Victory for Motorists: MHCLG Caps Parking Charges at £50 (£80 in London) with Mandatory 50% Discount

Coupon-mad

A decent, honest enterprise for a car park owner.  We need to see more like that.

Fruitcake

Christie Estates have just done this in Devon. They kicked out DSFP following a campaign by locals, removed the ANPR scameras, and have formed their own MC to manage and patrol the P & D car park with estate employees.
DSFP of course are now getting DCB Ltd to issue free bog paper like there has been another run on it (pun intended) at supermarkets.
It will however take a while for people to realise the scammers have gone, and for confidence to return so the damage to businesses and the landowner's reputation can be repaired.

A landowner several miles away opened a free car park, and before lockdown had payed to almost double the size, saying it was now twice as free. Locals and local businesses love him.

henrik777

MothballsWallet said:

Umkomaas said:

Yacht - For Sale
Bentley - For Sale
Aston Martin - For Sale
Range Rover - For Sale
Gymkhana Ponies - For Sale
WAGS - Leaving
Waitrose Account - Closed
Nearest Kwik Save? 🥴

Oh dear!

You know, this is just my personal experience, but I see quite a few Mercedes, Audi, BMW drivers using our local Lidl, so it makes me wonder: did they spend so much money on a nice car that they now have to spend much less on groceries?

Maybe they're German or prefer German things ?

I remember when Lidl/Aldi first began to appear, snobs used to be hiding from their "friends" in these stores. The way some minds work really puzzles me.

Coupon-mad

Well one article has been published, following the BPA and IPC sending out a press release:

https://www.cittimagazine.co.uk/news/legislation-regulation/uk-government-parking-code-unworkable-trade-associations-claim.html


And here's the latest BPA News, alleging that 'public opinion has been ignored'...
Yes, they really do have the brass neck to perpetuate the myth that the consultation submissions that their own members bombarded the MHCLG and BSI with, are indicative of 'public opinion' when they know full well that's untrue.  The 81% included their own members, responding as if they were the public (we all saw that when we put in our own responses to the BSI, the copied & pasted spelling mistakes were there to be seen in October):

https://www.britishparking-media.co.uk/news/public-opinion-ignored-as-government-proposes-measures-that-make-managing-private-parking-unworkable

Steve Clark, BPA Director of Operations and Business Development said, “The last year has provided us with overwhelming evidence that lower penalties allow for antisocial behaviour from some motorists seeking to find a parking space as close to their destination as possible. The government’s announcement to lower the charges that can be issued on private land, is therefore nonsensical.
“Government must rethink this. Nobody wants the supermarkets and the retail sector to be forced to charge their customers for parking because of the inability for them to control abuse of spaces with a deterrent that is ineffective.”

Obviously the public DID NOT vote for 40% discount and a 3 tier system with extortionate 3 figure sums and a false '3rd tier' paying lip service to minor invented 'breaches' that were not even parking-related, in some cases (''selling goods from a car...parking in a bicycle bay''...I seem to recall). 

No, the public didn't support any of that - get real, APAs.  Let's have some honesty now.  The public and consumer groups, MPs and Motoring organisations consistently called for £50/£70 or thereabouts, with higher charges in London being suggested by some. 

Given that we know that the cost of sending a NTK/PCN and then handling an appeal is well under £20 (because Excel settle for £10 and UKPC and others settle for £15 even now, when landowners complain) and that there only needs to be one or two more letters to be posted before a court claim, clearly £50 more than covers all the costs directly flowing from an individual's conduct - and creates a tidy profit. 

What it doesn't do, is enrich them and the landowners the way they are used to (oh dear).  They will have to adapt and stop concentrating on penalising and bullying the public, and reinvent their contracts and act in a far more honest way (parking management not necessarily 'enforcement' being the aim) if they want to survive.  

Otherwise landowners and retailers will wake up and smell the coffee that maybe they could manage parking far more fairly and cheaply themselves.

Coupon-mad

Twitter has some interesting chat between the BPA and PCN fighters like NoToMob, ParkingCowboys and Mr Mustard:

ParkingCowboys

For companies such as ParkingEye who are set up ONLY to catch overstays, this will severely impact their income.·

Mar 22

Quite rightly, genuine serious bad parking e.g. blocking fire escape, blue badge abuse will be open to a higher charge of £100. Perhaps companies like ParkingEye will need to actually employ some parking attendants to spot these GENUINE cases of bad parking?

