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

Coupon-mad

Yes let's give it an airing!  You will lose but won't be paying.  Are you attaching evidence of unclear signs?

MajorDanby

Cool, will do. At least should it go to the small claims track I can show that I have complied with the operators process. Yes will attach a selection of the pictures I shared Friday. I'll also try and go back to the station during a busier period and try to get a shot of the obscured signage when vehicles are parked in front of them.

Cheers

MajorDanby

Dear XXX

 

Thank you for your response to Transport for West Midlands (TfWM) regarding your parking charge issued at Widney Manor Train Station. 

I am sorry to learn that your appeal has been declined and I appreciate the frustration this must have caused. 

 

To answer your questions in order, Excel Parking are contracted as the enforcement agency for all Park & Rides we operate. The car park is designated as Private Land and the enforcement regime and Terms & Conditions have been designed to reflect this in accordance with the requirements of the IPC (International Parking Community) guidelines. 

 

The money received from parking fines is largely used solely on the car parks management costs and upkeep however, if any funds remain we invest this back into Park & Ride service. 

 

As part of the appeals process, Excel has already asked our Park & Ride team to consider your case and make a final decision. The PCN was issued due to a failure to park fully inside the bay and we will not be able to offer to remove the charge for you on this occasion. The email you received from Excel will outline the next steps on taking this further with the Independent Appeals Service.

 

I appreciate that you were not a frequent user of Widney Manor Train Station however, the terms of use would be the same for almost all car parks in the UK. Notices are placed within the car park at multiple points and 4 of these could viewed in the immediate area to the space you had used.   

 

Parking fines are there to enforce the behaviours we expect from all drivers. If a driver received multiple fines each of these would have detailed which terms were not followed and any further breaches would have been made as an informed decision. 

 

Thank you for contacting TfWM

I have received a further communication from TfWM:



I am going to make one last attempt at Plan A by complaining to the West Midlands Combined Authority, of which TfWM are a part. I have also made an FOI request for a copy of the contract:


Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing to formally complain about the behaviour of Transport for West Midlands, ("TfWM"), and their agents Vehicle Control Services Ltd, ("VCS") / Excel Parking Services Ltd, ("EPS"), at the Widney Manor Station Park and Ride Carpark.

The park and ride system is intended to ease congestion and the environmental impact of travelling into cities, in this case Birmingham, and therefore the local authority should ensure that park and rides are both accessible and fair.

My letter of complaint stems from the receipt of a Parking Charge Notice, ("PCN"), with the claimant, VCS, asserting that I had entered into, and was in breach of, a contract and was therefore subject to a £100 charge. The alleged breach was for failure to park wholly within a marked bay.

In reality, certain bays at Widney Manor are woefully undersized, with the particular bay in which I was parked measured to be smaller than my vehicle by several inches. Importantly I have shared photographic evidence with both TfWM and VCS/EPS showing that although my vehicle was overhanding the bay by several inches in the horizontal direction it was otherwise fully within the bay and was categorically not impinging on other bays or causing an obstruction to carpark users. In addition, I have cited that the signage within the car park was obscured based on its low position and proximity to adjacent parking bays. This is clearly not aligned to the requirements in International Parking Community's, ("IPC") Code of Practise, of which VCS/EPS are members.

Furthermore, as a non-frequent user of the Widney Manor park and ride system and when viewing vehicles in similar sized bays parked in the same manner it is suggestive that parking in this way in these sized bays was custom and practise for users of the car park. It is my belief that piling charges on innocent users of the park and ride in this way is tantamount to entrapment and is not a behaviour I would have expected to be witness to by TfWM or by extension West Midlands Combined Authority, ("WMCA").

Upon the advice of TfWM, I concluded the internal appeals process with a negative outcome, and have now submitted a further appeal to the Independent Appeals Service ("IAS"). 

