Parking stories in the News/media

Nellymoser

The RingGo app has gone down leaving drivers unable to pay

PPCs will no doubt silently be delighted to hear that!

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/parking-nightmare-ringgo-app-goes-092914469.html

Many affected users at RingGo's 17,000 locations have taken to social media to report the problem and expressed deep concern over the possibility of receiving PCNs while the service remains offline and is unable to process payments.

RingGo said they have informed operators of the issue and asked them to suspend parking enforcement until resolved.

Well that's unlikely to happen. It's beyond the capabilities of the 'expert' PPCs as shown in the *above article....Creative Car Park FAILED to suspend parking enforcement at a church's car park as they were asked to do for those attending the funeral service.

EDIT - *I meant article in previous post.

Jenni_D

It's not just private parking areas that use RingGo ... many councils use them too (such as Glasgow, for example).

BlueonBlue

As if this wasnt ever going to happen .......

ChirpyChicken

Jenni_D said:

It's not just private parking areas that use RingGo ... many councils use them too (such as Glasgow, for example).

Jenni_D said:

It's not just private parking areas that use RingGo ... many councils use them too (such as Glasgow, for example).

indeed it is used every where

MothballsWallet

Nellymoser said:

The RingGo app has gone down leaving drivers unable to pay

PPCs will no doubt silently be delighted to hear that!

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/parking-nightmare-ringgo-app-goes-092914469.html

Many affected users at RingGo's 17,000 locations have taken to social media to report the problem and expressed deep concern over the possibility of receiving PCNs while the service remains offline and is unable to process payments.

RingGo said they have informed operators of the issue and asked them to suspend parking enforcement until resolved.

Well that's unlikely to happen. It's beyond the capabilities of the 'expert' PPCs as shown in the above article....Creative Car Park FAILED to suspend parking enforcement at a church's car park as they were asked to do for those attending the funeral service.

IMO, it should be in the contracts between RingGo and any parking operator that works with them that states should RingGo inform the operator that their system is down, the parking operator must suspend enforcement until the system is back or face penalties for breach of contract.

But, of course, we all know that will never happen due to the money.

Coupon-mad

Plan A strikes again in a Horizon camera 'enforced' car park which is shared between Tesco and McDonalds, yet Horizon thinks it's OK to impose a completely insufficient blanket 15 minutes free stay after 4pm on Sundays.

Tesco is closing at that time (but still serving people completing their shopping purchases at tills well after 4pm) but McDonalds invites customers all evening.

15 minutes stay doesn't cover any delay caused by McDonalds or even a slight queue at the drive-thru!

https://www.southwalesguardian.co.uk/news/25772254.man-fined-waiting-food-new-ammanford-mcdonalds/

McDonalds cancelled it, of course.

Coupon-mad

Whitstable teacher first hears very, very late about an unfair parking charge, reportedly almost THREE YEARS later:

https://www.kentonline.co.uk/whitstable/news/i-got-parking-charge-two-years-after-shopping-centre-visit-335397/

Whitstable teacher hit with parking charge more than two years after breaching ‘ridiculous rules’ at Prospect Way Retail Park

A teacher has been given a parking charge almost three years after falling foul of “ridiculous” rules at a controversial shopping centre. Monika Wentowska made the mistake of visiting Prospect Way Retail Park in Whitstable twice within a four-hour period on March 27, 2023 - breaching the site’s “no returns” policy.

A pointless policy for supermarkets and shoppers, for obvious reasons.

She was only made aware of the infraction last November when a “Final Notice” letter arrived from operator ParkingEye threatening her with court proceedings unless she pays £100.

“The scary thing is that this is my local shopping centre - I was not aware of this ‘no returns’ policy and I am there all the time,” she added.

A spokesperson for ParkingEye says an initial correspondence was sent last April and that to contest the charge, Ms Wentowska should have saved her receipts to prove she had been a genuine customer on the day.

Who keeps receipts for THREE YEARS?! Even if it was in fact 'last April' as PEye say - 2025 - nobody could have a receipt if they paid in cash and returned for a forgotten item a year ago.

Take a bow, heartless ParkingEye.

