Parking Ticket for Parking in undersized bay: Widney Manor Park and Ride

fisherjim

 ............the sizing of the bays are the responsibility of the landowner.

So are they saying that the landowner purposely under sizes the bays in a busy car park, to enable their contractor to scam money out of their paying customers?

MajorDanby

That is the argument I have gone back to TfWM with, that if this is common practise then it amounts to something close to entrapment and a means for Excel to line their pockets. Hilariously TfWM also claimed there is no financial benefit for Excel in the issuing of PCNs so I outright asked them if they therefore recovered monies from Excel and returned them to the public purse

MajorDanby

So I have still not had any positive response from TfWM and therefore I have sent a formal complaint. Assuming that this isn't successful and I proceed down the long road of magistrates court, could I ask for opinions as to whether my defence, alongside that template defence should be sufficient for a judge to find in my favour - whilst noting these would be opinions and not certainties. My defence would be along the lines of:

- I was the driver, but am not the registered keeper (I'm awaiting the SAR response to understand if I have revealed my self as the driver in the appeal process)
- Parking bays too small to park a standard sized vehicle
- As a non-regular user of the carpark, on the day there were multiple vehicles parked in the same manner as my vehicle - this is suggestive that parking in this way being custom and practise and therefore it was not clear that I would have been in breach of contract
- My parking did not obstruct / impinge on any other vehicles / bays in the car park
- All signage was over the opposite side of the car park and not clearly visible from the specific parking space.

I'll go and take some pictures of the signage from the car parking space and measure the width of the bay.

The cost of the PCN is neither here nor there for me, so I will be defending this purely from a principles perspective but i don't really want to waste the time if it is a toss-up on the outcome.

Cheers all 

Umkomaas

Assuming that this isn't successful and I proceed down the long road of magistrates court

Impossible. 

1. A Parking Charge Notice cannot be pursued via the Magistrates Court

2. Excel cannot pursue anything via the Mags.

Coupon-mad

Sounds solid.  Signage distance is a key point so do get damning photos from the space.

MajorDanby

Further to my previous post. Please see photographs of the carpark. @Coupon-mad - Does this change your views per your earlier post?


Entrance signage showing land is covered by railway byelaws:


Pictures of the carpark showing no signage near the undersized parking bays:




Width of the bays: c1.9m 


View of signage from inside car, please note that the signage is obscured when there is a car parked in front of it, as it were on the day I received the PCN
The actual T&Cs (sorry for poor quality, this was taken by the ticketer):

1505grandad

"The company is Excel Parking Services limited...."

Unless I am mistaken  -   because the last photo is out of focus  -  the logo top right is VCS?

KeithP

1505grandad said:

"The company is Excel Parking Services limited...."

Unless I am mistaken  -   because the last photo is out of focus  -  the logo top right is VCS?

Absolutely right... and bottom left of that same photo VEHICLE CONTROL SERVICES LTD can also be seen.

MajorDanby

Wow, I didn't even notice that. Then presumably Excel took over from VCS and didn't both to change the signage?

MajorDanby

Right think I've solved the mystery - they are sister companies.

Thread here and response from beamerguy

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6200802/excel-parking-services-ltd-now-letter-from-vcs

The sender on the email correspondence is down as Excel, and I sent my SAR to dataprotection@excelparking.co.uk to which they responded with details of the PCN 

This begs the question if I mistakenly sent a SAR to the wrong company (Excel), then why did VCS pass my personal details onto Excel?