Parking Eye PCN at Aldi for Using Adjacent Superbowl

JohnD2410115

So after doing some investigation into my local council planning history I have found that there was no service or management plan for parking put in place for the Superbowl and same-phase developments, this was despite letters from the Senior Transport Officer stating that the conditions should not be discharged unless this requirement was met.

Furthermore, the original application for the Aldi development contains a Car Park Management Plan which as you can see from the below extract states that the maximum length of stay is 120 minutes, in line with what Umkomaas was stating regarding the lower time limit set by PE.

4.1.3 The car park at the Aldi site will be controlled and managed to provide shortstay car parking for shoppers at the Aldi Store; but will be managed in such a way as to allow customers to visit other facilities located within the Linkway development site subject to the following conditions which shall not be exhaustive or prevent exercise of additional rights of ownership. a) Customers and visitors shall not be entitled to use the car park for any purpose other than the parking of private cars only and in particular shall not be entitled to carry on any trading activity or park commercial vehicles; b) Neither Aldi or The Emerson Group accept no responsibility or liabilities in respect of any person making use of the car park; c) Aldi or The Emerson Group reserve the right to prohibit the use of the car park by any person and close all or part of the car park for the purpose of carrying out maintenance and repairs of the development; and d) Any non-staff vehicles remaining anywhere in the car park once the store is closed will be warned/ fined and eventually removed.
4.1.4 The maximum length of stay will be 120 minutes, with no return in 30 minutes. This will operate between the hours of 0800 to 1800.
4.1.5 The car park will normally be available for use by customers between the following times: a) At store opening, this means 08.00 (Mon-Sat) & 10:00 (Sun); and Aldi Foodstores Linkway Site, St Helens Car Park Management & Servicing Strategy 227-01 6 b) ½ hour after the stores close; this means 21.30 (Mon-Sat) & 16:30 (Sun).
4.1.6 Time management of the car park will be achieved by way of an automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) system operated independently by Parking Eye. Notices informing customers will be installed within the car park and maintained until such time as the ANPR system is no longer required.
4.1.7 Enforcement notices issued on the basis of the ANPR system will be at the sole discretion of Parking Eye with appropriate appeal procedures in place.
4.1.8 Should the use of Parking Eye cease a similar system will be installed at the discretion of Aldi Stores. 


The parking charge date of event was a Sunday at 16:45 and states that the time I was parked was 2hrs 1 mins. Given the grace period as outlined in BPA Approved Operator Code of Practice this should be sufficient to appeal the PCN, despite the appeal period passing with PE.

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.

Coupon-mad

Show that to the BPA and DVLA in a formal complaint and ask them to open an investigation, not just for your case but with a view to requiring PEye to refund ALL PCNs issued here, if indeed that stipulation has never been varied by due process.

Then if you are proved right, get it in the press to alert other drivers to seek refunds. This seems very serious, based upon the facts you have shown us.

DVLA complaints email is in the 5th post of the NEWBIES thread.  Really push the DVLA and copy in the Head of BPA AOS, Sara Roberts:

sara.r@britishparking.co.uk

DO NOT just address the complaint to the BPA, as PEye are their flagship AOS firm.  Address it to Robert Toft at the DVLA.

sam_w

JohnD2410115 said:

So after doing some investigation into my local council planning history I have found that there was no service or management plan for parking put in place for the Superbowl and same-phase developments, this was despite letters from the Senior Transport Officer stating that the conditions should not be discharged unless this requirement was met.

Furthermore, the original application for the Aldi development contains a Car Park Management Plan which as you can see from the below extract states that the maximum length of stay is 120 minutes, in line with what Umkomaas was stating regarding the lower time limit set by PE.

4.1.3 The car park at the Aldi site will be controlled and managed to provide shortstay car parking for shoppers at the Aldi Store; but will be managed in such a way as to allow customers to visit other facilities located within the Linkway development site subject to the following conditions which shall not be exhaustive or prevent exercise of additional rights of ownership. a) Customers and visitors shall not be entitled to use the car park for any purpose other than the parking of private cars only and in particular shall not be entitled to carry on any trading activity or park commercial vehicles; b) Neither Aldi or The Emerson Group accept no responsibility or liabilities in respect of any person making use of the car park; c) Aldi or The Emerson Group reserve the right to prohibit the use of the car park by any person and close all or part of the car park for the purpose of carrying out maintenance and repairs of the development; and d) Any non-staff vehicles remaining anywhere in the car park once the store is closed will be warned/ fined and eventually removed.
4.1.4 The maximum length of stay will be 120 minutes, with no return in 30 minutes. This will operate between the hours of 0800 to 1800.
4.1.5 The car park will normally be available for use by customers between the following times: a) At store opening, this means 08.00 (Mon-Sat) & 10:00 (Sun); and Aldi Foodstores Linkway Site, St Helens Car Park Management & Servicing Strategy 227-01 6 b) ½ hour after the stores close; this means 21.30 (Mon-Sat) & 16:30 (Sun).
4.1.6 Time management of the car park will be achieved by way of an automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) system operated independently by Parking Eye. Notices informing customers will be installed within the car park and maintained until such time as the ANPR system is no longer required.
4.1.7 Enforcement notices issued on the basis of the ANPR system will be at the sole discretion of Parking Eye with appropriate appeal procedures in place.
4.1.8 Should the use of Parking Eye cease a similar system will be installed at the discretion of Aldi Stores. 


The parking charge date of event was a Sunday at 16:45 and states that the time I was parked was 2hrs 1 mins. Given the grace period as outlined in BPA Approved Operator Code of Practice this should be sufficient to appeal the PCN, despite the appeal period passing with PE.

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.

Sorry to bring up an old post but could you please point me to the website where this information is quoted from as I have received one of these nonsense fines for the same reason as the op and would like to use this as evidence in my appeal. Thanks 

Coupon-mad

You should be able to search for Aldi's application on the local Council's planning portal.

sam_w

Coupon-mad said:

You should be able to search for Aldi's application on the local Council's planning portal.

Thank you for getting back to me so quickly, it's appreciated. I have had a look on St Helens council planning portal but unfortunately when I type in Aldi's postcode nothing comes up. 

Coupon-mad

What about something else, like 'Aldi' or the road name instead?

sam_w

I have tried every search term imaginable but coming up with nothing. When you put Aldi's postcode into planning portal, it comes up with lots of other businesses in the area none of which are in the west linkway retail park. I think I will explore a different avenue, starting with a trip to the Aldi in question to discuss it with the manager

Le_Kirk

Suggest you send PM (use the envelope symbol at top right of the page) to @JohnD2410115 and ask; you might be lucky and get a response.  He was last active on the Forum in February!

sam_w

Update: I went into Aldi and spoken to the store manager. I told him that I had parked in the Aldi car park thinking it was the same car park as the Superbowl (technically it is as it's all part of west linkway retail park, despite Superbowl telling me it was a different car park). The manager of Aldi said that it happens all the time and they are fed up of it. Anyway, he took a photocopy of the PCN and said it will be cancelled. He said it will take a few days to go through and may receive another PCN in the meantime. He said to ignore it and if they continue to harass me, come back into the store.

 Hopefully, this can be of some help to anyone else who receives one of those ridiculous PCNs in the post. Thank you coupon-mad as it was reading the signature at the bottom of your replies that led me to do this. 

Umkomaas

Disappointing that we didn't get any update from OP @JohnD2410115.  That's the downside of giving up your own time to provide free advice and guidance to help random strangers with their problems!  Eventually they'll cause some to question their commitment when being taken for granted!