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Gr1pr

So , Coastway vets, like this one a few years ago 

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6223743/court-report-coastway-vets-predatory-ticketing-no-grace-period-ops-lose-at-brighton-court-again

I think that they used to pay a pensioner to monitor it from nearby. ?

Coupon-mad

The above is how I know it.  I lay repped that case and have a relative in Portslade.  I'm a West Sussex lady and OPS are primarily infesting sites in East & West Sussex.

Coupon_mad yes it was the location you stated.

Yep. Thought so. 

Nothing to do with your profile. Don't get paranoid! I did no digging, just educated guessing....wizardry... or maybe it's just that I am an OPS-knowledgeable geek.  You said "a shop which was closed" where the driver sat in the car. I thought of the vets and could think of few other OPS haunts that sounded right.

You realise they are Worthing based? I think one of them even supports the Albion, as I do. The place you described was bound to be a shop in the Brighton/Hove area, I decided.

Anyway you don't PAY these ex-clampers!

My friend @ParkingMad is the other Brighton lady on here and we've been to more OPS court cases than you'd think. I've never lost in court.  I'm not their favourite person, I'm sure.

Coupon-mad

Gr1pr said:

So , Coastway vets, like this one a few years ago 

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6223743/court-report-coastway-vets-predatory-ticketing-no-grace-period-ops-lose-at-brighton-court-again

I think that they used to pay a pensioner to monitor it from nearby. ?

Apparently an old guy sat in a car opposite and scuttled over the road with his phone to take pics. Could be wrong but I hear he died.

Using covert CCTV (if that's the MO there now) is illegal under the DPA 2018. Looks like they've hidden cameras on the carpet shop opposite (see: I know the area well!).

I have to say I have no idea why people park there, given that the road (Carlton Terrace) is free, as is the Aldi car park behind the vets. When I am in that area I park on-street.  

3rd March was also a Sunday, when even the single yellow lines over the road by the newsagents are restriction free!  That was where to stop.

There was never a reason for the driver in the OP's case to drive off the kerb and up there in that entrapment site. There is almost never a need in any town or city to come off street for short errands. This is what single and double yellow lines are actually there for (true).  Yellow lines (on street) exist for the allowed purpose of short stops for loading/unloading or setting down passengers.

Coupon-mad

i_like_lists said:

Thanks all -
 I'm getting a sinking feeling I might be best cutting my loses and paying. Frustrated I offered to pay something but as I said I was not aware of this forum before...

Do NOT pay this!

Read the post by @Johnersh - a solicitor poster - in this similar 'shop was closed' case:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/80815544/#Comment_80815544

Your case is even worse as a scam, IMHO, due to the covert surveillance of positively and deliberately (seems to me) 'hiding' CCTV on a completely different shop wall across on the opposite side of the public highway and training it on the vets' spaces.  No driver would see that CCTV camera trap.

Surveillance must be overt, not covert.

i_like_lists

Coupon-mad - thanks so much for your enlightening responses and absolute legend status (+ wizard skills). 

I know the whole thing of pulling into that place was highly frustrating and not down to me - I have eye rolled at my spouse several times who is a bit sick of hearing about their wrongdoing in this instance! Aldi was next door with loads of car parking spaces! Totally avoidable. Really interesting to hear about the CCTV, they cannot recall seeing the cameras but they might have been there - I can attempt to drive by at some point to check this, WITHOUT PULLING IN. I will read the case you posted above but amazing to see that you have challenged these sharks and won! I need you on my future Xmas card list! I will continue to hold my nerve with all these threatening letters. 

Gr1pr

People rarely see cameras, especially if they are directly opposite and covert, I rarely see cameras on Normal roads and car parks, especially because they tend to be up high and dont stand out anyway 

Coupon-mad

i_like_lists said:

Coupon-mad - thanks so much for your enlightening responses and absolute legend status (+ wizard skills). 

I know the whole thing of pulling into that place was highly frustrating and not down to me - I have eye rolled at my spouse several times who is a bit sick of hearing about their wrongdoing in this instance! Aldi was next door with loads of car parking spaces! Totally avoidable. Really interesting to hear about the CCTV, they cannot recall seeing the cameras but they might have been there - I can attempt to drive by at some point to check this, WITHOUT PULLING IN. I will read the case you posted above but amazing to see that you have challenged these sharks and won! I need you on my future Xmas card list! I will continue to hold my nerve with all these threatening letters. 

