Claim Form - Llangranog Car Park HELP!

Umkomaas

Anyone got any good last minute tips?

I've not chased back through the thread to see if this has already been posted, if not, have a look at this if you've not previously viewed it - originally posted by forum regular @KeithP.

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

4rry

Thanks for all the help everyone, went to court today and won!

Unlucky One Parking Solutions Ltd 

Fruitcake

When you come down off the ceiling, would you please supply us with a court report. It will help others if you can tell us the main reason(s) why the case was dismissed. 

Well done on your win.

4rry

No problem will do, any idea how I get a copy?

Grizebeck

4rry said:

No problem will do, any idea how I get a copy?

What he means is, please report back on the proceedings etc
you will get the formal notice of judgment in the post in due course.

4rry

Basis of my argument was frustration of contract.

Essentially, there was no way I could have paid within the allotted 10 minute 'Grace' period as the car park was busy, there was a few people in front of me in queue and there was no phone signal on site to make payment over the phone. As soon as I parked up, I went over to the pay station and joined the queue and attempted to pay and did make the payment but this was after 17 minutes.

By the judges calculations, I was one minute over the grace period! I had also paid for 3 hours and only stayed for one, although I don't think this really had any standing on his opinion but further enhanced the view that their claim was ridiculous. 

Within a couple of minutes of being there, the judge asked the claimant to confirm whether they believed that my circumstances represented a frustration of contract to which they pretty much had no answer for and agreed. From there on it felt like I had won the case and the rest was a formality. The rest of the line of questioning from the claimant felt like a waste of time and it wasn't really clear how much effort had gone in reviewing my defence from them. The claimants' representative wasn't even aware that I made the payment on the day despite me sending evidence to OPS at the beginning of this process.

What a waste of time all this has been but hopefully my case give's others the opportunity to quash any advances from OPS and DCB.

Jenni_D

Did you get costs?

And well done - Another (OPS) One Bites The Dust

Coupon-mad

ParkingMad said:

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.

Well done!

@ParkingMad will be pleased!

Did the Judge comment on the BPA's damning report that it was impossible to pay quickly in this car park? 

Coupon-mad

4rry said:

Thanks for all the help everyone, went to court today and won!

Unlucky One Parking Solutions Ltd 

Well done you!

ANOTHER OPS ONE BITES THE DUST!

Hopefully, you will pop back and see our replies and be OK to answer the couple of questions above, if you will.

And we sincerely hope you are au fait with the need to respond to the final Govt Public Consultation?

Hopefully - amongst all the political disruption - it will be open later this year.

We all need to ram the nail in the coffin of the false £70 'DRA fee' add-on, that actually funds the court claim and toxic CCJ culture, as well as the DRA gaslighting of people.

If PPCs manage to turn around the previous 'ban' decision on banning the gaslighting / claim-funding 'fees' then the DLUHC will be rubber-stamping £200 parking charges and if that happens, they (Government) and the PPCs will wreck high streets and people's lives.  Whoever is responsible, if that happens (and it very nearly did in 2021) must hang their heads in shame.

Just checking you are among those ready to respond to the questions as you have personal experience of how this crap feels?

Please come back here when it opens, and you can make sure you don't miss the Consultation:

If you are not a regular reader, to be alerted you'll need to bookmark the thread by MSE_JC at the top of the forum and enable (on your profile) email alerts for bookmarked threads.

Then join us when the Consultation opens.

4rry

@Jenni_D - I didn't get the full costs in which I claimed for. The 'research time' was disregarded during the case before any judgement was made. I didn't end up taking annual leave and told them that as I'd worked around it so i disregarded that. I did get mileage claim and increased parking costs (approx £20) but after all that time and energy wasted I felt hard done by!

@Coupon-mad - The judge hadn't really made reference to this during the case. DCB Legal had basically said my case was just based on a template and no real facts, although the judge did reference the case law I used was all relevant to my circumstances. He also asked DCB to back up their costs as he was implying an abuse of the process. The sign change from 15 minutes to 10 minutes grace period was brought up quite a bit as well, the representative had to go back to their team and confirm dates for this. Although this pre-dated my visit, they fully contradicted themselves on reasons why the grace period was reduced. 

I will make sure I come back to give my thoughts on the process when it opens