Parking stories in the News/media

Half_way

Even barriers cant hold them back, UKCPM ticketing on a residential site, where they have been kicked off and replaced with a barrier

https://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/news/23853206.bully-tactics-fine-given-parking-watford-home/

Coupon-mad

Idiots at Greene King sign the death warrant for yet another pub:
https://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/stoke-on-trent-news/stoke-trent-pub-warns-customers-8830275

Brindley Farm, in Etruria Valley you stupid clueless people.  Of course your customers and staff will be the ones caught. Your 'appeals' will fail. It's Britannia Parking who will just farm it out to BW Legal and race to court.

Your staff & customers will be sued.

That's what you've invited in.

Do you REALLY want to spend all day every day exempting vehicles from a scam you started?  You realise getting number-plates even a digit wrong costs £100?

COME ON pubs, hotels, gyms and other businesses.  ANPR is not the answer.  Had you not thought of simply making it worth their while for all these supposed 'fly parkers' to come in and have a drink/food?

They are all potential customers you idiots!  Instead you are using a sledgehammer to crack a nut and you will lose half your repeat customers within a year. 

Coupon-mad

Yet again, Britannia Parking:

https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/news/elderly-inverness-couple-fight-back-against-city-centre-park-329488/

"Mr West also wrote to trading standards telling them: “This company had been advised by ourselves that the situation at their facility in Inverness was causing financial demands to be made when there was a fault in the system.

“This should have triggered investigations to ensure that the error was corrected.  This was not done and has resulted in my wife being subjected once again to the same mistake, one which again she was able to counter, again by having retained her receipt.

This means that Britannia have been demanding payment from a significant number of customers who have paid on site but are unable to provide the receipt proof.”

He also went on to estimate the potential scale of the issue: “The letter we wrote to them highlighted the fact that there was an error and they needed to correct it. Well, the fact that they ignored that, because the second one was stimulated, proved that it was very convenient for them.

“The trouble is the abuse is making them a lot of money, so there is not a lot of incentive for them to stop the abuse unless they are called up. I have done a few estimations of the number of tickets that would have been issued and the amount of money involved is really quite substantial, because it is quite a busy car park and we are talking about £60 to £100 fines for everyone who is using it.

“I just estimated that there were 400 cars per day using the car park – I am sure there are actually a lot more – but there is no way of proving that.

“Assuming that even half paid by card this would leave 200 people per day subject to a £60 demand, equating overall to a total of £12,000 per day in erroneous payments.  Over a week, assuming my figure, the unwarranted demands would amount to £84,000. If people challenged the demand and exceeded the 14 days the daily charges would escalate to £20,000 per day or £140,000 a week.”

Mr West said he worried about the potential impact on the city centre if problems at the car park continue.

“The problem is that the town needs people to come in and so on and so forth, but if people are frightened to park they are not going to come into town, are they?” he said.

Mrs West added: “It is clearly having an effect on them because I have never seen so many empty parking spaces in this car park.”

Last month, in a letter to another disgruntled driver who managed to have an erroneous fine cancelled, Britannia Parking admitted issues at the site.

The BPA must be do proud.

This is how to kill high street shopping.

Coupon-mad

And the IPC must be so proud of this:

https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/alliance-parking-issues-fines-even-8797885.amp

Reportedly:

Alliance Parking issues fines even when their ticket machine is broken

"After receiving complaints about the firm, we tried repeatedly to contact Alliance Parking, run by Kevin McManus, but received no reply.

Many Cornwall Live readers have complained about Alliance Parking, here we take a look at the beleaguered firm" says Cormwall Live.

Who cares if they are beleaguered?

Hated, more like.  They don't even let keepers have their right to appeal. I'd be happy if they are among the first to be DVLA banned after the new statutory Code of Practice starts.

One victim summed up:

"For us, they’ve shot Polzeath businesses in the foot as we will never again visit and can only give poor recommendations on the experience."

Coupon-mad

Another proud moment for ParkingEye & the BPA:

https://www.thewestmorlandgazette.co.uk/news/23853125.kirkby-lonsdale-booths-angers-locals-new-parking-policy/

"Up until September 1, the car parks were operated by Westmorland and Furness Council (WFC) on behalf of Booths before a company called Parking Eye took over.

A spokesman for Booths said their customers had struggled to find spaces, prompting the changes".

Errrm. Who told you that?

What complaints were these?

Who exactly painted that picture? 

Apparently someone has pretended or convinced Booths that "customers were finding it hard to find a space" (yeah, right... where have we heard that old chestnut before, as an excuse to introduce ANPR?).

Its almost as if the parking operators create a problem or paint a picture using their data, that supports their own agenda.

And Supermarkets fall for it time after time.

So do plenty of Councils.  This one is having a whinge but ParkingEye know no-one will stop them.

patient_dream

Coupon-mad said:

Another proud moment for ParkingEye & the BPA:

https://www.thewestmorlandgazette.co.uk/news/23853125.kirkby-lonsdale-booths-angers-locals-new-parking-policy/


So do plenty of Councils.  This one is having a whinge but ParkingEye know no-one will stop them.

