Claim Form - Llangranog Car Park HELP!

Coupon-mad

Added in the 15 minutes sign as well, although not sure what help this brings to my case? 

Shows the ambiguity of that term.  Can't have two meanings for consideration period.

See if @ParkingMad has what I said about thd BPA inspector's report.  If not, write what I said about what happened with the BPA after they inspected and tried out the Llangrannog car park for themselves...they closed it!

4rry

Update;
The court fee has been paid by claimant. They must now believe they will win in court? I assumed they wouldn't bother paying the fee as the PCN is ridiculous. 
Any tips in preparing for court case?

Le_Kirk

Search the forum using those words "preparing for court case" and you will find plenty of advice.

Umkomaas

Have a look at this if you've not previously seen it - originally posted by forum regular @KeithP.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n93eoaxhzpU

Jenni_D

4rry said:

Update;
The court fee has been paid by claimant. They must now believe they will win in court? I assumed they wouldn't bother paying the fee as the PCN is ridiculous. 

Why would you assume that? To them it's all a numbers game and brinkmanship - see who blinks first. Plenty of claims are discontinued at the 11th hour - some even later.

If you get a letter/email from the legal saying their claim is a sure-fire winner, you have no viable defence, but they're willing to accept £X to avoid the burden on the court, then ignore it/reject the offer - the next communication is often a discontinuation.  

ParkingMad

Coupon-mad said:

See if @ParkingMad has what I said about thd BPA inspector's report.  If not, write what I said about what happened with the BPA after they inspected and tried out the Llangrannog car park for themselves...they closed it!

Here is the result of the BPA investigation:

http://llangrannogwelfare.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/MS-Report-Llangrannog-Beach-PDF.pdf

 Investigation Report

Re: Llangrannog Beach Café, Ceredigion, West Wales

I made a visit to this site on Tuesday 5 November 2019 at 12.30pm. The car park is a small surface car park which serves the coastal village of Llangrannog. It is the only convenient car park in the village close to the beach, local pubs and shops. The only other one is located in a field a short walk away from the centre of the village.

The car park is private land managed by AOS members One Parking Solution. There is a standard compliant entrance sign at the only entrance / exit to the car park and several Terms and Condition signs erected within the car park. At least one T&C sign is visible from anywhere within the site. The signs are compliant with the BPA code. The parking facility is managed by the use of an ANPR camera and there are charges for parking depending on the length of stay. These charges are clearly displayed at the entrance next to the pay machine. Customers are invited to pay by either a ‘Pay and Display’ procedure, using the pay machine at the entrance to obtain a ticket to display or alternatively by an online app or a ‘pay by phone’ system. All of the methods require the driver to give their VRM, including the need to manually enter this into the pay machine using a key pad. There is one ANPR camera located at the entrance / exit located on the side of the adjacent Ship Inn.

There is just the one Pay Machine located at the entrance to the car park, which appeared to be powered by a solar panel on top of the machine. After entering the car park and parking, my first choice to pay was to use the pay machine using cash. I pressed the first button on the machine, to enter my VRM. Straight away a message appeared on the screen to inform me the machine was ‘Not in use’. There is no other pay machine available. The alternative methods to pay as advertised on the signs, is either to pay by phone or to use the JustPark App. The App has to be downloaded if the customer does not already have it. Both of these methods require a phone connection or internet connection. There is no mobile phone service in the village of Llangrannog and no internet connection available in the car park. This was confirmed to me by the landlord of the nearby pub. The phone signal is only available after driving out of the village up the hill a distance of a couple of miles. This meant that there was no alternative means to pay for my parking. Not wishing to receive a PCN in the post I drove out of the car park within 10 minutes and parked on the road.

This is apparently a constant issue in this car park as was evident by signs displayed by the adjacent pub and on the pay machine, put up by the residents and business owners to warn visitors. The sole pay machine is solar powered and the sun was not shining at the time of my visit.

My own experience confirmed that it was not possible for me to pay for parking and I had no choice but to leave the car park within 10 minutes. If I had taken longer, presumably I would have received a PCN from One Parking Solution.

I made enquiries with some local residents and the landlord of the Pentre Arms nearby. I was told that it is a continual problem, the pay machine is hardly ever working and all the locals are aware that there is no mobile phone coverage in the village which makes paying by the alternative means impossible. I was also told that the ANPR camera which has been put up on the side of the adjacent Ship Inn has no planning consent, as mentioned by Ben Lake the MP in his letter, although I am not able to confirm this.

Conclusion and Recommendations

The Pay Machine should be converted to mains power so that it works all the time and the alternative means to pay should be removed as it is not possible to use them without a phone connection. Any enforcement and subsequent issue of PCN’s would then have to be by using the physical presence of attendants checking displayed tickets and issuing PCN’s on vehicles.

Coupon-mad

4rry said:

Update;
The court fee has been paid by claimant. They must now believe they will win in court? I assumed they wouldn't bother paying the fee as the PCN is ridiculous. 
Any tips in preparing for court case?

You will need the above evidence that I knew @ParkingMad had in her files somewhere!

Really useful exhibit to append to your WS (or an urgent SUPPLEMENTARY WS, if you've already done it) which you know from the NEWBIES thread MUST be filed & served by you well before your hearing.

I assume you've got a hearing date?

4rry

Court date very imminent - nothing through from DCB confirming they're not progressing with claim.

Anyone got any good last minute tips?

Coupon-mad

Well we assume you did add the BPA site inspectors report about Llangrannog that  ParkingMad gave you, attached to a signed & dated Supplementary Witness Statement?

If not then obviously do that and copy in DCBLegal.  You are emailing stuff to the local court not the CCBC, yes?

4rry

Yes, all been emailed to the court. 

I rang the court and they confirmed they had my documents and that the court fee had been paid by the claimant. They must believe they are going to win so be interesting to see outcome.