Your MO reported by a staff whistleblower is appalling and drives customers away. Remember the admission of a 'rape and pillage' approach to retail parks?

http://parking-prankster.blogspot.com/2016/12/parkingeye-employee-reveals-their-rape.html?m=1

Will they ever be banished from High Streets or even properly curbed from ruining lives?

Just look at the consumer blame from the spokesperson, against a genuine shopper who is there frequently (which their recent ANPR records would show).

Nobody has stopped them or their ilk and it just gets worse every year. Appalling.

Coupon-mad

This article is about unsuitable council restrictions which is causing shops to close:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2xpnddyn2o

These retailers & councillors know that a max 2 hours parking limit isn't sufficient and are looking to change it to allow 3 hours. Councillor Lewis Bartoli said a proposal to introduce a three-hour limit, using parking disks, was rejected by the authority about 10 years ago, but believes it should be looked at again.

This is very reminiscent of the way ANPR firms ruin private land retail parks & supermarkets by persuading idiot retailers to reduce time limits to far too low unworkable limits which ensure that disabled and elderly people - and those doing a big shop - are ALWAYS most likely to be caught out.

Seen from the likes of the biggest BPA players like ParkingEye, who even sign off the planning alteration applications. I saw one where 'Aldi' (or was it ParkingEye?) got away with reducing the (IMHO perfectly reasonable; I know the Portslade area) '3 hours stay'. This is a site where the planning consent says that the car park had to also serve the local high street, not just Aldi. So, clearly there has to be sufficient time to walk around and use the local small shops & businesses, not just to shop at the supermarket.

'Aldi' (or was it ParkingEye?) finally got it down to just 90 minutes free stay, citing (IMHO) typical self-serving parking-firm-speak drivel about "improving footfall".

And the council finally agreed it after 'Aldi' (or was it ParkingEye?) kept coming back at them, following a refusal.

Bizarrely, Aldi went along with all of it, even after being fined for trying to make the changes too soon:

https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/9031524.aldi-fined-for-breaking-law-on-parking-charges-at-portslade-store/

"Aldi has admitted breaking the rule by only allowing one hour’s free stay at its Portslade store. No one from the firm appeared in court yesterday (in 2011) but the company was fined £600 and ordered to pay £1,215 costs after pleading guilty by letter.

Under the conditions of the development at Carlton Terrace, the chain must provide three hours’ free parking to ease pressure on shoppers in Portslade."

But all those good intentions ended when 'Aldi' (or was it ParkingEye?) carried on like a dog with a bone and succeeded in wearing down the Council.

There's more. It was unreported but 'Aldi' (or was it ParkingEye?) were told to take down some new, sneakily added signs that wrongly said 'Aldi Customers Only'. I know because a local contact of mine on a football forum reported them!

Shocking. A Classic example of the tail wagging the dog.

The only BIG difference between the above linked BBC article and private land, is that retail parks are NEVER seen to increase free parking time because they deludedly let the tail wag the dog.

Utterly cluelessly not realising what the ANPR firm has imposed or heavily persuaded them to agree to, is ALWAYS going to be knowingly tight. It has to be tight, or the 'outrageous scammer' would make no money of course. 

This absurd situation all flows from the fact that ANPR firms run retail sites like a protection racket.

Either

(as proved by the whistleblower Parking Prankster blog linked in my earlier post, above):

"we'll look after your spaces free, guv, as long as we can sue the slowest shoppers ... and  we'll run it with a fixed 'free stay' - our signs won't offer any time adjustments for disability - and you must let us deal with any 'noise' because we're specialists, dontcha know."

or
(worse, as was revealed in the various court hearings in ParkingEye v Beavis yet NOBODY except one dissenting judge thought this was a punitive and questionable business practice)...

"we'll not only look after your spaces free, guv, but we'll promise to pay you c£1000 PER WEEK from the ill-gotten gains because we know from experience that (after the first few weeks massive windfall profits for us) we'll always continue to catch out dozens and dozens of your stores' customers every week, because 2 hours is really, really tight for a fairly large multi-store site ... but you won't ever be told that. You can trust us because we're specialists, dontcha know."

