Court Claim - CEL - Swanley Park

Coupon-mad

I bet it's there somewhere!  On a welcome sign?  Get photos.

CrankyTiger

Update: I eventually received a bounce-back email from swanley council that their inbox was full, so found another address and had fairly quick response that I have copied below. Looks like I will be going to court! 

Thank you for your email enquiring whether the car park at Swanley Park can be managed and parking charge notices issued at the site.

We can confirm that none of the exceptions under Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 apply to that car park and so they are ‘relevant land’ for the purposes of that Act.

This means that PCNs can be issued in circumstances where a driver/vehicle has breached that terms and conditions of parking. Signage was installed in abundance for each of the different sections of the car park, we have not had any issues over the past three years with the quantity of signs in place and ‘pre warning’ banners leading up to the installation of the system had been in place for the prior months.

Please be assured that the parking system has been put in place to ensure that spaces are available for legitimate users of the facilities and that the car parks are not abused by inconsiderate motorists.

We trust this information assists.

 

Bethany Willson

Office & Soft Play Manager

I have also had my SAR returned which I will share tomorrow once I've redacted my personal details. 

Coupon-mad

She's only a Soft Play Manager!  And she's clearly plainly wrong in law.  The park is land owned by a local authority = indisputably not relevant land.

Ask for your complaint to be escalated to their Legal Dept and ultimately to the (free) Local Authorities Ombudsman, because this response is naive and plainly wrong.  Defined here:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/9155/guidance-unpaid-parking-charges.pdf

"Parking spaces provided or controlled by a Local Authority" are not relevant land.

And separately, Authorities are banned from operating their public car parks as if they are private land AND are banned in the Deregulation Act 2015 from using ANPR to enforce parking.  The intention is for such land to be operated ONLY within the usual power of a traffic order, with proper penalty charge notices and a proper appeals service and Tribunal Service.  It can't be handed over to a notorious ex-clamper like CEL to fling up some illegal ANPR cameras and profit at £100 a pop, whilst not offering any truly independent appeal service (POPLA is far from it).

Get this to the LA Ombudsman as fast as you can.

CrankyTiger

Thanks CM for your suggestion.  I have received another email from Swanley:

Good afternoon Thomas,
 
Unfortunately we are unable to raise the complaint with the LGO on your behalf, you can do this via this link Complaint Form - Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman. Whilst we are a Town Council we do not have the delegated powers to enforce parking fines ourselves unlike borough and district councils. The car parks in which the ANPR cameras are used are Private and are maintained by Swanley Town Council unlike public highways or public car parks which are maintained in our area by Kent County Council.
 
You are able to refer this to POPLA who are an independent body who review PCN that are obtained on Private Land, I would strongly suggest appealing with them if you have not already done so. Welcome to POPLA | POPLA
 
Bethany Willson
Office & Soft Play Manager

I have submitted a complaint to the LGO and with Sevenoakes Council but with hindsight this probably should have been KCC so will send them a complaint too.  

There wasn't an option for Swanley council on the LGO website, so I filed it under KCC - hopefully this won't affect the response.  

Also here is the response to my SAR either as individual images or a single pdf on dropbox.  I am a bit confused, but they have sent me a press release from the Supreme Court Parking Eye v Beavis case.  Is this the only evidence they will rely on or is it just another scare tactic?