Parking Eye Appeal success - Blue Badge

Thebantamboy

Thanks to advice on here, we successfully appealed a Parking Eye charge for overstaying in Home Bargain's car park (Stanley County Durham - free for 1.5hr). 

As per the advice, we initially appealed to the landowner (Home Bargains) and received a response saying 'Please appeal to Parking Eye in the first instance and, if unsuccessful send the documentation back to us and we will deal with it'. With this in writing, we were happy enough to proceed with an appeal.

In the appeal letter, we pointed out that the charge was issued just 10mins over the time limit (10 mins is the minimum recommended grace period in the BPA Code of Conduct to which they subscribe) and, in the case of disabled persons, a grace period (which wasn't displayed) is particularly relevant for the landowner to be able to comply with the Equality Act 2010, and Disability Discrimination Act 1995 which require businesses to make reasonable adjustments for disabled persons using their facilities. Therefore, the time restriction of 1½ hrs being applicable across all users is in itself discriminatory, as it reduces the amount of time a disabled person has to use the Home Bargains store and parking facilities, whilst ensuring they comply with the parking restrictions to the same level as an abled-bodied person would be able to. We also pointed out that they were failing to 'manage' the parking facilities as two of the blue badge bays were occupied by non-blue badge holders meaning we weren't able to park straight away and had to wait for a space to become available before our parking event could start.

I have now contacted Home Bargains for a response regarding the discriminatory nature of their parking policy, and the lack of management of disabled bays. I await a response.  

B789

So, have Home Bargains agreed to get your PE PCN cancelled, as your thread title suggests?

Your appeal thrust of EA2010 is very good and hopefully, PE will cancel without having to rely on Home Bargains to try and do it. As long as Home Bargains are made aware that they are jointly liable for the actions of their agents and so, their liability for any breach of the EA is a criminal offence.

Thebantamboy

B789 said:

So, have Home Bargains agreed to get your PE PCN cancelled, as your thread title suggests?

Your appeal thrust of EA2010 is very good and hopefully, PE will cancel without having to rely on Home Bargains to try and do it. As long as Home Bargains are made aware that they are jointly liable for the actions of their agents and so, their liability for any breach of the EA is a criminal offence.

Hi,

Sorry I should have made it clearer, the PCN was cancelled by Parking Eye. I am now in contact with Home Bargains to determine what they are going to do about their unfair parking policy, and their use of an over zealous parking management company. This particular store's car park has got itself a bit of a reputation after a few high profile cases in the local newspapers which I'm sure is not what Home Bargains intended when they first engaged Parking Eye (it used to be free and without limit).

Umkomaas

Thebantamboy said:

B789 said:

So, have Home Bargains agreed to get your PE PCN cancelled, as your thread title suggests?

Your appeal thrust of EA2010 is very good and hopefully, PE will cancel without having to rely on Home Bargains to try and do it. As long as Home Bargains are made aware that they are jointly liable for the actions of their agents and so, their liability for any breach of the EA is a criminal offence.

Hi,

Sorry I should have made it clearer, the PCN was cancelled by Parking Eye. I am now in contact with Home Bargains to determine what they are going to do about their unfair parking policy, and their use of an over zealous parking management company. This particular store's car park has got itself a bit of a reputation after a few high profile cases in the local newspapers which I'm sure is not what Home Bargains intended when they first engaged Parking Eye (it used to be free and without limit).

Great fight back. I wish more would take this post-cancellation assertive stance, but most are just relieved to get the cancellation, leaving it for others to fight the injustices of the world of private parking. 

Well done, Sir 👍

Coupon-mad

Well done.  Show HB this from 2010:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8488737.stm

Fruitcake

Well done on getting your PCN cancelled, but do be careful when suggesting people have no right to park in an accessible bay just because a blue badge was not on display.

The blue badge scheme does not apply on private land so it is not necessary to display one, a person with a cognitive disability may forget to display a blue badge, and many people have an invisible disability and a right to park in an accessible parking bay on private land but may not have a blue badge.

An absence of a blue badge does not mean an absence of a disability nor an absence of a right to use an accessible parking bay.

Thebantamboy

Fruitcake said:

Well done on getting your PCN cancelled, but do be careful when suggesting people have no right to park in an accessible bay just because a blue badge was not on display.

The blue badge scheme does not apply on private land so it is not necessary to display one, a person with a cognitive disability may forget to display a blue badge, and many people have an invisible disability and a right to park in an accessible parking bay on private land but may not have a blue badge.

An absence of a blue badge does not mean an absence of a disability nor an absence of a right to use an accessible parking bay.

Hi, yes I agree. We have forgotten to display our badge more than once. However, the point we made to Parking Eye and to Home Bargains is that in setting a time limit with no advertised grace period, they are making an assumption that everyone entering the car park parks their car immediately on entering. In reality, we had to sit and wait for a wide bay to become available as our disabled passenger cannot physically get out of the car unless the door is fully open and wheelchair in position. Our question to Home Bargains is what steps do they take to ensure this facility is not being abused by able-bodied persons. Simply installing ANPR cameras on the entrance and exit doesn't 'manage' the situation we have described. 

On a related point, we were discussing the Parking Eye charge at a disability social group we attend and a member told us he stopped using his car a few years ago as he received a "£100 Parking Fine" (his words) in a supermarket carpark when he forgot to display his Blue Badge. It affected his confidence so much that he felt he could no longer trust himself not to forget his badge so he just stopped driving. I wish I'd known him at the time... 

fisherjim

Simply installing ANPR cameras on the entrance and exit doesn't 'manage' the situation we have described.

Here lies the whole crux of the matter, ANPR is a cheap catch em all way to scam as much money out of people as possible, it is not car park management, it is also unreliable and banned in authority run car parks.

Thebantamboy

Coupon-mad said:

Well done.  Show HB this from 2010:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8488737.stm

Thanks. This is crazy: 13 years ago and what has changed??!!

Coupon-mad

Changes:

(a)  the Equality Act replaced that old DDA law.  Equality Act is better.

(b).  the new regulations coming in as part of the Parking (Code of Practice) Act 2019 which will require all PCNs to be cancelled if a driver has a Blue badge but it slipped or they forgot to display it:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/private-parking-code-of-practice/private-parking-code-of-practice

I wrote some of that (effectively - I was personally behind some 'disabled' wording and other clauses as I am on the Government Steering group) and it does also say something about disabled persons needing more time.

It also says something vaguely about recognising disability need, not just Blue Badges AND it references the Equality Act 2010 as the primary law at the top, along with the VERY USEFUL statutory EHRC Equality Act 'Code of Practice for Services' (thanks to me drawing it to the Government's attention...!).

I'd have liked the Code to have been stronger on disability allowances but we are nearly there and it's sooo much more than we have now. 

That stalled Code is being resurrected - final Public Consultation anticipated next month.

PLEASE come back and join us for that - although it is only about the extortionate money.  That's the final issue to address.

Thebantamboy

Coupon-mad said:

Changes:

(a)  the Equality Act replaced that old DDA law.  Equality Act is better.

(b).  the new regulations coming in as part of the Parking (Code of Practice) Act 2019 which will require all PCNs to be cancelled if a driver has a Blue badge but it slipped or they forgot to display it:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/private-parking-code-of-practice/private-parking-code-of-practice

(a) Thanks for clarifying - I wasn't sure so I threw both at them!

(b) Look forward to seeing progress on this. It looks like a comprehensive document with a lot of 'common sense' in it.