Parking stories in the News/media

Nellymoser

If only every business was like this Darlington store....NCP told to cancel wrongly issued pcns and refund customers who paid their charge.

https://www.darlingtonandstocktontimes.co.uk/news/24958923.ncp-apologises-darlington-car-parking-fine-row/

NCP took over managing the store’s car park in Jan "during the ANPR camera set up the grace period was set incorrectly." 

Scary they're meant to be experts in parking management!

Umkomaas

Nellymoser said:

If only every business was like this Darlington store....NCP told to cancel wrongly issued pcns and refund customers who paid their charge.

https://www.darlingtonandstocktontimes.co.uk/news/24958923.ncp-apologises-darlington-car-parking-fine-row/

NCP took over managing the store’s car park in Jan "during the ANPR camera set up the grace period was set incorrectly." 

Scary they're meant to be experts in parking management!

It was free parking for customers of the store the couple were using (P&D charges for non-customers), so I suspect this might be more a case of not entering their VRM on an in-store tablet, than anything to do with grace period settings on this one. 

Still, a good example of how untrustworthy the equipment being used in the private parking sector is, with motorists paying the tab, and PPCs profiting from it. 

Coupon-mad

Abertillery Iceland:

Somebody needs to contact this journalist and link her to this post.

The journalist can be emailed:

demiceryscaddy@gmail.com

Please tell her - and tell Neil Milkins who has been posting on Facebook (see images) and really has the bit between his teeth - to send their evidence to the DVLA and the Information Commissioner's Office...

...and to get Neil's constituency MP to raise this case at the House of Commons debate on private parking on 6th May:

A Westminster Hall debate on parking regulation has been confirmed to take place on 6th May at 11:30am.

https://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/25098515.abertillery-iceland-illegitimate-parking-fine-complaints/

Here are the DVLA emails to copy in, for the Customer Complaint Resolution Team:

CCRT@dvla.gov.uk
and
KADOEservice.support@dvla.gov.uk
and
complaintsTeam@dvla.gov.uk

This is serious: allegations of illegal ticketing as a result of wide-angle CCTV filming all cars entering this SHARED site, where four of the spaces are owned by the Council.

Reportedly, the Council wrote to Iceland and ex-clampers Vehicle Control Services to remind them that 4 of the bays are Council owned. So they know. Not sure why the Council hasn't simply told them to take down the CCTV camera.

This situation means anyone whose data was harvested by VCS whose car was in one of the Council bays has had their data bought illegally.

VCS: have you refunded those who paid?

DVLA: will you grow a pair, investigate properly with Gwent Council - get on with it - and (if the evidence is there) suspend VCS, like you did other AOS firms caught issuing PCNs on council land? Or did you only bother to do that when (very robust) David Dunford was head of data complaints?

If this allegation is true, it breaches:

- DVLA KADOE rules.
- the DPA 2018
- UK GDPR 2018 and
- the ICO's Surveillance Camera Code of Practice.

It's because they are using hidden CCTV high on a building at the back of the area (you can tell from the pic in the PCN below) that they are capturing EVERY pedestrian and every vehicle arriving,

That's excessive and unjustified camera use. WHICH IS UNLAWFUL.

This is not a suitable site to run parking management by remote cameras.

Looks like (allegedly) VCS have been obtaining DVLA data without reasonable cause and issuing PCNs to pretty much every vehicle that enters (except permitted vehicles like Iceland vans, one assumes),

Top photo shows the 4 council bays on the right, positioned next to a VCS sign on the left:


Second & third images I got from GSV which shows the VCS signs on the other bays, plus a close up of the sign in the other side (Iceland):

Trustpilot:




This guy Neil Milkins needs to know to focus on complaints to the DVLA, ICO and encourage his MP to raise this case on 6th May or to pass this evidence to Martin Wrigley and Baggy Shanker to raise:

Coupon-mad

Yet another double dip case:

Horizon at Tesco yet again:

https://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/stoke-on-trent-news/tesco-says-sorry-kickboxing-couple-10000113.amp

He's complained to the BPA who will fob him off by lying that double dips are rare.

