Parking stories in the News/media

Time2Go_25

Good to see:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/labour-lord-government-england-scotland-b2411728.html

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pdel61 said:

Good to see:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/labour-lord-government-england-scotland-b2411728.html

Except the IMHO useless rubbish spouted by Lord Leigh of Hurley! 

Recording here -

Start time 14:55, finish time 15:40

https://www.parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/005fa1b1-8423-406d-b8bf-eb1ac5ed758f

Lord Leigh of Hurley: Embarrassing to listen to and he admitted to a money-related PPC connection first.  Then PPC-speak throughout.

Such pro-PPC carefully-fed spiel that I thought for a minute it was the other 'Hurley'...

B789

Just a few of the choice descriptors for APCOA and their ilk used in the debate:

"Mafia-like behaviour"
"Incompetent"
"Greedy guts"
"Del Boy money-making scammers"
"Cowboy companies"
"Pirate plunderers"
"Notorious rip-off parking industry"
"Prey mercilessly"
"Persistent poor practice"

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Someone has written a ditty about Alliance Parking YET AGAIN ACCUSED of ruining tourism in Cornwall:

https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/holidaymaker-fuming-after-100-fine-8777308

The victim said

"You have to drive into the car park and read the signs to know what the terms and conditions are by which time, if you decide to leave, you will have broken those very terms and conditions because apparently you've entered into a contract with the operator the second you drove through. It is ludicrous and a complete rip-off. It is causing a lot of upset and angst.  I haven't paid any money and certainly have no intention to do so. So we'll see how far he plans to take it."

Grant said that he was so furious about the situation that he became inspired and wrote a song about it.

In his song, Grant begins:

"There’s pirates and smugglers in Cornwall

Ain’t telling you nothing new

But I never knew there were cowboys

To add to the motley crew.

He then goes on to say how parking companies are out to 'scam' tourists, and are 'rubbing their hands in glee' as 'another mug gets a hefty fine'.

You can take me to court, have me put behind bars

But ain’t gonna pay your ludicrous fine

The law is a wall to keep us all safe

Not for crooks to lurk behind

You need to pay back all those you’ve ripped off

Say sorry to those you’ve fined

This song may even go viral

You can never tell these days

Mightn’t look so good on your LinkedIn Page

When I’ve shared your despicable ways."

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High Wycombe shoppers are reportedly receiving £70 ParkingEye parking charges for the heinous crime of shopping at Aldi:

https://www.bucksfreepress.co.uk/news/23805650.high-wycombe-shopper-hits-aldi-70-parking-fine/

A shopper said they have been ‘put off’ shopping at Aldi after receiving a £70 fine for a 45-minute parking session.

“The last two times I have been in, the ANPR cameras haven’t recognised my car on entry, so I’ve had to manually type in the details of my registration with the help of staff members.  But a few weeks after my most recent visit, I got a warning letter and then a fine in the post issuing a penalty of £70 for staying there for a total of 47 minutes!"

Commenting in the High Wycombe Facebook group, others shared their experiences of receiving penalty notices from the supermarket, with Alex Adkins writing: “I clocked the notices when they first introduced the system but still forget. The system isn’t customer friendly – I wonder how many customers won’t shop there now because of it.”

ParkingEye and the BPA must be so proud.

Can't even be bothered to put ANY signs at the accessible bays:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/sDtnNygZEbUWxd4w6

Shame on you for repeatedly doing this, ParkingEye.  No signs at all at the bays where people are likely to be slower shoppers. Loads of evidence in the pictures in the DLUHC Call for Evidence thread. Almost like it's normal.

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"Man awarded compensation after parking firm hounded him for money five years after alleged offence"

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/man-awarded-compensation-after-parking-27796666

David Goffart won £200 in costs after a parking company tried to fine him for allegedly incorrectly parking in Newport, Wales.  Other than a reminder notice in March 2018, Mr Goffart said he didn’t receive any further correspondence from New Generation until May this year, when DCB Legal wrote on behalf of the parking company demanding £160 and threatening further costs if he failed to pay.

