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Parking stories in the News/media
Comments
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Another foolish landlord who has not done his homework on the parking scam
ANPR will mean a lack of customers, will struggle to pay his bills and a contract hat will cost thousands to get rid of the vermin
4 -
Cameras set up in WAITROSE Chipping Sodbury car park – but non-customers are still welcome
Are they? According to the temporary sign (above) put out during May they are NOT welcome.
The John Lewis Partnership, which runs Waitrose said “We apologise for the miscommunication in the new temporary signage, which has now been updated.”
https://yateandsodburyvoice.co.uk/2026/06/12/store-sets-up-cameras-in-car-park-but-non-customers-are-still-welcome/
4 -
Sainsbury's night workers hit with £100 pcns due to lack of communication between Sainsbury's and their parking operator Group Nexus.
No explanation from Sainsbury's but Group Nexus said a communication gap was to blame for the penalties, "we were not initially informed that Sainsbury's staff required night-time exemptions."
So Sainsbury's forgot they had staff working instore after 10pm and the expert parking management operator Group Nexus never thought to ask 🤦♂️
5 -
Apart from the journalist calling a private invoice a 'fine', the real sadness about this story is the flurry of utterly clueless, dumb, stuuuuupid comments from Consett's finest, replying underneath it:
"Consett man fighting £170 parking fine for town centre parking"
One complete numpty has even posted a ludicrously wrong load of twaddle telling everyone that if you lose in court (which nobody does, against Group Nexus) the PPC can apparently get "thousands in costs".What is WRONG with people, not only being that dumb but also writing about it with such misplaced conviction, thereby confirming to anyone with a brain cell that he is indeed as thick as fudge and doesn't have the foggiest?!
PRIVATE 'PCN'? DON'T PAY BUT DON'T IGNORE IT (except N.Ireland).
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Home»Motoring»Parking Tickets Fines & Parking - read the NEWBIES THREAD4 -
"Wendy Clarke was issued a Parking Charge Notice (PCN) after parking in the Weavers Wharf Car Park, which is managed by Euro Car Parks (ECP), for less than an hour during a visit to Kidderminster with her husband.
On the PCN, which Wendy received six days after parking at Weavers Wharf, it states that the fine was issued for 'no valid payment or validation to cover the duration of the stay'.
But Wendy had paid £1.40 to cover the duration of her stay at Weavers Wharf and has shown proof of this payment to the Kidderminster Shuttle. She has since appealed the PCN, but says that she received 'no response' from ECP.
A few weeks later, she received a letter from Direct Collection Bailiffs Ltd (DCBL) instructing her to make an 'immediate payment' of £170.
Wendy says that the escalation of the situation has left her 'upset and frustrated'. She said: "I can't believe this company, ECP, has the right to bully people into paying fines when they have paid and have proof. My husband and I parked on April 3, paid £1.40 only there for an hour. Bearing in mind it was a bank holiday, the bank cleared funds on April 7, and we had a letter on April 9.
I appealed and waited for the response. No response came. I thought they had investigated and realised their mistake, how wrong was I. How many people have been fined and have paid? They can't get away with it. It's diabolical."
Euro Car Parks have been contacted by the Kidderminster Shuttle for comment.
#unchecked ANPR 24/7 camera surveillance from private firms: the main nail in the coffin of high street retail recovery
The BPA must be so proud.
PRIVATE 'PCN'? DON'T PAY BUT DON'T IGNORE IT (except N.Ireland).
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Home»Motoring»Parking Tickets Fines & Parking - read the NEWBIES THREAD5 -
Johnathan Dean, of Keyfob Repair, Belfry Court, claims that he has lost two business days' worth of money after receiving 'a £200 fine' from Ezee Park.
Johnathan claimed:
"The council is letting a private firm harass businesses when times are tough for High Street. Ours has been in the town since the 1940s – we used to do radio components during the war.
"The council claims to care about local businesses and support the community, but this isn't supporting me, this is putting my earnings into a fine. It feels like financial ruin."
A Sandy Town Council spokesman said:
"We can confirm that Sandy town centre car park is managed on Sandy Town Council’s behalf by Ezee Park. Under the terms of the management agreement, Ezee Park is responsible for the administration of parking enforcement and retains income from Parking Charge Notices."