Coupon-mad

Nellymoser said:

https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-10454/

There will be a Westminster Hall debate on the potential merits of regulating airport drop-off charges on Tuesday 13 January. The debate will be opened by Yasmin Qureshi MP.

https://parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/3b100e23-876c-4c28-b7ed-267700e34d38

On 13 January 2026 this Westminster Hall debate, which can be read here:

Hansard and Parallel Parliament

...highlighted growing criticism of airport "kiss and fly" drop-off charges, which are increasingly seen as excessive, hidden profit drivers rather than just congestion management tools.

And this issue rumbles on:

'Serious concerns' raised over 'unfair' East Midlands Airport parking fines 

One MP has said the current system is 'stacked against ordinary travellers'

https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/local-news/serious-concerns-raised-over-unfair-10761782.amp

Yes indeed.

They prey on human nature and bank on people forgetting once home and asleep, or back at work. Kiosk removal is seen as a cynical and deliberate move by parking firms (again, the tail wagging the dog).

And it's worth re-posting this useful evidence from Switcher_Sam who posted it in the Airport Drop Off Group thread:

Coupon-mad said: Please show a picture of the PCN offering £25 as the discount. That's very unusual.

Here is "My" PCN following transfer of liability and also the cancellation letter - both mention that the £95 is initially discounted to £25

Interesting. £25 isn't a rip off!

IMHO, a discount that low is reasonable (e.g. having forgotten to pay the drop off fee, paying £15-£25 to end the matter is an option! It should be on offer with all Airport drop off PCNs.

Most are an extortionate £100 (reduced to £60) rip off.

Whilst the Government might struggle to dictate actual drop off fees because these are core 'prices', PCNs for alleged breach of contract are not. And the MHCLG is about to decide the levels of those.

I think the MHCLG should NOW (in the first iteration of the Code) set two different discount rates and give the Scrutiny Board the power to bring in other 'minor oversight' contraventions into a lower rate discount bracket as their regulatory knowledge and evidence bank grows, after the statutory Code is in force.

That way, it's a wake up call and not punitive as long as the MHCLG also corrects the error of discounts only being offered for 14 days which is far too short for postal PCNs and doesn't match LA & TFL postal PCN timelines which offer discounts for '21 days from service'.

14 days is only for windscreen PCNs but not in private parking 'cowboy' cloud cuckoo land!

Similarly, someone from Brighton got a £100 PCN from NCP in 2023 for daring to use the drop off zone at Gatwick Airport:
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/driver-uses-chatgpt-ai-100-29295189.amp

He got it reduced down to the early discount of £15 even though his appeal was late. Not bad.

But NCP have since abandoned the £15 discount and quadrupled it to £60 for no justification whatsoever.

The lower PCN discount examples (£15-£25)  show that a regime can easily operate at a lower level. Proves that £50 discounted to £25 (or even lower: how about £40/£20) is sustainable.

Why is this only seen at Luton?!

MHCLG what say you? If the PCN level isn't to be changed because you are scared of Judicial Review, instead set two levels of discount.

Kaizen2024

MothballsWallet said:

Nellymoser said:

The RingGo app has gone down leaving drivers unable to pay

PPCs will no doubt silently be delighted to hear that!

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/parking-nightmare-ringgo-app-goes-092914469.html

Many affected users at RingGo's 17,000 locations have taken to social media to report the problem and expressed deep concern over the possibility of receiving PCNs while the service remains offline and is unable to process payments.

RingGo said they have informed operators of the issue and asked them to suspend parking enforcement until resolved.

Well that's unlikely to happen. It's beyond the capabilities of the 'expert' PPCs as shown in the above article....Creative Car Park FAILED to suspend parking enforcement at a church's car park as they were asked to do for those attending the funeral service.

IMO, it should be in the contracts between RingGo and any parking operator that works with them that states should RingGo inform the operator that their system is down, the parking operator must suspend enforcement until the system is back or face penalties for breach of contract.

But, of course, we all know that will never happen due to the money.

Or just use the payment terminal, and if there are none; don’t park.