Parking stories in the News/media

Thorndorise

Oh dear, Cornwall is facing an onslaught of potential private parking takeovers...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c89y8gz2173o

Anger over car park 'offload' plan

Cornwall Council has agreed the car parks, with a total of 2,123 spaces, can be leased to its arms-length company Corserv Solutions Ltd and are likely to be run by a private car park enforcement company using ANPR equipment.

Coupon-mad

Thorndorise said:
Oh dear, Cornwall is facing an onslaught of potential private parking takeovers...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c89y8gz2173o

Anger over car park 'offload' plan

Cornwall Council has agreed the car parks, with a total of 2,123 spaces, can be leased to its arms-length company Corserv Solutions Ltd and are likely to be run by a private car park enforcement company using ANPR equipment.

ANPR is illegal for parking enforcement of spaces provided by/sites owned by councils, under the Deregulation Act 2015.

But hey, never mind that small detail, eh Councils? There's a way round it -  create an arms-length company like Ipserv and Corserv and do whatever you damn well like.

Wonder if the BPA's finest smarmy 'speeding loophole lawyer' Derek Millard-Smith suggested this to councils who complained about not being allowed to use ANPR/CCTV for parking enforcement?

It reads like the BPA were all over this, IMHO. Wouldn't surprise me at all if this was suggested as a 'solution' within the Special Interest groups the BPA has.

Where's the social responsibility here, to minimise camera surveillance and avoid unchecked DVLA data harvesting, risk to credit ratings and the horrific effect on social mobility, jobs, mortgages and peace of mind. 

Does the social duty to minimise consumer harm from controversial / rogue industries not matter any more to councils, nor even to Government?

Alpha2011

Latest one I’ve seen on BBC Look North (East Yorkshire & Lincolnshire) where the motorists of Louth are being scammed by Total Parking Solutions for apparently not purchasing tickets for their car park. This, despite the fact that these same motorists did indeed purchase tickets.

BBC Look North invited TPS on to the programme but, surprise surprise, they declined to do so. They are, however, “investigating” the aforementioned “issues” with their ANPR system. Well, of course they will!! 

patient_dream

With all these scams exposed by the media ... WHERE IS RACHEL FROM ACCOUNTS ??
There must be a fortune to be made

Nellymoser

https://www.cornish-times.co.uk/news/car-parks-preying-on-peoples-mistakes-and-fears-says-motorist-in-cornwall-772477

A Cornish women while using a garage loan car made a VRM entry mistake at Porthpean car park last June. 

Armtrac Security Services wanted £60 for her error, the woman said she offered to pay the £20 admin fee but the company declined this. They are demanding full payment and pursuing her for it.

She feels the PP operator “has not been reasonable and fair”. “My appeal was declined. I have had dozens of threatening texts, emails, phone calls and, more recently, a letter stating unless I pay £245, I'll be taken to court."

She shouldn't worry. Armtrac have just lost at Truro court and had to pay costs to the woman who'd paid to park but selected wrong car reg on the app.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81322929/#Comment_81322929

Thorndorise

This is troubling - seems a loophole in PPC's being able to circumvent the process for attaining the keeper details by contacting this company and finding out if a car is leased/hired so that they can send a NTH immediately...

As a side note, yet another company that IPC have brought into their fold that doesn't have the legally required company details on their homepage...

Process works like this (apparently) 

How it works:

• before sending the data request to the DVLA the parking operator runs an automated check against Transfer360.
• If the vehicle is owned by a hire company we will automatically send the parking operator the hirer’s details
• A Notice to Hirer can be sent immediately. 

https://www.transfer360.co.uk/

Castle

Thorndorise said:

This is troubling - seems a loophole in PPC's being able to circumvent the process for attaining the keeper details by contacting this company and finding out if a car is leased/hired so that they can send a NTH immediately...

A Notice to Hirer must be accompanied by a copy of the NTK, which they won't have.

1505grandad

Reported to the Forum 20th December 2022:-

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6412280/does-a-2022-ipc-award-winner-scheme-mean-that-hire-lease-docs-now-pofa-compliant-and-can-avoid-dvla#latest

Fruitcake

Castle said:

Thorndorise said:

This is troubling - seems a loophole in PPC's being able to circumvent the process for attaining the keeper details by contacting this company and finding out if a car is leased/hired so that they can send a NTH immediately...

A Notice to Hirer must be accompanied by a copy of the NTK, which they won't have.

That's fine for those savvy enough to know this, but not for the average motorist who knows nothing about this unregulated industry and immediately pays the mugs' discount, or blabs about the driver's identity.

ChirpyChicken

Most parking firms don't include documents as they don't do it manually 
Only a few do.