Horizon Parking Climb Down

Francolli

I had a PCN from horizon parking for allegedly arriving on Tesco car park at Wigan, Central Park Way on 15th January 2024 at 20:30 and they allege I then left the car park at 08:00am the next day! If anyone recalls the weather that day in Greater Manchester it was the worst snow in the region for 14 years. The store closes overnight so apparently I was sat in the car in foot deep snow in front of a closed store for 12 hours overnight, which is interesting as I was sat at home with my family at the same time. At that time I was moving house and the letters got mislaid between properties until May this year (2024) by which time I was out of time to appeal to Horizon or the British parking association. The debt had gone to Debt Recovery Solutions, a shady operation operating out of a P.O Box number in Manchester. I went on the warpath. I appealed anyway to Horizon, appealed to DRP, got in touch with Tesco, filled in a subject access request to Horizon for all records of every car including my own that had entered and exited that car park during that 24 hours in order to analyze the info to see how many cars they missed entering and exiting. I filed another SAR to DRP debt recovery for all of their records pertaining to me and my car. I filed another SAR to DVLA for the same and demanded to know why they had given my private details to an unregulated parking company, who personally had done this, how much money had changed hands between Horizon and DVLA for this info and what due diligence DVLA do when requested for info.

So a week or two went past after firing these paper missiles all over the country

It seems some hit their mark

I received this email today 29th May 2024



So moral of the story for all of those people out there that are out of time to appeal their Horizon parking PCN don't lose hope about the situation, you can still do this if you go on the warpath about the situation to the right people and departments.

I have no idea who made the decision about cancelling this as I have had no further communication from Tesco, no comms from the debt recovery people although the multiple subject access requests from the information commissioners office would have hit their marks at the different bodies by now so that could have swayed things.

So job done, but in closing I have yet to receive the mountain of data from Horizon's tinpot ANPR cameras so if anyone on this forum would like a copy of it (I expect around 500 pages of data) then DM me and I will be happy to supply it for anyone who wants to run their own analysis on it, shouldn't take long using an A.I package like Chat Gpt, lets see how many other cars they missed entering and exiting that day and see if their pound shop ANPR cameras do their job in snowstorm blizzard conditions!

Coupon-mad

Nice fightback story about a typical ANPR flaw known even by Government (teehee!) as a 'double dip'.

All too common.

People even get CCJs as a result, if the PCN goes to an old address due to people not knowing that when they move, they have to change the address on their logbook with the DVLA, not just their driving licence address.  Anyway I am glad you didn't ignore this as that could have happened to you (a court claim and default CCJ to your old address) if you'd dropped the ball on the scam.

Nicely seen off.

Umkomaas

I have yet to receive the mountain of data from Horizon's tinpot ANPR cameras so if anyone on this forum would like a copy of it (I expect around 500 pages of data)

You won't get it. They're only obliged to give information they hold about you and your vehicle.

Castle

In your SAR to Horizon did you ask them if you have been subject to any "automated decision-making"?

fisherjim

What that letter actually means is that they know ANPR is not fit for purpose but continue to use it as it is the biggest most cost effective scamming device they have, and the government, who won't let authority controlled car parks use it, allow them to get away with it.

Their statement that "where problems are highlighted they can investigate and apply a remedy" is a downright lie they usually stick their fingers in their ears and sing la la, but in this case they just knew they were on a loser and threw in the towel, it doesn't happen often, well done!