They aren't.

Coupon-mad

And ParkingEye issuing a rip-off £100 demand to a lady who drove in and out in SIX MINUTES because she discovered the machine was only taking coins, so she left:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14610257/amp/car-park-fine-five-minutes-rip-off.html

'I won't pay it. That is a lot of money and I am not at fault, I saw I could not pay and I left.

'I am happy to fight this one they can do what they want. I work hard for my money and I don’t want to give it to thieving cowboys. 

'It does not give Weymouth a good reputation. I have looked online and it seems to happen all the time there. It feels like I've been mugged.

I think five minutes is unreasonable because by the time you've pulled up, got out of the car, made your way over to the ticket machine and read the signs, your time is up and you'll be fined.'

ParkingEye cancelled it AFTER the paper got in touch and called it 'a gesture of goodwill'.

She's right. 5 mins in an 'ANPR & pay machine' car park is never enough. Should be 10 or 15 mins.
 

Coupon-mad

Shopper commits the heinous crime of returning to a shopping park because they forgot something.

Despite '3 hours free' being offered by air-wasters HX Parking, they sent the victim a ludicrous £100 rip-off charge on the excuse of a pointless 'no return' rule which has no legitimate interest in cases where people have not (overall) exceeded the three hours:

https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news/5224349/dunfermline-retail-park/

Of course they cancelled it when the newspaper started sniffing around.

What's the matter with people though, seemingly not Googling it or already knowing to ignore private PCNs in Scotland?

Coupon-mad

Another clueless Scottish victim actually thought they had to pay Group Nexus:

https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news/fife/5163384/glenrothes-private-car-park/

Shock at £60 Glenrothes private car park charge for 18-minute stay

"A Fife mum says the fine is unjust and has warned other drivers to be on their guard.

Craig Annan, 20, parked at the Saltire Centre in Glenrothes at 11pm last April. And he was shocked to receive a parking charge notice through the post weeks later.

It turns out that, while it is free to park there for two hours during the day, there is a £5 charge after 9pm."

Why not warn people to remember to Google and learn about scams* like this and that you fin't have to pay, certainly not in Scotland! 

*yep - 'scam' - Group Nexus: kindly explain why the text about the unexpected evening charge in a free car park is in far smaller font than the rest?



Why would you do that, Group Nexus, unless you deliberately want people to miss that smaller line of text in the dark?

Fruitcake

Another load of tosh from a journo'. This could be a good article if they had done their research, but of course they didn't.

Car park firm accused of targeting elderly drivers who won’t fight back

1505grandad

Anybody know what the ".....DVLA guidance for Blue Badge use."  that the ppc religiously follows?

Can't find any reference to this guidance via Google but can find the following in the KADOE contract:-

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/current_dvla_kadoe_agreement_for/response/2567601/attach/4/FOIR11172 UK Car Park Management Ltd Redacted.pdf?cookie_passthrough=1

"F3. Discrimination

F3.1. The Customer must not unlawfully discriminate either directly or indirectly or by way of victimisation or harassment against a person on such grounds as age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, colour, ethnic or national origin, sex or sexual orientation, and without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing the Customer must not unlawfully discriminate within the meaning and scope of the Equality Act 2006 and 2010 (as amended), the Human Rights Act 1998 (as amended) or other relevant or equivalent legislation, or any statutory modification or re-enactment thereof.

F3.2. The Customer shall take all reasonable steps to secure the observance of clause F3.1 by all of its Staff."

Fruitcake

1505grandad said:

Anybody know what the ".....DVLA guidance for Blue Badge use."  that the ppc religiously follows?

It doesn't exist. This was a poorly researched article where the journo' never bothered to check facts. Use of the word fines and penalties, no mention that the BB scheme doesn't apply on private land, mention of guidance that doesn't exist, no mention of of the EA 2010, etcetera.
No mention of the important stuff at all.
I tried posting on the news website but wasn't able to.