You can safely park on the single yellow or in Aldi. ParkingEye infest there but you get 90 mins and you CAN leave the site.  Aldi got a slap and a BHCC Planning fine for trying to penalise people for not shopping in Aldi. A few years ago that was in the Argus.

Anyway back to ex-clampers OPS:

I think OPS now infest the carpet shop forecourt too.  A recent change that I noticed last time I went there when meeting a Portslade friend for a BHA football match on a Sunday (yep I parked on the yellow line as the restrictions don't apply on Sundays).

What I suspect OPS have done is, when setting up their CCTV for the carpet shop they've added an extra camera and trained it to spy over the road.

This is not acceptably overt camera surveillance, according to the DPA 2018.  It is also going to capture vehicles and people on-street which isn't OK.

Shall I wave at OPS next time I'm there?

It would be a strong extra point of defence.

i_like_lists

Coupon-mad - interesting point you raise and I have just tried to find some info about overt/covert camera and will look at the DPA 2018. I am including the picture of the small notice on a wall at Coastway Vets which they sent on the emailed PCN. It is a small sign with such tiny writing about data protection / CCTV surveillance. 

Coupon-mad

https://ico.org.uk/media/about-the-ico/consultation-responses/2015/1431796/ico-response-to-dclg-parking-reform-consultation.pdf

See above for the ICO's take on it.  Ignore stuff about the 'ANPR/Surveillance Camera Code of Practice' because it's likely to not exist in future (BAD idea to let those crucial rules fall away). 

Anyway, the DCLG is now the DLUHC and they are aware of the above and of course, the DPA 2018.

I am on the DLUHC private parking statutory Code of Practice Steering Group and I helped shape the incoming Code. The good guys & gals representing motorists in this law change are just awaiting the General Election now and to know which Secretary of State will have this in their portfolio.  It is almost ready to become a part of law.

Anyway.

If it were me, I would (this month) make a formal complaint to BHCC's Planning Dept that OPS are operating a CCTV system that is NOT confined to one private land site. It looks like there's a hidden camera on the carpet shop and it spies right across the public highway and probably captures EVERY person and vehicle in the vicinity of the Hallyburton Road/Carlton Terrace junction.

This is massively intrusive surveillance and looks to breach the DPA 2018 because the camera isn't being used for one purpose for the carpet shop.  All pedestrians, cars and drivers/passengers, and even all the people on buses will be filmed, as buses use that route.

IMHO this cannot be a lawful or BHCC acceptable use of surveillance for issuing private parking charges.  Surely it breaches the DPA 2018 due to its intrusive nature and the fact it's filming right across two streets (and not for any security excuse).

If people can't lawfully have their ring doorbells recording beyond their front gardens (according to articles in the public domain)  EXACTLY HOW can OPS set up a system on the carpet shop (Hove boundary). yet set a camera to deliberately record 24/7 right across the Public Highway. Its single purpose (for the ex clampers OPS) is to generate penalties against drivers who stop at the shop forecourts but they are unconnected premises and actually in different towns!

This is covertly spying on another piece of land entirely (on the Portslade side). They should either have two separate CCTV cameras (on-site at EACH store and ring-fence the filming only to those bays within the private land) or use enforcement on foot, like they did for years.

BHCC should investigate this complaint. Surveillance can only be for its single stated purpose and restricted only to the stated land. Quite possibly, if the carpet shop had to get permission for this camera, I wonder if they told BHCC it is a security camera? Your images prove it isn't being used for that purpose.

Wonder if BHCC will properly investigate, given they handed the entire area council housing parking contract to OPS years ago and keep renewing it, despite loads of complaints.

Coupon-mad

In fact it looks to me like they are filming at an acute angle right across a busy junction using a 360 degree camera on Hallyburton Road Hove. This shop front faces North but IMHO they are filming cars which stop hundreds of yards away at the vets across the road, not immediately opposite but over the main road to the West of this corner store:



Camera top left.

OPS sign on the right. Google Streetview proves that camera is new. It wasn't there 3 years ago.

I know it wasn't!  I notice these things and Coastway vets and the surrounding shops is a place I ALWAYS look at when in Portslade, in the hope that one day OPS will be dumped.