Parking stories in the News/media

Coupon-mad · 15 February at 12:41AM

And notorious Council-connected (horrific reputation on this forum), IpServ have managed to talk East of England Co-op at Prettygate, Colchester into letting them inflict 24/7 surveillance and to sue the customers of the Co-op and other small businesses:

https://www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/25776196.concerns-anpr-installed-prettygate-coop-shop/

What a wonderful scam this will be for unsuspecting customers of the Co-op and those other shops, who will be used to free parking and will have no idea which bays are which, or that they are being covertly filmed.

Nellymoser · 15 February at 9:39AM

Who will win this battle?

East Lothian Council has been warned it faces a 'war' in North Berwick over the introduction of parking charges

https://news.stv.tv/east-central/furious-residents-warn-east-lothian-council-of-war-over-north-berwick-parking-charges

New paying meters have been vandalised, charge signs have been spray-painted with the word 'resist' and a new campaign is now urging residents to flood the local authority complaints dept with formal complaints.

Nellymoser · 15 February at 9:47AM

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/756036

This one attracted signatures at speed hitting 189,953 signatures within a couple of wks and it doesn't close until 5th Aug.

Parliament considers all petitions that get more than 100,000 signatures for a debate

Waiting for 5 days for a debate date

MothballsWallet · 15 February at 1:02PM

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81885284#Comment_81885284

That's the one started by the BlackBeltBarrister himself, Daniel Shensmith, KC.

Coupon-mad · 15 February at 7:27PM

Yet another elderly couple caught out when shopping and they thought it was a 'fine' and were so scared they paid it:

https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/25849508.sussex-couples-anger-receiving-sainsburys-parking-fine/

They aren't the first to be caught by this. Articles since it started include:

A parking system at a Horsham supermarket is being blamed for causing customers ‘stress and annoyance.’

https://www.sussexexpress.co.uk/news/people/parking-fines-at-horsham-supermarket-causing-stress-and-annoyance-5180666

The system was introduced at Sainsbury’s store in Worthing Road, Horsham, in June last year when shoppers were told they could park for free for up to two hours if they spent £10 or more in the supermarket.
Customers are required to scan their till receipts at parking machines outside the store as proof of purchase before leaving the car park. But many have complained at receiving parking fines, despite obeying the ‘rules.’
And some say they now shop elsewhere because of the fear of being wrongly fined: “I rarely go to Sainsbury’s now because of having to do this! Who needs all that stress?” And another added: “I'm surprised Sainsbury's haven't sorted something out, this is losing them customers.”
Others pointed out that they had taken their receipts to the store’s customer service desk after wrongly receiving fines and the fines had been cancelled. Another shopper advised others: “If you have spent the money in Sainsbury's, show your receipt or maybe bank statement and they should cancel it. If I go there I take a photo of the parking meter. I tend not to go now due to the parking as I’m too worried about it.”

Warnings on Parkopedia but nobody consults that before supermarket shopping:

Sainsburys refunded it for this latest duped couple due to the Argus article, but - reportedly - with no apology whatsoever.

And it reads as if the refund came from the retailer and Euro Car Parks trousered the money.

Awww…they need it to pay their massive CMA fine!

1505grandad · 15 February at 8:52PM

I wish that all these horrendous articles emphasised that the only way usually for these charges to be sent out is because the DVLA sell the motorists private data willy-nilly to the scammers without any manual checks.