Car Parking charges and false information from Ipserv Ltd

Castle

Cardriver45 said:

Coupon-mad said:

Reply and ask if that is their final word because the evidence shows IPSERV is a ‘commercial arm’ of the council and run by prominent members (name them). 

Tell them you are taking this complaint to the Local Authorities Ombudsman and you want the Council to confirm that you have exhausted their complaints system by complaining about these Councillors’ conduct and the commercial ‘arm’, and you are checking that they really are content to refuse to log this as a formal complaint about an offshoot of the Authority and their publicly paid officers. 

Ask them to confirm the exact relationship between the Authority and IPSERV.

Finish by saying they either need to provide you with the pathway to the Ombudsman now, or reconsider their initial response and investigate properly. Give them 14 days.

I just looked at companies House and it says that the borough council has over 75% of shares and over 75% of ownership and voting rights and the right to appoint and remove directors.

Ipserv's share capital is just 10 shares and all of them are owned by the Borough Council; so a 100% owned Subsidiary of the Council.

If you check out the "Articles of Association" filed on 2nd April 2017; Article 54.2 confirms the Council's power to appoint and remove Directors, (as well as restricting their powers).

(In other news; according to the Borough Council's draft accounts, IPSERV made a loss of £747K for the year ended 31st March 2021).

KeithP

@Cardriver45, do you reside within Ipswich Borough Council's area?
Are there any local councillors that might be interested in your revelations?

Cardriver45

KeithP said:

@Cardriver45, do you reside within Ipswich Borough Council's area?
Are there any local councillors that might be interested in your revelations?

No I live in the next constituency. The Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket one

Cardriver45

Though of course their email to me was one of the donotreply@
so I'll have to message them through their general enquires on their site.

I guess selecting the councillor tab from the drop down menu will be best as it seems to be the only choice remotely related to it?

ihatetrump

 plus Ipswich Borough Council has over 75% of shares, over 75% of ownership and voting rights and the right to appoint and remove directors?

Minor point but Ipserv Limited is 100% owned by Ipswich Borough Council - and has been since incorporation in February 2017

Cardriver45

I managed to get one cancelled and they've reduced the other one to £60. I'll see what it says in the letter I get from Ipserv to see if they give me a popla code for the other one;

Thank you for allowing us to review and investigate your complaint regarding the above. After the review I can confirm that ******** was issued outside of POFA, and so this Parking Charge Notice has been cancelled and no further action will be required from the you. In regards to ******** was issued within the 14 days permitted under Schedule 4 of the

Protection of Freedom Act 2012 and so this case remains live within our system. The case has been placed on hold whilst this investigation has taken place. Due to the administration error

that has occurred,  this charge will now be reduced to the rate of £60.00.

 

I understand that Ipserv have now responded. They have also apologised that due to an administration error that occurred when writing to you on 13th July 2021, this has resulted in this situation.

 

I do thank you for bring this to our attention and as a result we will be adding Administration controls to our Governance meeting’s agenda so as we can do our best to manage these tape of errors going forward.

 Pp

Castle

Cardriver45 said:

I managed to get one cancelled and they've reduced the other one to £60. I'll see what it says in the letter I get from Ipserv to see if they give me a popla code for the other one;

Thank you for allowing us to review and investigate your complaint regarding the above. After the review I can confirm that IPSB76430 was issued outside of POFA, and so this Parking Charge Notice has been cancelled and no further action will be required from the you. In regards to IPSB77260 was issued within the 14 days permitted under Schedule 4 of the

Protection of Freedom Act 2012 and so this case remains live within our system. The case has been placed on hold whilst this investigation has taken place. Due to the administration error

that has occurred,  this charge will now be reduced to the rate of £60.00.

 

I understand that Ipserv have now responded. They have also apologised that due to an administration error that occurred when writing to you on 13th July 2021, this has resulted in this situation.

 

I do thank you for bring this to our attention and as a result we will be adding Administration controls to our Governance meeting’s agenda so as we can do our best to manage these tape of errors going forward.

 Pp

Sorry, but who is "us" in this situation, because clearly they don't understand POFA.

Coupon-mad

If this is the Council responding and investigating at last, tell them you are not satisfied with their response.  This was not an ‘administration error’, it was outright misleading information which is a breach of consumer law (CPUTRs: misleading actions and omissions).  Both tickets involved IPSERV misleading you about the dates and liability and neither of the PCNs were POFA compliant (clue - it’s not just about the dates).  

Remind them you await their final response and leaflet/ info about your right to take this to the LGO. 

Cardriver45

Coupon-mad said:

If this is the Council responding and investigating at last, tell them you are not satisfied with their response.  This was not an ‘administration error’, it was outright misleading information which is a breach of consumer law (CPUTRs: misleading actions and omissions).  Both tickets involved IPSERV misleading you about the dates and liability and neither of the PCNs were POFA compliant (clue - it’s not just about the dates).  

Remind them you await their final response and leaflet/ info about your right to take this to the LGO. 

This was the response from University of Suffolk

Redx

They also mentioned the second one being issued within 14 days being POFA compliant

It's not about when it was issued , but when it is deemed to be served , that day is arrival by day 15 when the incident date is day zero

So arrival within 14 days , not issued within 14 days , so double check the timescales on that one. POFA wording is also important if they want to hold a Keeper liable too , it requires several hoops to be gone through , not a fall at hurdle one