Parking stories in the News/media

Nellymoser

https://www.andoveradvertiser.co.uk/news/25965668.lidl-bring-new-parking-controls-andover-car-park/

Lidl has lodged a detailed car park management plan to Test Valley Borough Council. The planned measures are intended to ensure the car park operates efficiently while limiting overspill parking onto neighbouring streets.

ANPR cameras will be installed with data overseen by Lidl’s parking management company. PCN will be used to enforce compliance with the 90min max stay and store's opening hours.

Lidl will fund the management of the car park, including maintenance and repair of lighting, barriers, gates, crash barriers, signage and white‑lining, along with general upkeep.

The plans, submitted to TVBC on Thurs March 19 are yet to receive a public comment.

90mins? I presume that's to suit the Parking Management company rather than Lidl customers.

Jenni_D

It'll probably be Parking Eye, at a guess. That's exactly what they do with the Aldi and Lidl stores around here.

Coupon-mad

ParkingEye staff signed off the one I saw regarding Aldi Portslade which used to have (from the Planning consent) a carefully considered 3 hour free parking allowance to support local shops & businesses. ParkingEye wouldn't let it go. The Council initially refused then finally gave up and ParkingEye got their 90 minute restriction.

These 'give us a shorter free stay limit' planning applications are not retailer-led.

Bazarius

That’s correct . Andover have got 2 Lidls - the above is located at the town centre.

No problems there apart from the key pad tablet inside the store sometimes freezes . Never seen a single PCN reported in the local news from this car park .

The car park is generally quite at capacity everyday - I fail to understand how would they introduce pay to park there when it is right next to the Town shopping centre and bus station . Given the fact its signs conveys a strict condition that the driver must not leave the site - hence the key pad in the store to register on the way out by scanning the receipt.

If planning is granted it will only stop genuine patrons from finding a space . Or put them off and use the other Lidls located a couple of miles away .

I’m going to find out about this application and oppose it . It doesn’t benefit Lidls at all .

Half_way

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81945813#Comment_81945813

With the never ending pressures that small/local businesses are under did the local businesses association put up a fight over this?

Coupon-mad

No. There were some objections from individuals (as they tried for a one hour free stay first, which locals weren't happy with!) but ParkingEye had another go.

The 'Great Planning Approval Scam' relating to private car park was explained a few years ago, with a wealth of evidence from a guest blogger:

http://parking-prankster.blogspot.com/2017/12/the-great-private-car-park-planning.html?m=1

"For several years retired solicitor Robert Ransome had done some sterling work in listing private car parking sites that lacked planning approval."

Prankster Note

It is of course very worrying that private parking companies such as ParkingEye charge motorists huge sums for trivial overstays, while operating a deliberate policy of not complying with the law.

A ParkingEye employee confided their strategy to The Prankster

One thing to note that may be of interest to you motorists is that the majority of sites, there is no planning permission.

We operated a model of retrospective planning.

So get the go ahead from the client, bang the system in and then if there was any noise file a retrospective planning order.

Point was to save on costs. And it worked.

Coupon-mad

Here we have Sussex ex-wheelclamper pariahs, One Parking Solution reportedly ruining other businesses:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj4020lqe74o

Vanessa Boltwood, who runs the Post Office outside the parade, said:

"Our colleague got a £100 fine, customers also say they're getting fines. One lady went to the chemist [in the parade] then came to us and she got a fine.

"We're losing £200 to £300 a week in shop sales. We're all part of one family of Wick, I don't know why it's being segregated."

In an email seen by the BBC, a resident contacted One Parking Solution last month and the company replied that "all passengers and driver must remain on site". Businesses said that before, customers would get fined for parking over white lines or staying more than three hours, but not for leaving the parade on foot.

The latest signage states that CCTV, ANPR and mobile parking patrols operate at the site. One business has also put up a sign warning of the new rules.  Rachel Warren, owner of Sips and Giggles cafe, said:

"We're gutted by it, we're all being impacted. People have been scaremongered into not wanting to park here.

As far as we're concerned, Wick Parade is all the shops. The worst bit is most of us are small single businesses trying to survive."

Parking companies are like cuckoos in a nest when they infest sites. Or vultures.

The IPC must be so proud.

Jenni_D

Perhaps the shop owners/leaseholders should pursue a claim against the site owners/managing agents for contributory negligence, in allowing their subcontractor to impose parking rules that are directly leading to a loss of revenue for the shops? 😈

patient_dream

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81948255#Comment_81948255

The private parking industry is now a extortion racket

Jenni_D

Now? They've been that for a long time my friend. 😂