Parking stories in the News/media

Trainerman

Le_Kirk said:

Coupon-mad said:

Asda forced to climb down after blaming 'boy racers' for imposing an unworkable 30 minute shopping time limit:
https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/black-country/shoppers-outrage-after-facing-70-25653800.amp

Aren't the PPCs supposed to "manage" the car park?  Maybe Asda should have asked why the PPC were allowing "boy racers" to carry out their nefarious activities rather than shortening the time available for genuine customers.  Oh, because that way there was no profit for the PPC!

As well as the fact that PPCs are at their best for being firm when faced with vulnerable people. Can you imagine a PPC operative facing down the average boy racer ?????

Coupon-mad

Take a bow again, ParkingEye - featuring in yet another article about a 'double dip' ANPR rip-off.

What IS the point of this contract?  This retail park doesn't need ANPR:
https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/local-news/driver-slapped-100-fine-despite-8142848.amp

"Gemma Smith was slapped with the charge following her alleged nine-hour stay in Coalville's Belvoir Shopping Centre car park last month. 

Ms Smith, 34, had driven through the car park’s cut-through to Bridge Road at 7.09am on Tuesday, January 24, as a way to avoid the town’s busy High Street and drop her partner off at work. She then carried on to her accounts manager job and only returned through the cut-through at 4.34pm the same day on her way home...

There have been long-running concerns over the cameras in the Belvoir Shopping Centre’s lower car park, with the issue even raised by councillors. 

- due to not bothering to apply for Planning Permission until afterwards, according to that link, where ParkingEye insisted they've done nothing wrong.

The car park is owned by the centre’s owners Gylo which employed ParkingEye to operate it. Parking is currently free for two hours in the lower car park "to help attract more visitors to the town."

However, a number of people have been hit with fines they should never have had - including one man who was fined £100 for allegedly parking in the car park for 21 hours even though he had not."

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ParkingEye cancelled it (seemingly only once the paper got involved) but their spokesperson reportedly rambled on about how many signs are up and that drivers must park responsibly.

Errrr...what's that got to do with anything?

And shouldn't you carry out human checks for orphan images 'responsibly'?

And shouldn't you apply for Planning Permission before operating, in order to be seen to act 'responsibly'?

Coupon-mad

And Llangrannog locals are strangely hopeful that a "new machine" being added by (ex-clampers, using a different name at the time) One Parking Solution to their notorious "rip-off" no-go area beach car park, is somehow going to restore peace and bring back tourists:
https://nation.cymru/news/car-park-which-made-seaside-village-a-no-go-zone-gets-a-revamp/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64703161.amp

No chance of their town's reputation being restored, IMHO, all the time the likes of OPS continue to infest the place with their ludicrously wordy small text signs, not-fit-for-purpose ten minute consideration period (or is 15 min, who knows...) and an app that takes too long to download.

I wouldn't use that "entrapment zone" car park (apparently the BPA's own phrase when they temporarily stopped OPS and gave them a tiny slap) if you paid me.

Coupon-mad

Here you go, Excel Parking Services Ltd named and shamed for having a parking fee machine that they admit wasn't synch'd to transmit any payment/VRM data.

This was at Broomhill rooftop car park in case it crops up here.

Apparently, they were taking money from drivers then issuing £100 PCNs  and £170 'rape and pillage' (scary red writing) demands, until a driver reportedly sussed what was going on and a newspaper reported them to the DVLA:
https://www.thestar.co.uk/business/fury-as-excel-parking-admits-sending-letters-demanding-ps100-from-innocent-drivers-in-sheffield-4032438

"It is the third case this year where The Star has helped readers. Earlier this month, Excel apologised and paid Claire Blank £60 after an ‘administrative error’ at Berkeley Precinct on Ecclesall Road. And in January it cancelled a £170 demand sent to Louise Povey for failing to pay quickly enough, also at Berkeley Precinct."

Excel apparently reckon offering to donate a poxy sixty quid to charity makes it all OK:

"...once the issue was identified we cancelled the parking charge. Our investigations also identified that some other parking charges had been issued as a result of the data issue and these were also cancelled and the recipients notified accordingly. We have also further reviewed our processes and quality checks in order to mitigate future incidents of this nature."