Mr Goffart said the letter left him feeling stressed and harassed. The paper says he received what they call the "£160 fine" (court claim) from New Generation Parking Management Ltd in May 2023, more than five years after an alleged motoring offence in January 2018 in the car park of Malpas Road shopping area.

"I tried to remember what had happened and still thought I’d done nothing wrong,” Mr Goffart explained. “As I felt they caused me a lot of stress with this, I decided I wanted to counter sue.”

Mr Goffart said he’s “very pleased” with the outcome of his case at Pontypridd County Court on Friday, September 8, claiming that the company had harassed him, caused him unnecessary stress and pursued him without evidence.

The court found that while it couldn’t award Mr Goffart his full claim of £1,000, it could award him £200 in costs, determining that the company had pursued Mr Goffart with no evidence of a parking infringement.  

He said: "Too many people just accept these fines. At the end of the day it was a bogus parking fine that wouldn’t stand up in court.”

New Generation Parking Management Ltd was contacted for comment but hadn't responded by the time of publication.

This would have been discontinued had he not counterclaimed, but at least he got his costs back and utterly wasted the time and money of the bulk litigators and NGM.

Amusingly, they think my ticket-fighter friend from Wales, Sue Prior is a lawyer!

His lawyer who represented him in court, Susan Prior, explained: "David was awarded costs in this case despite the counterclaim failing because of the unreasonable conduct of New Generation. Judges can at their discretion apply costs in the small claims arena when a party is shown to have acted in a manner which is contrary to that of any reasonable person."

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Furious KFC customer is hit with £100 parking fine 'after it took over an hour to get served at a drive-thru:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12517751/Furious-KFC-customer-fined-hour-drive-thru.html

Aysha Begum was left fuming after she was fined £100 despite her claiming it was because it took over an hour to get served at a drive thru. She stopped to grab her favourite £4.99 Zinger chicken wrap on her way home from the gym only to receive a letter weeks later saying she had overstayed the 30 minute parking restriction while waiting to order and must pay up.

Aysha insists she only visited the drive thru lane and didn't park her car at all but was 'stunned' when a fine landed on her doorstep.  She said: 'I thought I'd get an apology from KFC or maybe a voucher for having to wait so long but instead I have this fine.  When I first got the letter I thought it was fraud because it was so unlikely I got a ticket in a drive thru but when I saw it had a picture of my car I genuinely thought it was an error on their part and called them up to say I was a paying customer at KFC assuming they would void it.

She contacted KFC & the parking company Euro Car Parks "but neither was willing to look at her case". The community worker from Tower Hamlets, east London, is currently out of work on a career break and says she won't pay the fine and is willing to take it to court.

The BPA and Euro Car Parks must be so proud.

This is why they did the Judicial Reviews, is it?

So, in your PPC World cloud cuckoo land, this is parking management, is it?

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Patrons of a retail park are charged £100 by UK Parking Control Ltd (UKPC) for - reportedly - no valid reason, due to new restrictions that no-one knew about:

https://www.worcesternews.co.uk/news/23802817.car-meet-group-fined-eight-times-blackpole-retail-park/

"EIGHT parking fines have been dished out to members of a car meet group following new restrictions at a retail park - despite the friends eating at McDonald's."

Mr Mathias claims the group of friends are often not in the retail park for very long and yet they are still being landed with the fines.  He said: "There have been a lot of cameras added to the retail park to crackdown on groups that may be causing a nuisance but we have been getting fines for no real reason at all. We may meet up in the evening and get some food from Maccies but then get hit with a fine which seems very unfair."

He said: "We have literally done nothing wrong, the situation is getting extreme and a lot of people are suffering. We want to raise the awareness of the situation because if it is happening to us, it may be happening to other people as well."

Shame on you:

Blackpole Retail Park 

UKPC

McDonalds

Legal and General Investment Management who actually swallowed the line that "locals were complaining" ....course they were...there was "car park abuse" wasn't there?  Maybe "boy racers"?

