PCN ISSUED 5 MONTHS AFTER PARKING

DDOT20

Morning. Should I also write a letter to the council to complain about what the Cel have done. or should I wait ?

Coupon-mad

DDOT20 said:

Morning. Should I also write a letter to the council to complain about what the Cel have done. or should I wait ?

Write a complaint specifically to the Council's Monitoring Officer.

No need to wait; start the complaint that the Council is operating a public car park as if it were 'private land' (outside of the TMA rules and with no access to the statutory TPT appeal system) which the DFT made clear is not allowed and unjustly threatens people's credit ratings due to the litigation mentality of the private parking industry, with this particular firm being one of the 'top five' most prolific at suing people. If Councils breach the rules, sidestep the TMA and/or they or their agents use potentially 'illegal' ANPR cameras that have no 'type approval' from the Secretary of State, then their and/or that contractor's DVLA data access could and should be immediately suspended, pending investigation.

Further, the notoriously litigation-aggressive ex-clamper they contracted with also operates by ANPR, which was banned for Councils to use for 'PCN enforcement' in 2015.  And their Head of Legal's previous job was Head of Legal for defunct dubious loans firm, Wonga, who were reportedly being investigated by the MET Police when they failed.  Civil Enforcement's online reviews and reputation among the motoring public is very low indeed.

Did no-one check anything?

In addition, to a lay person who doesn't realise this is a private contractor, the very name 'Civil Enforcement Ltd' impersonates a level of Council CEO Authority that this hated firm do not have and such impersonations of authority are banned in the BPA Code of Practice.

It appears that no due diligence was followed and the Council grasped at a ludicrous offer (protection racket stylee) of getting a car park operated with new technology, free of charge. Anyone exercising even the most basic level of diligence before agreeing to this contract, can see this immediately creates unfairness on motorists because this ex-clamper is immediately (from day one) incentivised to make the system set up for a percentage of drivers to fail because they have to issue dozens of fake fines per week to even break even.

Complain that the operation is illegal and DVLA access must be removed.

Copy in the DVLA complaints emails shown in the 5th post of the NEWBIES thread.

Include a link to the LGO Kent County Council decision in a very similar situation and say you want the complaint escalated to the LGO and investigated properly by Robert Toft's team at the DVLA.

DDOT20

Thanks Coupon-mad, will certainly do this. thanks for all the advice 

DDOT20

Thanks everyone, followed the advice and ticket has been cancelled. 

Coupon-mad

DDOT20 said:

Thanks everyone, followed the advice and ticket has been cancelled. 

Great news

But hang on! Was this due to your complaint to the Council's Monitoring Officer?

Ask them and the DVLA (both) what they are going to do about the illegal ANPR system and non-TMA 'parking charges' regime that they are running against Government policy.  What will be done to remove it now it has been exposed?

PLEASE follow this up, for the greater good, and please don't just be satisfied with your own ticket being cancelled.

There is a bigger battle: the system is illegal and needs exposing and ending and you are in a unique position to push on that door.

DDOT20

Haven't written that complaint letter yet. it took me nearly two days just to do the research and write the letter regarding the ticket. I found it stressful. I will write the complaint letter at some stage. 

Coupon-mad

DDOT20 said:

Haven't written that complaint letter yet. it took me nearly two days just to do the research and write the letter regarding the ticket. I found it stressful. I will write the complaint letter at some stage. 

Please do. More people will get PCNs the longer this continues.

I gave you what to say.  Just copy my words.  The whole scam needs stopping by a person in your shoes who is local and fell foul of it, but knows what to say to the Monitoring Officer and DVLA.