Parking stories in the News/media

Le_Kirk

Only skimmed it so far but my preferred option is also 5, I can see no other option that removes completely the debt recovery fees and we all know what would happen if we chose one that allowed any level of fees, they would creep up over the years.  Cannot see why it should be higher in London as it costs the same to send a letter from wherever one is in the country and e-mail is even cheaper.  If they start talking about the higher cost of administration or car park upkeep we should point out that that cost is included in the parking ticket price and we are only talking here of PCNs.  Also how many PPCs are based in London?

Time2Go_25

I agree 3 or 5 are the only reasonable options, there would need to be clear definitions of what constitutes "seriousness of contravention". From a selfish point of view as someone who doesn't park in London or Scotland I'd probably prefer option 3 as the penalty is less and the discount is greater. 

Coupon-mad

pdel61 said:

I agree 3 or 5 are the only reasonable options, there would need to be clear definitions of what constitutes "seriousness of contravention". From a selfish point of view as someone who doesn't park in London or Scotland I'd probably prefer option 3 as the penalty is less and the discount is greater. 

I get that.

But the BPA is already lobbying for the LA levels to increase so the headline £50 would go up in coming years and we'd be stuck with a regime that future Ministers & new DLUHC staff would treat the same as LA penalties and might in future assume they are all the same.

In the blink of an eye, with furious lobbying and more credulous Ministers in future, they'd have increased the £50/£70 and will have demanded 'consistency' with the LA penalty model who add a third for 'enforcement' at late stages (but that's INSTEAD of court fees not as well...).

That's the red flag for me.

This MUST be different but MUST ban the fees altogether.

Bespoke Discussion thread here:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6463361/dluhc-private-parking-code-call-for-evidence-discussion-thread/p1?new=1

pustit

The article refers to a parking "offence"

Coupon-mad

Article by Tony Hetherington:
https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/experts/article-12351599/amp/TONY-HETHERINGTON-Parked-pledge-ripoffs-Rishi.html

"I repeatedly asked Euro Car Parks to comment and to explain how the £15.50 payment can appear on your card statement, while at the same time you are accused of failing to pay.

The company has failed to offer any comment or explanation whatsoever.

It behaves as if it is enough to issue demands over and over again in the belief that drivers will pay up rather than face legal action."

patient_dream

Coupon-mad said:

Article by Tony Hetherington:
https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/experts/article-12351599/amp/TONY-HETHERINGTON-Parked-pledge-ripoffs-Rishi.html

"I repeatedly asked Euro Car Parks to comment and to explain how the £15.50 payment can appear on your card statement, while at the same time you are accused of failing to pay.

The company has failed to offer any comment or explanation whatsoever.

It behaves as if it is enough to issue demands over and over again in the belief that drivers will pay up rather than face legal action."

Sounds like Euro Car Parks are overdue a visit from HMRC if they cannot account for money

Coupon-mad

Can anyone access this Times article?

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/no-one-should-come-out-of-a-amp-e-to-find-a-parking-ticket-zld0bb8sj

YankeeBrit

Coupon-mad said:

Can anyone access this Times article?

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/no-one-should-come-out-of-a-amp-e-to-find-a-parking-ticket-zld0bb8sj

No one should come out of A&E to find a parking ticket

Holly Mead

Saturday July 29 2023, 12.01am, The Times

On a recent Monday lunchtime I found myself in my local hospital’s A&E department.

It had been four days since I’d been injured during a netball game and the large lump protruding from the side of my now rainbow-coloured foot didn’t seem to be getting any smaller. I conceded that it may be time to consult a professional.

Convinced it was probably nothing too serious, I drove to the hospital — it’s only a mile away — and luckily managed to snag a parking space right by the ticket machine. Except the ticket machine was broken. A piece of paper taped to a carrier bag covering the contraption said that the nearest working machine was 100 yards away. I hobbled over to find that it was a coin-only machine: in my pocket was a £10 note, a debit card and a phone, but none of these were of any use.

Inside A&E I asked the receptionist where I could break my note for change. “Oh don’t worry about it,” she said. “The machines have been broken for weeks, just buzz at the barrier when you leave and they’ll let you through.”

