the paragraph 13.3 Code of Practice, the grace period allowed for up to 10 minutes for the Defendant to vacate the Car Park”

This is not accurate I have added below the actual wording from the Code of Practice as below from section 13.3:

“13.3 Where a parking location is one where a limited period of parking is permitted, or where drivers contract to park for a defined period and pay for that service in advance (Pay & Display), this would be considered as a parking event and a Grace Period of at least 10 minutes must be added to the end of a parking event before you issue a PCN.”

This clearly shows that a driver should be given at least not up to 10 minutes at the end of any car parking paid to leave the car park.

 

12. Additionally in paragraph 46 of the Claimants Witness Statement it states that I overstayed my parking by 24 minutes.  The parking was purchased at 11.10am therefore the overstay was actually 21 minutes not 24 putting more inaccuracy to the claim made against me.

 

13.  Having made recent contact with BW Legal they have refused to see reason for the unfortunate circumstances and that additional reasonable grace periods of time in such circumstances should be provided.


14. The Court is invited to dismiss the claim and to award my costs of dealing with this claim and attendance at the hearing, such as are allowable pursuant to CPR 27.14 (Exhibit E summarising my costs related to this case).

I believe that the facts stated in this defence are true. I understand that proceedings for contempt of court may be brought against anyone who makes, or causes to be made, a false statement in a document verified by a statement of truth without an honest belief in its truth.

Included in this Witness Statement are Exhibits references above in the relevant paragraphs and are summarised as follows:

Exhibit A – Photo of the car park and lift access to the main shopping area

Exhibit B – Photo of the Primark store where the purse had been located

Exhibit C – Photo of the car park showing limited space for waiting customers

Exhibit D – Evidence of the payment to the NCP car park on the 26th January 2021

Exhibit E - Personal costs 


Signature

Date

Le_Kirk

Your statement of truth for your witness statement still says "defence".

Jenni_D

Exhibits should be your initials followed by an index. e.g. if your name was Money Moo then you'd have MM01, MM02 etc.

Monseymoo

@Le_Kirk I found the Statement of Truth on the newbies page for 6th April 2020 onwards as this is this not correct?

That template defence is new for 2020. From the 6 April 2020 a statement of truth at the end of a defence must now be in the following form:

I believe that the facts stated in this defence are true. I understand that proceedings for contempt of court may be brought against anyone who makes, or causes to be made, a false statement in a document verified by a statement of truth without an honest belief in its truth.

Monseymoo

@Jenni_D thanks Ive updated to reflect my initials followed by 01, 02 etc
Anything else you think I should be adding?

Coupon-mad

Monseymoo said:

@Le_Kirk I found the Statement of Truth on the newbies page for 6th April 2020 onwards as this is this not correct?

That template defence is new for 2020. From the 6 April 2020 a statement of truth at the end of a defence must now be in the following form:

I believe that the facts stated in this defence are true. I understand that proceedings for contempt of court may be brought against anyone who makes, or causes to be made, a false statement in a document verified by a statement of truth without an honest belief in its truth.

Obviously NOT for the witness statement...that's been said to you 3 times now and there is a section about witness statements in the NEWBIES thread.

Why don't you just look at the example WS by @jrhys?

KeithP

Monseymoo said:

@Le_Kirk I found the Statement of Truth on the newbies page for 6th April 2020 onwards as this is this not correct?

That template defence is new for 2020. From the 6 April 2020 a statement of truth at the end of a defence must now be in the following form:

I believe that the facts stated in this defence are true. I understand that proceedings for contempt of court may be brought against anyone who makes, or causes to be made, a false statement in a document verified by a statement of truth without an honest belief in its truth.

If you are writing a Defence then the first sentence of the Statement of Truth should be, as you say, I believe that the facts stated in this Defence are true.

But as you are writing a Witness Statement, the first sentence of the Statement of Truth should be I believe that the facts stated in this Witness Statement are true.

Monseymoo

@Coupon-mad sorry my fault entirely Ive found it and updated it 

Anymore thoughts and feedback to below?

In the County Court at XXXXX
Claim No. XXXXXX
Between
National Car Parks Limited
and
XXXXXX(Defendant)

Witness Statement

1. I am xxxx xxxxx, of xx xxx Road, Bournemouth, xxxx xxx the Defendant in this matter. I will say as follows:

2. On 26th January 2020, I parked my vehicle registration No. xxxxx in the NCP car park at Bournemouth Terrace Road, Bournemouth, BH2 5NN.