Parking Eye will not be immune from the new CoP as they have now joined THE ROGUE TRADERS CLUB

Coupon-mad

Take a bow, ParkingEye again for apparently using 'confusing' signs and an app that says 'no payment required', effectively preventing anyone from paying £2.20 and allegedly entrapping those using the facilities at a leisure centre for kids parties and sports clubs in the evenings into instead forking out £100:

https://www.westerntelegraph.co.uk/news/23858640.coleg-ceredigion-accused-moneymaking-car-park-trap/

One victim said:
“ I parked in the car park and attempted, three times, to pay for a two hour parking ticket which would have cost me £2.20.  I inputted my vehicle registration and location number as the signage requested, but every time a message came up saying ‘no payment required at this time'. I was attending a kids’ party at the leisure centre and I was parked there for around an hour and a half.  ...days later I received a £100 parking fine from Parking Eye in the post."

Then there's Dr Ieuan Davies, a consultant paediatrician WHO ACTUALLY PAID PARKINGEYE, LIKE HE'D FORGOTTEN HOW TO GOOGLE:

“On September 14 I spent a futile three-quarters of an hour attempting to pay for parking in an almost empty car park while my daughter was playing football on the Astro at the leisure centre adjacent to the car park,” he said.  “It was only after downloading an app that repeatedly failed to accept my payment that I re-read the confusing signs and realised that you can’t park in the college car park between 7am and 7pm. But by then, I’d been caught and recorded on camera.

So a fine was inevitable.”

NOT REALLY, BUT WE WON'T SAY WHY NOT.  Anyway, Dr Davies didn't do anything to avoid the so-called 'inevitable' PCN and was ordered to pay £100, however it was reduced to £60 as a result of his prompt payment.

Honestly what is the point, when people keep paying these "outrageous scams" (Hansard 2018)?

Dr Davies has contacted Cardigan Town Council and the principal of Coleg Ceredigion in an attempt to have the current situation reviewed. “Surely, if their motive was to secure parking for students and staff, then 8am to 4pm, Monday to Friday, would have been better, with ‘pay parking' available at all other times,” he said. 

Cardigan mayor Cllr Sian Maehrlein, has also confirmed that she has outlined her concerns regarding the Coleg Ceredigion car park to Parking Eye.

Big deal.  We can tell her what they'll say:

An imaginary ParkingEye spokesperson said:

 “The car park at INSERT NAME HERE is monitored by ANPR camera systems and has prominent and highly-visible signage throughout providing guidance on how to use the car park responsibly. .Parkingeye operates a BPA (British Parking Association) audited appeals process, which motorists can use to appeal their Parking Charge Notice. If anyone has mitigating circumstances, we would encourage them to highlight this by appealing. All motorists are also entitled to a further appeal via POPLA, the independent body which reviews all cases.”

Usual crap will be spouted.

Just get out, ParkingEye.  You are neither use nor ornament.  Get lost. IMHO what you do is ruin high streets and the likes of ANPR firms of your ilk are responsible for one of the reasons why so many shops have failed.

Coupon-mad

Yawn.  It's those "Bloodsuckers" (Hansard 2018) money-grabbing aggressors ParkingEye again:

https://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/angry-allen-parkingeye-dispute-after-8809968?utm_source=mynewsassistant.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=embedded_search_item_desktop

A motorist slapped with a parking fine when he was rushing to see his doctor says he won't be bullied into paying the £100 penalty. Allen Whitehead - who was later diagnosed with carbon monoxide poisoning - says he forgot to input his car registration into the GP practice system.  He says he parked for 13 minutes and later received a letter from ParkingEye requesting payment of a £100 'parking charge'.

Allen, 62, says he ignored the letter as he was very poorly but then he began to receive letters from a debt collection company followed by a legal firm which issued a claim against him for £266 in the county court.

Allen requested a hearing at the county court and filled in a box on a court form in his defence explaining he had been very ill, had forgotten about the need to enter his registration, and claimed that the car park in question should be considered a 'public car park' during opening hours and not 'private'. Allen - who worked in road haulage for a number of years - put himself down as an 'expert witness' and wrote: "I am an expert of over 35 years in road traffic law."

He hasn't heard back from the court and believes that because 20 days have passed, the case has 'timed out' and it is the end of the matter. He says the final letter received was a reduction in the charge to £20 which he did not pay.

He told Yorkshire Live he felt angered by the correspondence and had to spend around £25 on recorded delivery postage while dealing with the court proceedings.

Oh dear. Did he forget how to Google too, like Dr Davies who paid them?

Worse, Kirsty Hull, practice manager at Colne Valley Group Practice, said:

GET LOST WE DON'T CARE (effectively, but I am tongue in cheek paraphrasing and interpreting the meaning)

as she swallowed the ParkingEye line completely and heartlessly lectured patients about inputting their VRM.  As if it actually matters and as if that's something patients should have to worry about.  

Kick ParkingEye out then no-one there will have to worry about it.

How about putting patients first?  How about NOT using a parking firm?  GP surgeries don't need one.

patient_dream

Remember all the hoo hah the BPA PROPAGANDA machine pumped out about high streets ?? 

Seems like their other membership fools, the councils are doing just that ... destroying high streets

Inside Britain's rip-off parking hotspots: How extortionate council charges are killing High Streets as local authorities fleece drivers 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12629647/Inside-Britains-rip-parking-hotspots-cash-cow-drivers.html

Coupon-mad

Morrisons and/or this retail park need to kick Euro Car Parks out of this site, as this treatment of disabled shoppers breaches the Equality Act 2010:

https://www.chesterstandard.co.uk/news/23860169.chester-elderly-shopper-fuming-parking-fine-morrisons/

Come on, she's disabled and 92 years old.  You know her numberplate.

Add it to the white list.

WHY SHOULD SHE HAVE TO BEG TO BE EXEMPTED WHEN SHOPPING?

The BPA must be so proud.