Or maybe, just maybe, someone invented it.

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Up to Scotland now for this one, where people were falsely accused of not paying to park:

Controversial Inverness car park operators 'finally admit' error

Three stories this month alone about Britannia Parking reportedly ripping people off at £100 a pop:

https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/news/complaints-mounting-about-inverness-city-centre-car-park-325921/

https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/news/more-complaints-about-inverness-city-centre-car-park-326207/

https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/news/controversial-inverness-car-park-operators-finally-admit-e-327309/

"A driver has reported victory in his efforts to take on the operators of an Inverness car park that has attracted a flurry of complaints. The Courier previously reported how complaints have been mounting over procedures at the car park at the Rose Street Retail Park in Inverness, operated by Britannia Parking.  Dozens of drivers voiced their concerns both about their experience in the car park itself and in trying to deal with the company when many believed they had been wrongly fined for non payment of tickets.

David Scott was among those who previously told how he had properly paid for a parking ticket at the site but still received a fine. He says he has now received a letter of apology from the company after complaining.

"Britannia Parking finally admitted it was a mistake that they fined me for supposedly not paying," he said.
"I bet there are hundreds of people who have been unfairly fined at Rose Street. People may feel it's pointless contacting the company and trying to debate the matter but it just shows that it can pay off. But if I didn't have proof that I paid by card then would they have believed me?"

In the letter Britannia say they are investigating the issue to avoid further issues:

"We have discovered a technical issue with the pay machine on site which meant that your parking transactions made to the affected machine were not being received by our back office system. We have managed to rectify this issue and your parking transaction data has now been uploaded and parking charge notice has been cancelled. We are completing a full investigation as to why we are not receiving the machine transactions, to prevent a re-occurrence of this issue happening again."

Questions remain about how many such apology Britannia has had to send out and whether the company has or will cancel all fines issued as a result of the faulty machine.

Above all, how many people have faced the worry and stress of being incorrectly fined?

Britannia Parking has been contacted for comment.

Bet they have.  This is parking management, is it?

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And now to Ireland for this novel article about APCOA wrongly clamping a paying patron's car:

Determined mum took clampers to court over fine and won

'I would say to motorists everywhere stand up to the clamping bullies.'

https://www.belfastlive.co.uk/news/determined-mum-took-clampers-court-27766941

A determined mum who went to court to challenge a clamping fine, has admitted she was afraid when she first took on the case.  But Maria O'Connor, 40, from Navan, Co Meath emerged victorious and has spoke out about her parking drama and how she wasn't prepared to just accept the fine. 

She recalled:

"I used the APCOA app to buy a ticket for two hours and went back with 45 minutes still left on it to update it and couldn't believe I had been clamped. I rang APCOA and they insisted it was cash only in that carpark and a pay and display ticket had to be used that using the app did not work. I pointed out that there were no signs anywhere in the place to say that but they wouldn't budge on it until I paid the €125 declamping fee."

"I was angry over that but what really made me determined was that six days later a neighbour came to me and said that when she had exactly the same situation in exactly the same place they refunded her fee.

I emailed APCOA three or four times and they wouldn't change their minds so I decided to go to the small claims court.  I had never been in court in my life until last Friday ... but I told the judge exactly what had happened and that there was no signage there to say "cash only" or "pay and display" he agreed.  A man from APCOA argued their case but the judge ruled in my favour and ordered them to refund me the €125. Before it went to court I highlighted the issue in local media and within days proper signage did go up but there was none there then.

My husband Alan O’Connor is a miner in Tara Mines and is currently out of work with the mines closing and that’s why €125 is precious to me. That is the reason for trying to get my money back through the court. APCOA taking money from ordinary hard working people who do right really upsets me.

'I would say to motorists everywhere stand up to the clamping bullies.'

The BPA and APCOA must be so proud.

A Judge agreed there had been no proper signage.  And an app that takes money but "doesn't work"...

This is parking management, is it?