What a stroke of luck! I was in enough pain after the short walk that I really didn’t want to have to trek back to the car park anyway, so I took the advice, which I double-checked with the doctor at triage: “She’s right, I haven’t paid for weeks.” (There’s a side issue here about A&E staff having to pay to park at work, but that’s a topic for another day, or a different section of this newspaper.)Three hours later, strapped in a large medical boot, the doctor said I simply couldn’t drive home on what was now diagnosed as a broken foot.
I got into a taxi and texted Mr Mead that he’d need to take a detour to the hospital on his way home to fetch the car.Reader, I got a parking ticket, my first ever. But you knew that’s where this story was going already, didn’t you?I’m not quibbling over my ticket. I paid it within 14 days to get 50 per cent off, using a cashback credit card to get another 1 per cent back — top money-saving tip there (although a better tip would clearly be to not get the ticket in the first place).Several people told me to contest it: “You had a broken foot! The doctor told you not to drive!” But I was in the wrong: I didn’t buy a ticket.However, what I have come to realise in regaling that little anecdote since is that this situation is not uncommon. “Same thing happened to me when I had my first child,” a netball team-mate said. “I drove to the hospital for a check, had an emergency C-section and when I came out four days later the car was plastered with tickets.”“I got a ticket because I couldn’t leave A&E to go and put more time on the meter,” said another friend. “I asked the receptionist if they’d hold my spot if I was called while I nipped out, but she said no.” (Incidentally, the same is true if you need to visit the lavatory or get something to eat while you’re waiting.)“I’ve been there,” a friend sympathised. “When we took my dad up there in an emergency, I just completely forgot about buying a ticket and we ended up being there all night.”And none of this takes into account the people who don’t get a fine but must contend with the extortionate parking fees at hospital car parks, particularly those who have to go regularly for long-term treatment or who are visiting relatives who end up staying for long periods.
A trip to A&E is invariably unplanned and you have no idea how long you will be there — only that it will probably be longer than you hope.There needs to be a parking system that recognises this.The simplest solution would be for ticket machines to sit inside the A&E unit rather than outside in the car park. Customers could enter their car registration number at the point of purchase, rather than getting a paper ticket to display, and could extend their parking if necessary.This might also be one of the few occasions in which a parking app would come in handy — and regular readers will know I’m generally not a fan of these. My local A&E had free wi-fi, so you would at least be able to download the app, and then it would be easy to extend your parking without leaving your seat. An NHS parking app that covered all hospitals, surgeries and other facilities, so you only had to download one app and then enter the code for the relevant car park, would be a sensible development.Paying on departure rather than pay and display would also seem logical, and to be fair, I’ve seen this at other hospitals. Sure, my friend who ended up staying for four days would have ended up with a rather shocking total bill, but it would at least have been cheaper than the multiple fines she was slapped with for an emergency childbirth. Talk about a tax on parenthood.Why am I paying my fine to a third party anyway? If the hospital employed someone directly to monitor the car park rather than paying a private company to do it for them, then any money received from fines could be reinvested back into the facility — and I’d feel a lot better about handing over the cash.It shouldn’t be difficult to come up with a parking solution that works for all. In previous columns I have spoken of the problem with parking apps and how they exclude the vulnerable. I’m not sure that it gets more vulnerable than an A&E department.
The last thing anyone needs when they leave the hospital, be it with a new baby, a bereavement or a fractured foot, is to be greeted by a big yellow sticker on their windscreen.
The following comment was published by B789 Pilot:   

It was not a “fine”. Nowhere on any of your paperwork was the word “fine” mentioned. You received a speculative invoice for an alleged breach of contract from an unregulated private parking company. This article is just one more example of the failure of our education system to teach the population about the most basic facts of civil law, something that affects everyone at some stage in their lives. So, here we have yet one more classic example of a gullible victim paying the unregulated private parking company (scammer) and thus funding the scam and being a part of the problem. These unregulated private parking companies, mostly set up by ex-clampers issue around 30,000 Parking Charge Notices a day. These are not “penalties” or “fines” but the gullible public treats them as though they are. They have no idea about civil law and how to fight these speculative invoices and just keep funding the scammers because they believe they are getting a “discount” instead of realising it is a “bribe”. These unregulated private parking companies that are contracted by hospitals care not one iota about anyone's condition. They are only interested in scamming the gullible public for their money, especially by means of frustration of contract, exactly as described in the article. The gullible public is not helped by articles like this that perpetuate the myth that these ex-clampers are issuing “fines” and are some sort of “authority” that can’t be challenged. I blame the education system.

Umkomaas

An NHS parking app that covered all hospitals, surgeries and other facilities, so you only had to download one app and then enter the code for the relevant car park, would be a sensible development.

Now wouldn't that be a very creditable and positive project for our beloved ATAs to undertake, rather than exerting all their energies into lobbying for increased PCN charges and the perpetuation of the £8.42 £70 debt recovery extortion?

LoneStarState

'We're tormented by £100 fines from parking warden HIDING in shopping centre bushes' (msn.com)

Oirignally in the Mirror

The Peel Centre retaining its place in the spotlight.  Eye roll at the councillor using the term fine and the article writer using the term penalties.  If only the unsuspecting customers knew the flimsy (dare I say non-existent) legal ground on which these leave site charges sit on.