Private Parking Charge

Coupon-mad

SalveForOldSores said:

Presume if it wasn't private land, then they should be issuing a penalty charge notice ?

Well it isn't private land, not if it is owned by a traffic authority or Council. 

It is a mish mash and you are right that it SHOULD be run properly under the TMA 2004.  That was the view of the Dept of Transport and DVLA until it all went a bit quiet:

http://notomob.co.uk/discussions/index.php?topic=4861.0

You could and should send a complaint to your MP and to the City of London and ask on what basis they are operating this park as if it were private land, when it is public land and open to drivers to park, and should (according to the DFT) be operated under the TMA 2004.  Ask how this land is classified and why are they running it as if it were 'private land' when it cannot be, due to the ownership and the offer to park extended to the public.

SalveForOldSores

Corporation of London is multi- hatted. It manages both public expenditure in its role as council and private funds gifted to it by benefactors and interested parties. It may well be that this is one of the latter. A bit of web research reveals that when a guy called Adamson did an FOI request on the Corporation as to what land it owned/administered, they did everything but answer and gave him a couple of web addresses that now only yield Error 404. So, if you want to find out who owns what, you have to go to the Land Registry and cough-up for a plan inspection fee and that assumes that there is a Land Registry entry which would be contingent on there being a ownership change post the Land Registration act 1925.

KeithP

Read paragraph 3 of POFA Schedule 4.

In particular, sub-paragraph (2)(d) which states that if the land is 'provided or controlled by' the Common Council of the City of London, then any driver's liability cannot be transferred to the keeper.

If those words in bold above can be translated into the Corporation of the City of London, that is good news for the keeper if they haven't already revealed the driver's identity.

SalveForOldSores

E-mailed City of London Mayor on 10th June 2021:-

 Contact the City

Customer details

First Name********
Last Name*******
Customer Email Address******@*******.***
Telephone

Enquiry

Service Area Mansion House
EnquiryContact the Lord Mayor

Enquiry type Lord Mayor Appeal

Details Of Enquiry

Review of imposition of £70 Parking Charge Notice on Clinically Extremely Vulnerable

Vehicle keeper .
10/06/2021

Charge Reference 13428***. Lord Mayors Drive, Burnham Beeches, Slough@ 20:57, 26th
May 2021, SL2.

I am the vehicle keeper/driver.

In summary:

I have been visiting Burnham Beeches as part of my recovery and health maintenance
regime since 2011. During  the whole of that period  until recently, weekday parking  in the
Lord Mayor's Drive car park has been free/voluntary contribution.
I visited Burnham Beeches on the evening of  Wednesday 26th May 2021, for the
purposes of exercise and recreation, unaware that, during the COVID - 19 lockdown that
started in December 2020 and ended in April 2021, the City of London Corporation had
introduced weekday parking charges of £1.50 per occasion.
Because of the lockdown, I had not visited Burnham Beeches since 26th November 2020.
Consequently I wasn't aware of the change and, after completing my exercise, drove out of
the car park without paying. There are no clearly visible permanent signs at the entrance
of the car park indicating that the charges are now being imposed for weekday parking and
there's was no way, in the absence of my presence on this site that I could have become
aware.

Be advised that had I been aware that parking charges applied I would have been quite
happy to pay the very reasonable £1.50  and, do not, as a matter of habit, avoid paying
parking charges. You will appreciate that having multiple medical conditions sufficient for
UK HMG to declare me Extremely Clinically Vulnerable for the purposes of COVID - 19, I
try to avoid situations, like the one I'm describing,  were I will unnecessarily stress myself.
On 8th June 2021 I received, by post,  a Parking Charge Notice for £70 in respect of my
failure to pay from District Enforcement Limited.
I contacted District Enforcement Ltd  by E-Mail (Copied to Burnham  Beeches Park Office)
(See attached below) and asked them to review the decision given the facts that I outlined
above. District Enforcement Limited advised that, after a  review, the decision to impose
the charge stood and the Park Office advised that they were unable to help.

