"Car Sharks" - Which? magazine article March 2023

KeithP

Looks like the Consumers Association have found out about the private parking scene.

I won't repeat the whole article but it looks like many other newspaper/magazine articles on the subject.

Here's one story...



GXS told Which? "our signs are audited by the Independent Parking Committee".

The IPC hasn't been called that for many years. 
I wonder who got it wrong - GXS or Which?

GXS* also state "we have no way of knowing that a vehicle owner has paid for parking if an incorrect registration number is entered".
"No way of knowing"? What are they talking about?
Why do parking companies allow payment to be made for cars that aren't even parked? A rhetorical question - we all know the answer to that.


*GXS that well known Worthing conglomerate.
Here is the impressive entrance to their registered office...

[click on the image to go to GSV]

Coupon-mad

I don't expect the CA to be the slightest but interested these days.  Don't forget their reported conflict of interests:
https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/experts/article-11318569/amp/TONY-HETHERINGTON-boss-staying-quiet-parking-fiasco.html

Tony Hetherington says:

" I took a closer look at it. NSL is owned by yet another company, Marston (Holdings) Limited, which in turn is owned by another company, and so on and so on, through an amazing ten layers of companies until you get to the top of the tree, which is Free Flow Topco Limited. 

It has contracts with local councils and government agencies that include enforcing warrants, issuing warning notices, clamping, impounding, and disposing of vehicles. And last year its turnover was £255million. 

It claims that its Marston offshoot operates within an 'ethical framework' headed by an advisory group run by Sam Younger CBE. Who's he? Astonishingly, he is the chairman of consumer organisation Which? 

No, you have not misread this. Which? – the organisation that provides page after page of website advice about how to fight parking tickets – is headed by a man who works for a company that makes millions out of issuing parking tickets. 

So, I contacted Which? and invited a comment from Sam Younger. Did he believe the confusing layout of Marston's pay and display tickets met ethical standards? And does he believe it is fair that the time taken to consider an appeal would mean the penalty would double? 

...Sam Younger is at Marston so Marston's owners can boast that they must be ethically run because they have a top consumer champion on board. If Younger disagrees, why did he refuse to say so?"

patient_dream

As everyone owns everybody else, anyone know who owns Michael Gove MP ?  MAYBE a word in his shell like ear ?