SOME?!

Some other parking charges?

If the machine wasn't sending data then every single driver who used it got a poxy PCN.  Likely hundreds...(no doubt half of them paid by scared victims and careless lease firms).

How about not skimping by using the typical PPC second hand, twenty year old crappy machines?

Half_way

There needs to be more pushback against not just the parking companies, but those who employ them/allow them to operate.  double dips should result affirmitive action against the landowner for example.

 As for car parks and boy racers/ anti social the solution is extremely simple : physical barriers.

 When the sho/ location  is shut then the barriers or gates  prevent entry, when its open then genuine customers can use a token/code to get out ( or even payment for non customers)

 But the issue is that  barriers do not make PPCs money and that even  few pay outs for GDPR  etc will  be worth the risk as the gains from keeping the parking charges flowing  will be greater.

patient_dream

Coupon-mad said:

Here you go, Excel Parking Services Ltd named and shamed for having a parking fee machine that they admit wasn't synch'd to transmit any payment/VRM data.

This was at Broomhill rooftop car park in case it crops up here.

Apparently, they were taking money from drivers then issuing £100 PCNs  and £170 'rape and pillage' (scary red writing) demands, until a driver reportedly sussed what was going on and a newspaper reported them to the DVLA:
https://www.thestar.co.uk/business/fury-as-excel-parking-admits-sending-letters-demanding-ps100-from-innocent-drivers-in-sheffield-4032438

"It is the third case this year where The Star has helped readers. Earlier this month, Excel apologised and paid Claire Blank £60 after an ‘administrative error’ at Berkeley Precinct on Ecclesall Road. And in January it cancelled a £170 demand sent to Louise Povey for failing to pay quickly enough, also at Berkeley Precinct."

Excel apparently reckon offering to donate a poxy sixty quid to charity makes it all OK:

"...once the issue was identified we cancelled the parking charge. Our investigations also identified that some other parking charges had been issued as a result of the data issue and these were also cancelled and the recipients notified accordingly. We have also further reviewed our processes and quality checks in order to mitigate future incidents of this nature."

SOME?!

Some other parking charges?

If the machine wasn't sending data then every single driver who used it got a poxy PCN.  Likely hundreds...(no doubt half of them paid by scared victims and careless lease firms).

How about not skimping by using the typical PPC second hand, twenty year old crappy machines?

No doubt we will soon see flying pigs above the DVLA Swansea

Just how many car parks in the UK OPERATED BY EXCEL / VCS and other associated companies have the same problem ?  Either Renshaw-smith knows already and if nor why is he allowed to operate with faulty equipment.

And EXCEL say ... "...once the issue was identified we cancelled the parking charge"

ONCE it was identified ???  How many more car parks operated by EXCEL  need to be identified ...... not only when the media gets involved ?

The DVLA should terminate the Renshaw-smith empire whilst each car park is identified
Such records will be held by Renshaw-smith.
This really warrants a full police investigation which would take a long time leaving Excel and Co in Limbo

Coupon-mad

Clueless Councillor Max Wilkinson at Cheltenham actually decides to PAY a ParkingEye unfair PCN for daring to charge his EV for over 90 minutes at Lidl:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11769261/Councillor-blasts-Lidl-slapped-illogical-90-fine.html

"He did not dispute the fine but he felt it did not make sense to restrict car charging to 90 minutes- his motor was only half charged after two hours.

He told Gloucestershire Live: 'I've paid the fine and it's a fair cop. However, it seems illogical that quite a lot of EV and hybrid owners won't be allowed to spend enough time in the car park to get a full charge."

WHAT SORT OF EXAMPLE DOES THIS TWIT SET BY PAYING IT AND CLUELESSLY CALL IT A FINE?!

I mean come on, engage your brain...you don't pay that and call it a 'fair cop'!  

It would have been so easy to Google and find the articles about this EV charging issue and make a complaint to the BPA and the local MP, get it cancelled and make a decent point in the press.

However, it looks like it's a Hybrid car which charges itself as you drive...very odd.  Mr Wilkinson looks clueless in several ways!