Therefore, I am writing to respectfully request that this charge be reviewed.
Regards,
   **** *******
End of email

And, surprisingly, I got "Batted-off" (To the City Of London Contacted Centre) by the response (Received 14/06/2021):-

Dear Mr *******

 Thank you for your email.

 You have emailed the Lord Mayor of the City of London, Alderman William Russell, at his official residence, The Mansion House.

The Mansion House does not have jurisdiction over Burnham Beeches parking rules.
 If you email my colleagues at the City of London Contact Centre I am sure they will be able to direct you to the appropriate team/Department: 

contact.centre@cityoflondon.gov.uk

 Good luck.

 Kind regards

 *****
 ***** *****-*****
Administrator and Project Co-ordinator
Mansion House
London
EC4N 8BH
http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/lordmayor
 

 As the due date for the reduced payment (£35)  was looming (15th June 2021) I immediately E-mailed the City of London Contact Centre:-

Dear Sirs/Madam, 
I have been directed to you by Mansion House reference an appeal I wish to lodge against a postal PCN (No_13428****, dated 2/06/2021 & received 8/06/21) regarding failure to pay the £1.50 parking charge Lord Mayor’s Drive Car Park, at Burnham Beeches. 
See attachments above. 
Please would you direct me to the department that can deal with this appeal. 
In summary, I have been regularly attending Burnham Beeches since 2011 on a weekday in order to get exercise to facilitate recovery from two concurrent medical conditions (I am classed by UK HMG as Extremely Clinically vulnerable for the purposes of COVID). 
In compliance with the conditions imposed by the HMG COVID lockdown, I did not visit Burnham,   from December 2020 to mid- April 2021. 
With the end of Lockdown, I resumed visits. 
However, on resumption of visits, I was not aware that the Park Authority had changed the parking terms and conditions  during the lockdown period and was now charging for parking on weekdays 
I understand that this PCN has been issued for my visit to Burnham on 26th May 2021, when I drove out of the car park without paying.
 The reason I didn’t pay was because I was unaware the terms and conditions had changed and here was no opportunity for me to become informed when visiting the Burnham site as there was no permanent signage erected to indicate that parking charges were now in force for weekday parking or that an ANPR camera was in operation. 
That said, I understand from the Park Office that temporary signage had been in place at the start of the new parking rules (December 2020), but, this had obviously been removed by the time I resumed visiting. In 2021. 
Believe or not, I am happy and able to pay the modest  £1.50 charge ( In fact my mobile phone already has the Ringo app set-up on it) and am in the habit of doing so at other leisure facilities. But on this occasion I wasn’t aware that parking charges had been introduced. 

In my view the  introduction this scheme during the lockdown, without  ensuring the erection  and maintenance of permanent signage to signal the change in practice is at best incompetent and to insist on the imposition of this PCN charge is extremely unfair. 

I will be glad to receive your prompt reply.

 Regards,
 
**** *******
  
*, ****** ****,
Harrow,
HA* ***.

SalveForOldSores

Needless to say,  at the date of this post, I haven't received a reply from the City Of London Contact Centre.

So, to avoid the full-charge I paid the early payment on 15th June 2021:-

CALL US TODAY 0844 809 4522
PAY YOUR PARKING
TICKETS
Make a Payment
Transaction Successful
Thank you for your payment of 35.00 GBP
Please make a note of this authorisation code, as it is proof of payment: 009***
 
Billing Address:
******** * *******
*, ****** ****,
Harrow,
Middlesex
HA* ***
 
Payment Details:

https://district-enforcement.ec6pay.com/complete1/3

15/06/2021Make a Payment | District Enforcement

Description: 13428***

Auth Code: 009***

Time: 22:21:50
Date: 15th June 2021

Name on Card: ******** * *******

Card Type: **** Credit

 I have been pleased with the attitude of DE and have been very professional in its app
company have been very approachable wh
have responded promptly and responsibly
P&D regime which so easily could have be
I would have no hesitation in recommendin
future.