3. I purchased a ticket using the Paybyphone app on my mobile for 1 hour of parking starting at 11.10am.

4. I entered the local town from the car park and carried out some shopping, around 50 minutes later I returned to my vehicle.  Upon entering my vehicle and opening my bag I realised that my purse was not in my bag.  Understandably concerned I first went through my vehicle floor to see if it had fallen out of my bag.  Upon not finding my purse I then began to retrace my steps from the car park back into the Primark shopping center lift (SS01 - photograph) which takes a customer to the main level of the shopping store at address :

Primark

48 - 54 Commercial Road

Bournemouth

United Kingdom

BH2 5LR

During this time I carefully was checking the ground in case the purse had fallen out.  It’s worth noting that on the day in question the weather was bad with heavy rain and strong winds, trying to look on the ground retracing my steps for my purse in such conditions added time.  I approached the security guard in the entrance of the store and asked if a purse had been handed in, I was asked to go to customer services where a purse had been recorded.  Given it was a busy Sunday and the store is incredibly big (SS02 - showing size of the store) I then made my way upstairs to the customer services area where I had to queue for at least 5 minutes.  I was then asked to identify personal items in the purse to validate my identify which I did, I then returned back to my vehicle using the lift up into the car park.

5. I got into my vehicle extremely grateful but understandably distressed following the concern over the potential loss of money and personal items within my purse.  The car park at the time of returning was very busy given it was peak shopping time on a Sunday.  The access between spaces is very tight and there is not much space for people waiting for spaces to sit in their vehicles (SS03).  Due to the busyness of the car park I had to maneuver around other vehicles waiting to park and others exiting which also added to the time it took for me to exit, which was recorded by photo at 12.31pm.

6.  Purchasing another ticket after losing my purse was at the time the last thing I was considering given the immediate panic and distress I was under. 

 

7. I have included evidence of my purchased ticket in the car park (SS04).

8. I have contacted Primark to ask for any evidence of the property being handed in however have been advised that all property logs are destroyed after 3 months.

9.  I have considered the Code of Practice ("CoP") of the British Parking Association ("BPA"), of which the Claimant is an accredited member. A copy of paragraph 13 of the CoP, which relates to grace periods. In order to be an accredited member of the BPA, compliance with the CoP is compulsory.  The significance of being a member of the BPA and subscribing to its CoP is that the Claimant is only entitled to ask the DVLA for the details of a car’s registered keeper if it is a member (so without membership a private parking company would not be able to function without the ability to trace drivers/registered keepers).

10. Paragraph 13 of the CoP version 8 (current at the time of my parking) clearly states that a grace period is to be applied to parking. The CoP makes clear that such grace periods are to be applied both at the start of any parking period and also at the end of any parking period. The whole point of these grace periods is to allow drivers time to find a parking space and to read the signage prior to commencement of the period of parking, and time to exit the carpark once they have finished parking. Grace periods are not defined, but the CoP requires them to be "at least 10 minutes" (paragraphs 13.3). It is worthy of note that the recommendation is a minimum of 10 minutes, not a maximum. 

 

11. In the Witness Statement from the Claimant dated 2nd June 2021, paragraph 21 states

“Pursuant to the paragraph 13.3 Code of Practice, the grace period allowed for up to 10 minutes for the Defendant to vacate the Car Park”

This is not accurate I have added below the actual wording from the Code of Practice as below from section 13.3:

“13.3 Where a parking location is one where a limited period of parking is permitted, or where drivers contract to park for a defined period and pay for that service in advance (Pay & Display), this would be considered as a parking event and a Grace Period of at least 10 minutes must be added to the end of a parking event before you issue a PCN.”

This clearly shows that a driver should be given at least not up to 10 minutes at the end of any car parking paid to leave the car park.

 

12. Additionally in paragraph 46 of the Witness Statement from the Claimant it states that I overstayed my parking by 24 minutes.  The parking was purchased at 11.10am therefore the overstay was actually 21 minutes not 24 putting more inaccuracy to the claim made against me.

 

13.  Having made recent contact with BW Legal they have refused to see reason for the unfortunate circumstances and that additional reasonable grace periods of time in such circumstances should be provided.


14. The Court is invited to dismiss the claim and to award my costs of dealing with this claim and attendance at the hearing, such as are allowable pursuant to CPR 27.14 (SS05 summarising my costs related to this case).

I believe that the facts stated in this witness statement are true. I understand that proceedings for contempt of court may be brought against anyone who makes, or causes to be made, a false statement in a document verified by a statement of truth without an honest belief in its truth.

Included in this Witness Statement are Exhibits references above in the relevant paragraphs and are summarised as follows:

·       SH01 – Photo of the car park and lift access to the main shopping area

·       SH02 – Photo of the Primark store where the purse had been located showing the size of store leading to time delays in obtaining the purse at Customer Services

·       SH03 – Photo of the car park showing limited space for waiting customers

·       SH04 – Evidence of the payment to the NCP car park on the 26th January 2021

·       SH05 – Summary Costs Assessment

 

 

Signature

Date