Parking stories in the News/media

Coupon-mad

Nellymoser said:

Private Parking Company continues to issue PCNs to drivers parked in free public spaces.

https://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/25761556.drivers-issued-fines-parking-abertillerys-iceland/

Since March 2025 Neil Milkin, 74, has received FIVE incorrect PCNs. He along with ‘dozens of other people,’ is so fed up with this Neil intends to file a small claims case for damages for the harassment and stress.

See Neil's 2/1/2026 email sent to Vehicle Control Services on Trustpilot (and his other 3 reviews)

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/vehiclecontrolservices.co.uk

Neil had contacted the police saying this is a criminal matter, and they said it’s a civil matter, not a police matter.

The TrustPilot Reviews speak for themselves!

Below is is the original post on this saga, from April. Why hasn't the DVLA banned VCS?

Coupon-mad said:

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: 

kryten3000

Nellymoser said:

Private Parking Company continues to issue PCNs to drivers parked in free public spaces.

https://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/25761556.drivers-issued-fines-parking-abertillerys-iceland/

Since March 2025 Neil Milkin, 74, has received FIVE incorrect PCNs. He along with ‘dozens of other people,’ is so fed up with this Neil intends to file a small claims case for damages for the harassment and stress.

See Neil's 2/1/2026 email sent to Vehicle Control Services on Trustpilot (and his other 3 reviews)

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/vehiclecontrolservices.co.uk

Neil had contacted the police saying this is a criminal matter, and they said it’s a civil matter, not a police matter.

Of course it's VCS who can never admit fault.  Remember this, posted by Jake last year around the time the "10 minute rule" was removed from the Single Code.  While VCS/Excel have their MD on the board of the IPC, they will never be sanctioned.  

Bazarius

kryten3000 said:

Nellymoser said:

Private Parking Company continues to issue PCNs to drivers parked in free public spaces.

https://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/25761556.drivers-issued-fines-parking-abertillerys-iceland/

Since March 2025 Neil Milkin, 74, has received FIVE incorrect PCNs. He along with ‘dozens of other people,’ is so fed up with this Neil intends to file a small claims case for damages for the harassment and stress.

See Neil's 2/1/2026 email sent to Vehicle Control Services on Trustpilot (and his other 3 reviews)

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/vehiclecontrolservices.co.uk

Neil had contacted the police saying this is a criminal matter, and they said it’s a civil matter, not a police matter.

Of course it's VCS who can never admit fault.  Remember this, posted by Jake last year around the time the "10 minute rule" was removed from the Single Code.  While VCS/Excel have their MD on the board of the IPC, they will never be sanctioned.  

Same goes for Kevin McManus’s Alliance parking . Their repeated  breaches are brushed under the carpet 

Coupon-mad

A duped judge has awarded £285.56 to be paid to ex-clamper aggressors EXCEL Parking. The poor Defendant was acting as Father Christmas in December 2024:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czdql77v0q2o.amp

That sum (sadly) tells us that the judge also wrongly awarded the double recovery of the fake £70 'debt recovery' fee that Excel paid to nobody, supposedly for 'enforcement' letters which are already covered by a £100 PCN.

...So said the Supreme Court in ParkingEye v Beavis (£85 PCN covered the costs of enforcement) but clearly, this judge was clueless that the minor cost of pre-action letters were being counted twice.

All for a keying error at notorious 'outrageous scam' site, Copeland Street, despite the fact most defendants in court win keying error cases because the parking firm has its money and there's no legitimate interest in punishing people for typos (or for dodgy keypads). Clearly unfair.

It proves why there MUST NOT be a £20 charge for mitigating circumstances in the statutory Code this year: that is NOT A CONSUMER SAFEGUARD and just paves the way to court anyway. PCNs must be cancelled so that these cases can't go back up to £100 (then inflated to the £170 fakery).

The IPC comment actually shows why this 'blink and you miss it' £20 crap lets firms carry on using shonky keypads and blaming consumers: this conduct MUST be banned:

"The International Parking Community (IPC) said Excel Parking had acted within the Code of Practice. "The Code makes a Reduced Settlement Charge available for 14 days before it is increased back up to £100,"

Great. That's alright then is it, Will Hurley?

The defendant didn't even see that supposed email but even if he had, making consumers fund keying errors (or later be sued anyway) just perpetuates lazy & cheap ANPR regimes with secondhand machines. He even corrected the typing error thinking that would be seen.

The industry is a leech on the public. 