Colin Hunt
Clerk and Responsible Finance Officer


Complete our callback form and we'll be in touch shortly.
Email
Tel
https://district-enforcement.ec6pay.com/complete 2/3

 So imagine my surprise, given the self-promoting due diligence and propriety non-sense on the bottom of the payment form a later examination of the Companies House Records public domain revealed this:-

19/06/2021
DISTRICT ENFORCEMENT LIMITED - Overview (free company information from Companies House)
Companies House does not verify the accuracy of the information filed
(http://resources.companieshouse.gov.uk/serviceInformation.shtml#compInfo)
DISTRICT ENFORCEMENT LIMITED
Company number 07346382
Registered office address
A1 Optimum Business Park, Optimum Road, Swadlincote, England, DE11 0WT
Company status
Active
Company type
Private limited Company
Incorporated on
16 August 2010

****************************************************
Accounts overdue
Next accounts made up to 31 August 2020
due by 31 May 2021
Last accounts made up to 31 August 2019
****************************************************

Confirmation statement
Next statement date 16 August 2021 
due by 30 August 2021
Last statement dated 16 August 2020
Nature of business (SIC)
82990 - Other business support service activities not elsewhere classified
Tell us what you think of this service(link opens a new window) (https://www.research.net/r/S78XJMV) Is there anything wrong with this
 page?(link opens a new window) (https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/help/feedback?sourceurl=https://find-and-update.company-
information.service.gov.uk/company/07346382)

One wonders what the competitive tendering process was like for this service ? More Greensill and NHS "Quick and Dirty " ?

Coupon-mad

You didn’t raise the issue that I pointed out was the issue to complain about.

KeithP

SalveForOldSores said:

So, to avoid the full-charge I paid the early payment on 15th June 2021

Having paid £35.00 to District Enforcement, it's all over.
Nothing more to be said.

SalveForOldSores

Coupon-mad said:

You didn’t raise the issue that I pointed out was the issue to complain about.

Apologies, I'm new to this game. So my approach is "Shotgun".

But this is typical of these bureaucratic organisations.

Had a similar experience with "Action Fraud" (Which is run by City of London Police).

 After having been deluged at home with scam telephone calls and E-mails, I started reporting them on AF. Thinking I was doing the right thing. The poor little snowflakes that run the system obviously couldn't cope with the scale of calls I was reporting (Although I (Extremely Clinically vulnerable you recall)  am supposed to tolerate them) and so after a while I found that my  E-mail reports were being immediately deleted on receipt and I had a whole new load of scam e-mails appearing in my inbox. Nice !

Back on topic, as it had been a couple of weeks since my last visit, I went to Burnham for an exercise stint last Thursday evening.

All the car parks were empty, except for about five cars.

Prior to this the car parks have been rammed consequent on COVID lockdown and furloughs/lay-offs, such much so that the Park Rangers  had to rope off large segments of the Woodland to prevent the Super-mum 4 x 4s and foot traffic from their tribes didn't turn the whole shebang into the closest thing to a glass car park. The payment system and the lack of signage is enough to frigthen off  anybody.

So, Mr Finance Officer's receipts will be China Syndroming shortly.

After two abortive attempts  to pay by phone (It didn't like my credit card but loved my bank card) Managed to make payment using the on phone payment system. I later checked with the credit card company and they advised that the merchant i.e. the mobile phone payment  system operator, had refused to accept the card and that the card was kosher as far as the credit card company were concerned. The  final attempt at payment, using a bank card, did get through to my  bank account, in the correct amount.

Still no large scale signage there indicating the change in practice . . . . .  so, you won't be aware of the change if you're re-visiting after a long absence . . . . unless you've got access to Portland Spy ring style micro-dot readers to read the text on the side of the payment machines.

And Burnham Beeches is a National Nature Reserve, with the emphasis on the National.

SalveForOldSores

KeithP said:

SalveForOldSores said:

So, to avoid the full-charge I paid the early payment on 15th June 2021

Having paid £36.00 to District Enforcement, it's all over.
Nothing more to be said.

As far as you're approach is concerned. 

SalveForOldSores

The sign at the entrance - Micro-dot readers at the ready