·

Mar 22

And the cherry on the cake is that all this positive reform is going to be paid for by the parking operators!

Mar 22

Now I bet some in the industry may be finding it hard to sleep on the back of all this good news. Perhaps they might like a bedtime story. Perhaps they could try this... http://read.gov/aesop/091.html#:~:text=There%20was%20once%20a%20Countryman,soon%20began%20to%20get%20rich…


Care to comment @BritishParking? I would ask @_TheIPC but I can’t because they blocked us!

BritishParking

Mar 24

We've published a statement

Government consultation response heralds the end of free parking for everyone

The two trade associations representing UK parking operators have expressed serious concern following publication of the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government’s response

NoToMob

Mar 24

Such delicious irony where BPA Ltd and IPC Ltd join forces to tell the government they don't know what they're doing. Funniest thing we've seen in ages thanks.

   

BritishParking

Mar 26

Perhaps they should have listened to the public who overwhelmingly asked for something different

Public opinion ignored as government proposes measures that make managing private parking unworkable

ParkingCowboys

Mar 26

The public isn’t a self selecting group of respondents to a government consultation. As they said to you, they were looking at quality of feedback not quantity

BritishParking

Replying to ParkingCowboys

What they've overlooked are the unintended consequences of this proposal - the public will now find it harder to find spaces to park, and pay more when they do.

_MrMustard

·

Mar 26

Replying to

BritishParking

ParkingCowboys

the unintended consequences of stopping knuckle dragging clampers have cost the public £billions


.

beamerguy

Thanks coupon for the links above.

WOW, Steve Clark intent of driving standards down ?  He is now proving to government that the BPA supports the current scam. The man is not only nonsensical himself but his comments are idiotic. One can only assume that government will not listen to his twaddle

As Sir Greg said " I can assure you that both Members of Parliament and Ministers are not so naïve that they would allow duplicated representations to the consultation to throw us off course."

What part of this does CLARK not understand ??

Calling the government nonsensical will go down like a lead bullet ?

And supermarkets charging themselves for parking ? how stupid is that, supermarkets want business not drive it away

Government must now consider if the BPA and IPC are fit for purpose

Umkomaas

Here's an interesting BBC Money Box podcast from yesterday. Includes an interview with Eddie Hughes MP of MHCLG (who continues to speak of fines and penalties) and with Steve Clark of the BPA who while painting a veil of welcome for the new arrangements, revealed the obvious panic on the PPC front, even suggesting that some of them might go out of business (sob, sob 😭) or that they might turn rogue (how does a rogue turn rogue?) and start sticking parking tickets on windscreens (obviously no DVLA access, so that's not likely to keep the yacht afloat!). 

More dire predictions of carmageddon (#2), all of us having to pay in future for hitherto free parking at supermarkets and those outside London thinking that £25 per day (50% of) PCN will find it 'economic', and those in London at £40 per day.  All sounded a bit desperate. 

Scroll forward to 15:45 minutes. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000tmb4

Half_way

I've often wondered what the point of the BPA/IPC etc is, if  a significant number motorists will pay a  yellow envelope then why bother going to the DVLA when the motorist will either pay up, or hand the information over on a plate? 

 

As for the rest of it, i've noticed on here more people posting that they are in the court process/court process starting phase as opposed to the received ticket stage PPCs last feeding frenzy?

Le_Kirk

Umkomaas said:

More dire predictions of carmageddon (#2), all of us having to pay in future for hitherto free parking at supermarkets and those outside London thinking that £25 per day (50% of) PCN will find it 'economic', and those in London at £40 per day.  All sounded a bit desperate. 

Cannot see too many supermarkets introducing payments - they are desperate for business these days!  If there is a choice of two or more supermarkets in your area, which one will you frequent, the free or the paid for?  Some round here have a "buy a ticket and get it off your bill system" but most are free and the car parks and supermarkets are generally well-used.

bargepole

The BPA and IPC are desperate, with their misleading figures and dire predictions.

They are running around like headless chickens, but should have known for some time that this was always going to be the likely outcome of this process.

Maybe if their members hadn't spent the last few years hoovering up ridiculous £100 charges for minor oversights, aggressively pursued by unlicensed debt collectors and shyster solicitor firms, they wouldn't be in a mess of their own making.