I don't know how these people sleep at night and live it up off these proceeds. Millions, in the case of rich owner of Excel (and of racehorses, mansions, cars & luxury yachts) Simon Renshaw-Smith...aka 'Captain Clampit':

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2713705/amp/The-parking-ticket-fat-cats-one-s-chum-Prezza-two-drive-Aston-Martins-Meet-men-ve-millions-motorists-misery.html

...many more millions are being trousered now. All at the expense of the public. This country is broken if this is made statutory.

patient_dream

A duped judge has awarded £285.56 to be paid to ex-clamper aggressors EXCEL Parking. The poor Defendant was acting as Father Christmas in December 2024:

We suffer with judges being duped by rogue traders. However, it is the ignorance of some judges who fail to understand the rogue trader industry
It must be down to the judges with sense to re-train Gullible judges
THOSE DUPED JUDGES SHOULD APPLY WHAT THEIR HIGHER AUTHORITY, THE SUPTRME COURT SAID .... "THE TICKET PRICE IS SET TO COVER THE OPERATION OF THE SCHEME"

No fake words like DEBT COLLECTION -- ADMIN -- DAMAGES
=========================
"The International Parking Community (IPC) said Excel Parking had acted within the Code of Practice. "The Code makes a Reduced Settlement Charge available for 14 days before it is increased back up to £100,"

Great. That's alright then is it, Will Hurley?

The joint code of practice is just a farce, a made up load of junk, not a law and nobody should accept the code

Kaizen2024

The joint code of practice is just a farce, a made up load of junk, not a law and nobody should accept the code

Except the above case confirms that this judge has interpreted the law as the full charge is lawful; therefore, offering a £20 settlement is a generous concession.

Bazarius

Kaizen2024 said:

The joint code of practice is just a farce, a made up load of junk, not a law and nobody should accept the code

Except the above case confirms that this judge has interpreted the law as the full charge is lawful; therefore, offering a £20 settlement is a generous concession.

Probably wasn’t properly defended . 

  Excel V Bennet failed application to appeal correctly stated that trivial errors are de minimis . 

If the £20 is lawful - why not pursue just for £20 plus court costs and fees ? 

The law doesn’t concern silly things like that - as long the operator is fully aware they have received the money for the parking session . 

If it wasn’t a valid parking session - the motorist should have got their money back but they didn’t …. So they kept that and pursued £170 on top of that …. 

They ought to be reasonable - your industry is far from being that ! 

Roll on the Statutory Code …. Can’t wait 

Coupon-mad

Kaizen2024 said:

The joint code of practice is just a farce, a made up load of junk, not a law and nobody should accept the code

Except the above case confirms that this judge has interpreted the law as the full charge is lawful; therefore, offering a £20 settlement is a generous concession.

Generous?! Your industry is having a laugh.

To allow this to continue just lets the likes
of Excel carry on setting people up to fail.

Why doesn't your industry stop running as protection rackets where you rock up to 'sort out your parking issues free'? How is it right or fair that your only income is from PCNs?

Banning that would solve most of the scammery. It obviously causes the greed. Trouble is, running (effectively) protection rackets and operating under a consumer blame culture is so entrenched that your motley crew can't see past it.

Nellymoser

Don't think this one's been posted:

The IAS Exposed: Why 94% of Parking Appeals Fail (And Why They Stopped Telling You)

https://www.parkdefend.co.uk/blog/ias-exposed-94-percent-parking-appeals-fail

The IPC's Response: Classic Corporate Deflection...

When confronted with these criticisms, the IPC told journalists: "It is worth reminding the public just how often they are able to park without any difficulty or disruption. That is the clearest sign that the sector is working, when parking is smooth, accessible, and uneventful."

Translation: "Most people don't get tickets, so stop complaining."

That's like saying "most houses don't get burgled, so we don't need police."

The issue ISN'T that most parking goes smoothly. The issue IS what happens to the 14.4 million drivers who do get tickets each year – and whether they have a fair chance of appealing.

With a 6% success rate at adjudication, the answer appears to be: no, they don't.

The system isn't broken. It's working exactly as designed – just not for motorists.

Lets hope the numpties at MHCLG can see the IAS was not designed for motorists and get it replaced ASAP.

kryten3000

Here's another one that I don't think has been posted from Sky News and Complaints Resolver Scott Dixon.

https://news.sky.com/story/the-loophole-that-could-help-you-avoid-parking-fines-13494194