"Johnathan has a permit for his van to use the Ezee Park car park, but when his van had to go in for repairs, he used his car, paying the usual rate of "£2 or £3 per day" for the car park.
However, on June 2 and 5 he popped to the Post Office for around 20 minutes to deliver and collect items for work – meaning he broke the no return within three hours rule. Johnathan claimed: "I used the RingGo parking app, which doesn't mention this, and because I was using the app, I didn't look at the parking signs.
"It's just another way to catch people out and make money."
Johnathan says that he has appealed the two fines – (£100 each for June 2 and 5) with Ezee Park – but was unsuccessful. He had hoped that the town council would overturn it, but says he will write to the Independent Appeals Service…
The IAS - hopeless.
Johnathan: STOP!
More to the point, how exactly does a Council believe it is acceptable or allowed to run car parks using a PPC and ANPR surveillance, with no fit & proper (impartial) appeals service?
Maybe they get away with it as they aren't a traffic authority but this was meant to be banned under the Deregulation Act 2015.
PRIVATE 'PCN'? DON'T PAY BUT DON'T IGNORE IT (except N.Ireland).
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Home»Motoring»Parking Tickets Fines & Parking - read the NEWBIES THREAD5 -
'GREAT NEWS': MP celebrates U-turn of 'ridiculous' parking proposals on which West Northants Council has 'already wasted huge amount of money'MP Sarah Bool has welcomed the reverse in parking proposals for Towcester but is questioning ‘what next?’ as ANPR infrastructure has already begun to be built by the council before the legal paperwork was in place.
£50k in refunds has already been necessary because this clueless Reform council reportedly forgot to tick the 'legal' boxes for the changes.More money was wasted on ANPR cameras that the Council didn't seem to know can't be used to issue postal PCNs in local authority car parks.
ANPR can be used as part of a system to calculate the parking fee to make it easy for drivers but in other articles, this Council had talked about intending to use the ANPR to penalise overstayers.
PRIVATE 'PCN'? DON'T PAY BUT DON'T IGNORE IT (except N.Ireland).
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Home»Motoring»Parking Tickets Fines & Parking - read the NEWBIES THREAD5 -
Is this legal?
I thought camera cars could only be used by Councils in 'sensitive' areas where patrols on foot are difficult, or on safety grounds such as around schools?
"The vehicle has become a well-known sight across the District and a reassurance to residents that Controlled Parking Zones and on-street parking bays are being closely monitored.
An instant, real-time check can be made to see if a parked car has the required permit or ticket and alerts a Civil Enforcement Officer (CEO) to any infringements"
I realise that they are using the CCTV data to instantly call out CEOs on foot to actually issue any PCNs, but that sounds like much, much wider surveillance across all types of bay in the city than is lawful & justified.
They talk about "boosting productivity" but that's not a justified reason for CCTV vehicles which are meant to be very sparingly used.
Otherwise, what's to stop councils setting up static CCTV or ANPR cameras as a 'ring of steel' surveilling every restricted permit holder street, IMHO going against the near-ban in the Deregulation Act 2015 and going against the ICO's opinion, here:
Might be worth a complaint to St Albans City Council, then push it to an ICO opinion…
I think we need the ICO to be looking more closely at any examples of disproportionate and intrusive 'blanket area' camera surveillance for ordinary parking enforcement in streets which clearly CAN be accessed by CEOs, because they are issuing the PCNs.
PRIVATE 'PCN'? DON'T PAY BUT DON'T IGNORE IT (except N.Ireland).
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Home»Motoring»Parking Tickets Fines & Parking - read the NEWBIES THREAD5 -
One complete numpty has even posted a ludicrously wrong load of twaddle telling everyone that if you lose in court (which nobody does, against Group Nexus) the PPC can apparently get "thousands in costs".
Knowing how unscrupulous the PPCs are I wouldn't be at all surprised if they aren't responsible for the comments like these
3 -
Totally agree.. it's called the Self Preservation Society
IE: … SCAMMERS AND GRIFTERS AT LARGE
Just part of the BPA / IPC group of money scammers
2
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