If he shopped in Lidl as he says he did, PE would have cancelled it if he just appealed & showed the receipt (and said he was charging).  It's not difficult to get the thing quashed.

But it is high time these PCNs were stopped.

patient_dream

Coupon-mad said:

Clueless Councillor Max Wilkinson at Cheltenham actually decides to PAY a ParkingEye unfair PCN for daring to charge his EV for over 90 minutes at Lidl:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11769261/Councillor-blasts-Lidl-slapped-illogical-90-fine.html

"He did not dispute the fine but he felt it did not make sense to restrict car charging to 90 minutes- his motor was only half charged after two hours.

He told Gloucestershire Live: 'I've paid the fine and it's a fair cop. However, it seems illogical that quite a lot of EV and hybrid owners won't be allowed to spend enough time in the car park to get a full charge."

WHAT SORT OF EXAMPLE DOES THIS TWIT SET BY PAYING IT AND CLUELESSLY CALL IT A FINE?!

I mean come on, engage your brain...you don't pay that and call it a 'fair cop'!  

It would have been so easy to Google and find the articles about this EV charging issue and make a complaint to the BPA and the local MP, get it cancelled and make a decent point in the press.

However, it looks like it's a Hybrid car which charges itself as you drive...very odd.  Mr Wilkinson looks clueless in several ways!

If he shopped in Lidl as he says he did, PE would have cancelled it if he just appealed & showed the receipt (and said he was charging).  It's not difficult to get the thing quashed.

But it is high time these PCNs were stopped.

The councillor from Cheltenham like so many of these fools working for councils have the brains of Lemmings.

What a complete idiot paying PE, COMPLETE FOOL.

BUT ... Parking Eye are also in the Lemmings dept .... they firstly have proved to government they are not fit for purpose and now, they are telling people not to buy electric vehicles with their stupidity. 

Are government really prepared to let a parking cowboy (s) destroy their target ..... 

YES, it is important to get your MP involved but the BPA, their only interest is membership fees and fake add-ons, the BPA cannot be trusted

Coupon-mad

What the hell is a Borough Council doing (potentially unlawfully) letting their 'agents' VCS operate a "Council-owned" car park using 'parking charges' and banned ANPR?  

Anyone here local enough to raise it with Wokingham Borough Council, tell them what happened to Wycombe Council (banned from the DVLA database) and report this Council to the DVLA?
https://www.henleystandard.co.uk/news/charvil/178288/drivers-angry-at-fines-for-using-short-stay-car-park.html

Multiple 'double dip' cases are being reported and one clueless and harassed victim (despite knowing it was a double visit) actually paid VCS £100 after losing at the "kangaroo court" of IAS.

"The drivers say that the photographs used in the notices only show their cars entering on their first visit and leaving on their second visit.

The car park has been owned by Wokingham Borough Council since 2020 and is operated by Vehicle Control Services, which is based in Sheffield.

Sally Hudson, 53 received a notice from the company saying that she had parked her car between 6.24pm on September 10 last year and 10.55am the next day.

The psychotherapist, who practises equine therapy with her two horses, Stylish and Picker, says it would have been impossible for her to have left her Suzuki Swift in the car park overnight.

“Unless I want to go to court, and I don’t have the money or the time, I have to pay £100 for something I didn’t do. It’s just wrong.

“You get all these threatening letters, saying you have to pay now, debt recovery will come in, and there’s this pressure. But all the while I’m thinking, ‘I didn’t do it’. It’s a lot of money but it’s also the principle of it that I feel strongly about.”

Her appeal was dismissed by the Independent Appeals Service.

Ms Hudson said she would not use the car park again.

She said: “I feel it’s sad that somebody’s word is not accepted any more and there has to be photographic evidence. They have you over a barrel. I paid the £100 and thought, ‘I don’t want anyone else to go through this’. I’m not a victim, I’m an empowered woman. How can I help other people? I want to alert people so it doesn’t happen again. It’s not fair.”

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She could of course complain to the Local Authorities Ombudsman for her £100 back and get VCS kicked out if they are indeed 'agents' and don't have title in the form of a lease at this site.

If they do, why are the Council quoted as being concerned about their 'agents'?

patient_dream

As above, re Twyford parking

Just up the road so will go and have a look