Wye Valley Visitor Centre ParkingEye POPLA Appeal

Coupon-mad

You must complain anyway.

Do not apologise for complaining and don't do it half-heartedly, and DON'T be fobbed off.

YOU PAID FOR YOUR STAY YET YOU ARE BEING TREATED LIKE A CRIMINAL.

Tell the Manager that you already appealed and it looks like it wasn't even read, because the rejection letter is a template seen elsewhere on the internet posted by others also victimised by ParkingEye.

Say that this treatment is NOT good enough for patrons of a family-friendly venue, and surely the fact they've put that disclaimer on their website shows there is a huge problem?  Why haven't they ended the contract with ParkingEye? ANPR isn't needed at this site.  All it does is penalise visitors with young families, who will never return.

INSIST he/she emails your PCN ref to PE to cancel it.  They CAN do this.  It is in their ParkingEye User agreement.

Fruitcake

Leave a negative review on Tripadvisor as well, but wait until they have responded to your formal complaint about the actions of their sub-contractor. Remind them that they are jointly responsible for the actions of their agents.
Telling you to only contact an unregulated private parking company is not the action of a reputable business.

drbayleaf

Thanks @Coupon-mad and @Fruitcake - I finally got through on the phone, but I was told forcefully that the venue is not the Landowner who has the contract (they wouldn't tell me who that is). So they can hide behind that.

Really disappointing and while I searched TripAdvisor I noticed LOADS of recent reviews all saying the same about fines for just a few minutes over.

I can email, but as they said there is no contact for the Landowner.

B789

drbayleaf said:

Thanks @Coupon-mad and @Fruitcake - I finally got through on the phone, but I was told forcefully that the venue is not the Landowner who has the contract (they wouldn't tell me who that is). So they can hide behind that.

Really disappointing and while I searched TripAdvisor I noticed LOADS of recent reviews all saying the same about fines for just a few minutes over.

I can email, but as they said there is no contact for the Landowner.

For less than a fiver, you can get the details of the landowner from the Land Registry.

drbayleaf

@B789 yes I've looked into that - but it's still not clear from gov or Companies House who the landowner is (there are 30 or more entries, none of which are obvious and the most likely shows as "We have no information"

Currently I think I've narrowed it to Lindsay and Edward [surname redacted] who planted the maze. I've made another direct appeal via email.

fisherjim

drbayleaf said:

@B789 yes I've looked into that - but it's still not clear from gov or Companies House who the landowner is (there are 30 or more entries, none of which are obvious and the most likely shows as "We have no information"

Currently I think I've narrowed it to Lindsay and Edward [surname redacted] who planted the maze. I've made another direct appeal via email.

These are the owner operators and who contracted Parking Eye

Messrs LRF & ET Heyes

Wye Valley Visitor Centre

Symonds Yat

Ross on Wye

Herefordshire

HR9 6DA

drbayleaf

Thanks @fisherjim - that is who I emailed - still no response. So I've written again and this time I've CC'ed my Mum!

Is writing by post really sensible - no way to tell they don't just bin all parking related correspondence* (given their website's parking info is basically a middle-👆)?


* as ParkingEye no doubt do too as I'd written by post to appeal and this seems to never have been received (how handy).

drbayleaf

Finally had an email response from Wye Valley Visitor Centre - sadly a clear copy-paste "we wash our hands of responsibility" job. I'd like to paste it here, but don't want to fall foul of site guidelines. Interestingly they explicitly ask me not to at the bottom, which I found very revealing:

This email was sent in good faith. Unsolicited use, publishing it or including my email address on any mailing list without my consent is an offence. This email does not form a contract and opinions expressed by me are personal and do not represent those of any other legal entity unless expressly stated in the body of the email. Email is not secure, but is meant to be private. Please do not read, store, distribute, or use my content if it was not for you, but inform me of that it was wrongly sent. This email was scanned by my system for malware at source, but you should apply your own security precautions before opening.

POPLA seeming sadly more inevitable...

KeithP

I can't see any reason for you not to show us the content of that email.
Their sentence "Please do not read, store, distribute, or use my content if it was not for you, but inform me of that it was wrongly sent" includes the words "if it was not for you".
So they are only trying to stop you using 'the content' if you are not the intended recipient.
The email was addressed to you. You are free to do whatever you want with it.

drbayleaf

Thanks @KeithP, this is what they said:

You have appealed to us about a Parking Charge Notice (PCN) which was issued by the Parking Management Company, ParkingEye Ltd.

We can't take responsibility for the actions of another company or interfere with their business. We may own the land, but are not the Car Park Operator. Neither our company nor staff played any part in the error chain which led to issue of the PCN. Our customers are not exempt from paying for parking, but do get considerable benefit from it, see https://bookings.wyevalleyvisitorcentre.co.uk/index.php?option=com_kunena&view=topic&catid=17&id=159&Itemid=346#291  How the money from parking is used.

The Operator cannot disclose their evidence of infringement to us, and we are not qualified to provide an impartial or lawful Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) service, so it would not be right for us to intervene.

However, ParkingEye is accredited under the BPA Approved Operator Scheme, so you can appeal free of charge

The appeal process is strictly regulated for your protection with checks and balances, see the information printed on the Parking Charge Notice. If an appeal to the operator is unsuccessful they must give you the opportunity to appeal to the ADR Provider appointed by their trade body, the British Parking Association. The expertise, impartiality and independence of the ADR Provider is assured by Ombudsman Services. See the Operator's reply for details. If you have questions about the Parking Management Company go to https://www.parkingeye.co.uk/ ParkingEye .

If you need help go to Citizens Advice for help that you can trust. Please respect that Wye Valley Visitor Centre staff have no duty to give customer support on parking matters. Information about parking given by Centre staff is out of courtesy and in good faith in the manner of any tourist information and is not intended to form a contract or constitute legal advice.

I hope you have found this information helpful. If you feel unable to support our activities by paying for parking at the Wye Valley Visitor Centre, there is alternate Pay & Display parking at Symonds Yat Leisure Park next door.

Kind Regards

Wye Valley Visitors Centre Team. 

I explicitly paid for parking and for The Centre's Facilities so this email is entirely missing the point.