Parking stories in the News/media

Mouse007

Taxi driver gets £60 parking fine after stopping outside McDonald's for 47 seconds to pick up a customer

Coupon-mad

Horizon at it again, intimidating people with huge debt demands for a PCN that should never have been issued:

https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/23351696.amp/

Blaming a motorist for not spotting a 'keying error' and telling them about it in her appeal (how would she possibly know this is a thing?) even though clearly HORIZON were at fault for failing to carry out checks up front, to spot that keying error and NOT harvest her DVLA data.

Coupon-mad

Man supporting pregnant wife at Coventry hospital receives parking fine - even though he paid

https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/man-supporting-pregnant-wife-hospital-26362604.amp

Coupon-mad

Uber driver given £100 parking fine for stopping to ask staff about confusing alterations to taxi parking arrangements at Liverpool John Lennon Airport:

https://metro.co.uk/2023/03/03/uber-driver-fined-100-for-stopping-to-talk-to-staff-about-parking-18379348/amp/

Jeez VCS, this one is sharp practice. When are you going to start playing fair with the public?  When SRS 'Captain Clampit' finally retires?

"A cabbie who briefly stopped to complain to a parking attendant is now fuming to discover he was fined £100.

Gerald Stenberg, 70, collects passengers from Liverpool John Lennon Airport on a daily basis.

He and other taxi drivers usually wait in a free car park close to the airport until flights come in, and then heads over to collect passengers.

He said. ‘I happened to see the parking camera van so I thought I’d go over to ask what was happening with the car parks.

‘I pulled up, spoke to the lady in the van and her advice was “go in for free but don’t stay longer than 40 minutes because you never know when they’re going to fix it”. I said they haven’t put any signs up and it says “free passage”.

She said that doesn’t mean anything. I said, “They haven’t got a sign up there, it’s unclear. It just says free passage and it’s not issuing tickets.”

‘We had that brief conversation, I said it wasn’t good enough and then I drove away.’

He said the ‘next thing he knew’ he was sent a penalty notice fining him £100 – or a reduced rate of £60 if he pays up quickly.

Gerald said the fine was ‘ruthless’, adding: ‘They need better signage. I park in the free car park every day and I wanted to know what was going on.’

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At the end of the article, the Airport rush to cancel it and reportedly blame the driver for not appealing.  They bleat:

"this is the first time we or VCS knew about the circumstances".

Errrrm...no it isn't.  That VCS' "lady" knew what she was doing.  Does she have no conscience?

How can people think this is a real job?

Coupon-mad

Take a bow, Smart Parking, named and shamed yet again:
https://www.rhyljournal.co.uk/news/23360478.residents-accuse-rhyl-car-park-operators-brutal-bullying-tactics/

Residents accuse Rhyl car park operators of ‘brutal bullying tactics’

"NUMEROUS Rhyl residents have told of their dismay at being issued with charges at a car park in the town, which they deemed to be unjust.

A total of six people told the Journalthat they have been fined after using Morfa Hall car park on Church Street, which has been run by Smart Parking Ltd since November 2018.

James Davies, MP for Vale of Clwyd, said he would be happy for constituents who can empathise with the aforementioned residents to contact him about their predicaments.

Dr Davies said: “I have received a range of different concerns about parking fines relating to the Morfa Hall car park and have spent some time trying to assist with these, as well as determining what further general action might be taken.

“Complaints have ranged from broken parking machines and incorrect time stamping on tickets to user error and unclear signage.

“Unfortunately, I have found Smart Parking to be poorly responsive..."

Tell us about it!

Coupon-mad

And this article features APCOA and such crappy signs & unreliable payment methods that even they admit they are unacceptable!
https://www.countypress.co.uk/news/23362066.isle-wight-hospital-parking-meter-problems/

"A Newport man, who visited the hospital in February, raised the issue after visiting he hospital and parking at North car park.

He said: "This is controlled by number plate recognition. There is only one ticket machine at which one pays on leaving. The screen on this machine was reading ‘out of service.’ It was therefore impossible to pay either by cash or card."

The help telephone to the attendant's base was dead, but there was a notice in the booth describing ways to pay. The man noted he could pay by telephone within 24 hours, so he decided to do that rather than choose the app option, as he hasn't got a smartphone.

However, paying by phone didn't prove very easy. For a start, there was no phone number on the information board.

When the man got home, he visited the APCOA website and found the number himself.  He said: "Eventually – and I do mean eventually – I got through to an agent. I asked her for the telephone number through which I could make a payment of the fee which was £2.50. 

"She told me that at location 2055 (St Mary’s) the facility to pay within 24 hours was not available and as I had not paid I would be charged a fine."

...Even though the sign said you could pay within 24 hours by phone the woman said that didn't apply at this site, and the sign was 'generic'!

It follows an apology from APCOA in January, after it mistakenly overcharged some motorists at the hospital.

• Error over St Mary's Hospital car park charges

An investigation was carried out after a County Press reader raised the issue and asked why she had paid £6 for a ticket when only £5 was advertised on the parking board. 

Terrible work, APCOA.

Coupon-mad

A third of drivers late to hospital appointments because of major parking problems

https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/cars/1742069/parking-chaos-nhs-hospitals-cancelled-appointments/amp

"New research has revealed that a third of people who drove to a hospital appointment over the last six months were late because they couldn't find parking."

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A fat lot of good the likes of APCOA, ParkingEye, Wise Parking et al are doing then, one might conclude...

It's not as if ANPR at hospitals has any point to it whatsoever IMHO, except as a 'PCN churning machine'.

Coupon-mad

Newark businesses have their say on whether or not the highstreet is dying with cost of living crisis

https://www.newarkadvertiser.co.uk/news/amp/is-the-highstreet-is-dying-newark-businesses-have-their-say-9301675/

Andrew Hind, owner of Sibley’s Butchers on Kirkgate, said:

"One of the main problems stopping people coming into town is parking. We need to find more short-term parking. It would mean people could come in, visit the market, pop into a few shops and leave more easily and if the council asked retailers they’d know this."

Coupon-mad

McDonalds yet again, whose 90 minute time limit is clearly inadequate for families and calculated by the PPC to always catch a % of genuine patrons:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11819807/Single-mother-faces-170-parking-fine-overstaying-McDonalds-just-14-minutes.html?ico=mol_mobile_home

Shame on you, McDonalds.

This is what you get when you let your freeloading PPC operate like a protection racket and THEY set the parking time limit so they can make money out of your customers.

 

Snakes_Belly

Coupon-mad said:

Newark businesses have their say on whether or not the highstreet is dying with cost of living crisis

https://www.newarkadvertiser.co.uk/news/amp/is-the-highstreet-is-dying-newark-businesses-have-their-say-9301675/

Andrew Hind, owner of Sibley’s Butchers on Kirkgate, said:

"One of the main problems stopping people coming into town is parking. We need to find more short-term parking. It would mean people could come in, visit the market, pop into a few shops and leave more easily and if the council asked retailers they’d know this."

Nice place Newark. I would imagine that many people choose to live there because there are good communications, two stations, one mainline and the other local routes. There are also large antique fairs and a good market. It's a shame that the town is suffering.