Defence - District Enforcement

farthingdownswalker

Good evening,

I received the claim form from District Enforcement (Gladstones), just acknowledged the service and have a couple of questions.

1. Do I send my defence in straight away or is it better to wait?

2. The car park in question was always free to park, then the new parking charge was introduced. I parked there all the time to walk my dog then one day all of a sudden there was a parking ticket in the post. I have not seen any new notices, nor have I looked to be fair. Here is my defence below, not sure if it needs to be longer? or shorter? Any comments please..

FROM TEMPLATE

2.       It is admitted that the Defendant was the registered keeper of the vehicle in question but liability is denied. 

3.  The defendant has been parking in this car park for many years and walking their dog. The car park has always been free, the entry barrier always open. The defendant did not see any noticeable signage to inform them of the change in the way the car park was to be used. The barrier was open as usual. If there was new signage, this was not made apparent to the defendant who has habitually used the car park previously.

Many thanks for your help,

Kat

KeithP

Hello and welcome.

What is the Issue Date on your County Court Claim Form?

Upon what date did you file an Acknowledgment of Service?
Your MCOL Claim History will have the definitive answer to that.

Where did this alleged parking event take place?
Oh, I think I can answer that... Farthing Downs?

Farthing Downs appears to be owned/managed by the City of London Corporation.

Do not send your Defence yet.

Coupon-mad

I’d add that this failure to add prominent signage when new restrictions are introduced, in order to particularly alert local drivers familiar with the free car park, breached the IPC Code of Practice and the Consumer Rights Act 2015

Redx

Typo , it's the CRA 2015 , lol.  🙃🙃

KeithP

From their website, we can see that the City of London Corporation is a Highways Authority...

This means that any driver liability cannot be transferred to the keeper, so it is important that the driver's identity is not given away.

Also, they are not allowed to use ANPR cameras.
Read about parking at Farthing Downs here.

KeithP

Of course my above posts assume that the parking event took place at Farthing Downs.  

Waiting for confirmation on that.

Coupon-mad

Read the other thread where a poster is complaining to a Council about illegal ANPR being used in bagels of a traffic authority/ Council, at Swanley Park.  ANPR for traffic authority enforcement in car parks open to the public, was banned by the Government in the Deregulation Act.

Make the SAME complaint as that thread starter, Beano something - no link, it’s very recent, read the forum and find it).

Please be that person who reports the Corporation to the LGO for illegal ANPR enforcement.  We need a decision on this to stop the likes of District Enforcement who do this far too much.

It will also really help your case if you can get this to the LG Ombudsman stage ASAP.

KeithP

A couple of interesting questions and answers from the City of London Corporation Farthing Downs website...

KeithP

It gets better all the time.

Also on the City of London Corporation Farthing Downs website is this snippet which mentions Bye-laws...

Under statutory control - Corporation of London (Open Spaces) Act 1878.

Just like Burnham Beeches which we saw a week or two ago.

Coupon-mad

Are you sure you were the driver on this occasion?  Could it have been a family member?  If so, then your defence must say as much and deny that the Claimant can hold the registered keeper liable in this instance, as the land is under statutory control.

They can’t hold a registered keeper liable at this site because it’s not ‘relevant land’ but please can you show us the postal PCN so we can check if they are misleading you about liability, or haven’t you obtained a SAR yet and didn’t keep the PCN?

farthingdownswalker

KeithP said:

Hello and welcome.

What is the Issue Date on your County Court Claim Form?

Upon what date did you file an Acknowledgment of Service?
Your MCOL Claim History will have the definitive answer to that.

Where did this alleged parking event take place?
Oh, I think I can answer that... Farthing Downs?

Farthing Downs appears to be owned/managed by the City of London Corporation.

Do not send your Defence yet.

Good morning and thank you for responding.

County court claim form Issue date is 7 September
Acknowledgement of service 17 September

Alleged parking event happened on Farthing Downs indeed!