It is well documented that private parking companies, ("PPCs"), are unregulated and make millions of pounds every year by exploiting the venerable, through unclear signage and exploitative practices. I myself have experienced such tactics with early correspondence warning of heavily inflated charges should I 'dare' to follow through the appeals process with IAS. These practises are unbecoming of TfWM and by extension the WMCA. Despite my representations to TfWM to intercede on my behalf they have failed to do so and therefore I can only assume they are complicit in a PPC scam to extort money from individuals such as myself who are innocently trying to use public services. It should be noted that PPCs can only operate with the express permission of the landowners and therefore all landowners engaged with PPCs have the ability to effectively cancel PCNs.

The propensity of PPCs, EPS/VCS included, to use every opportunity is well known and has been discussed in parliament in 2018 in support of the Parking (Code of Practise) Bill, with PPCs being described by the sitting MPs as follows:

''Rip-offs from car park Cowboys must stop''; unfair treatment; signage deliberately confusing to ensure a PCN is issued; ''years of abuse by rogue parking companies''; bloodsuckers; ''the current system of regulation is hopeless, like putting Dracula in charge of the blood-bank''; extortionate fines; rogue operators; ''sense of injustice''; unfair charges and notices; wilfully misleading; signage is a deliberate act to deceive or mislead; ''confusing signs are often deliberate, to trap innocent drivers''; unreasonable; a curse; harassing; operating in a disgusting way; appeals service is no guarantee of a fair hearing; loathed; outrageous scam; dodgy practice; outrageous abuse; unscrupulous practices; ''the British Parking Association is as much use as a multi-storey car park in the Gobi desert''; and finally, by way of unanimous conclusion: ''we need to crack down on these rogue companies. They are an absolute disgrace to this country. Ordinary motorists and ordinary residents should not have to put up with this''.

I am hugely disappointed in the behaviours of TfWM and VCS/EPS and will now be forced to defend myself on the small claims track. Thankfully I am not in the position where any subsequent penalty will not adversely effect myself; however, I feel truly sorry for more venerable individuals who may not have the ability to defend themselves or who may not be able to pay such penal charges.

In the interests of transparency and due to the failure of TfWM to address this matter I must inform you that I will be writing to my local MP on the above and will also be informing local media institutions of the behaviour of TfWM.

Coupon-mad

Waaaaiiiit a minute:

"Excel Parking are contracted as the enforcement agency for all Park & Rides we operate."

So obviously that email gets uploaded as evidence with your IAS appeal and add some words about it.  Wrong company.

MajorDanby

I'll certainly do that Coupon. To be honest I don't think the guy I am corresponding with really understands what he is talking about... I guess I'll find out when I get the FOI request through

I also cant believe this is true?

The money received from parking fines is largely used solely on the car parks management costs and upkeep however, if any funds remain we invest this back into Park & Ride service

Coupon-mad

VCS/Excel keep most or all the PCN income so they are incentivised to issue PCNs, or they won't make any money.

That's completely separate from "the money received" by TFWM. 

Le_Kirk

MajorDanby said:
I am hugely disappointed in the behaviours of TfWM and VCS/EPS and will now be forced to defend myself on the small claims track. Thankfully I am not in the position where any subsequent penalty will not adversely effect myself; however, I feel truly sorry for more venerable individuals who may not have the ability to defend themselves or who may not be able to pay such penal charges.

I think you meant vulnerable.

MajorDanby

Thanks - a few other grammatical and spelling errors corrected as well

Castle

MajorDanby said:

I'll certainly do that Coupon. To be honest I don't think the guy I am corresponding with really understands what he is talking about... I guess I'll find out when I get the FOI request through

I also cant believe this is true?

The money received from parking fines is largely used solely on the car parks management costs and upkeep however, if any funds remain we invest this back into Park & Ride service

Oh good; something else for the next F.O.I. request to obtain from TFWM. 

Umkomaas

Castle said:

MajorDanby said:

I'll certainly do that Coupon. To be honest I don't think the guy I am corresponding with really understands what he is talking about... I guess I'll find out when I get the FOI request through

I also cant believe this is true?

The money received from parking fines is largely used solely on the car parks management costs and upkeep however, if any funds remain we invest this back into Park & Ride service

Oh good; something else for the next F.O.I. request to obtain from TFWM. 

Yep. Paint 'em into a corner!