West Quay Retail Park - Britannia Parking

Darthij

Had a succesfull outcome on this so thought I'd share relevant information in case anyone else comes across it.

In September 2024 my parents parked at West Quay retail park to do some shopping before a holiday.  They were travelling in their motor home and paid to park in the car park.  Unfortunately they extended across two bays (due to the length of the vehcile) and there was no option on the app to pay for the same reg twice.  They proceeded to visit a number of shops in the retail park as well as spending money at the main West Quay.

They were fined £85.  Having heard the advice to ignore these letters they only told me about it when a LOC arrived from DCB legal and they thought it had got serious enough to do something about.

Once I got told about the LOC immediately wrote to DCB Legal telling them they were seeking debt advice and to allow another 30 days.  I then went on the hunt for contact details to cancel the ticket.

Unfortunately they didn't spend any money at the shops in the retail park and the manager at decathlon was not interested in helping, I couldn't find details for the manager at Furniture Villiage. 

I did however find out that Cushman & Wakefield own the retail park and contact details for the manager is online (Shaun.Mcgillivray@cushwake.com). I emailed Shaun but didn't hear anything back for a few days so decided to escalate.  I went to the people page on the Cushman website (https://www.cushmanwakefield.com/en/people) and contacted the Head of UK & Ireland, George Roberts (https://www.cushmanwakefield.com/en/united-kingdom/people/george-roberts) as well as the Head of Retail Toby Sykes (https://www.cushmanwakefield.com/en/united-kingdom/people/toby-sykes). 

Email to Shaun:
"Dear Shaun,

I am writing following receipt of a Letter of Claim from DCB Legal, acting on behalf of Britannia Parking to complain about the sharp tactics used to chase parking fines.

My parents, both pensioners, have received a large number of demanding and threatening letters from Brittania and DCB.  They were fined for parking across two bays in the West Quay Retail Park car park.  They attended on their way to a holiday and were in their campervan, unfortunately there is no provision of larger spaces they could have stayed in.  Having paid for parking, and then proceeded to spend over £300 in WestQuay (at John Lewis and Marks and Spencer) and visited a number of shops at the retail park, including Decathlon and Furniture Villiage it seems very unjust to be further penalised by these cowboys.

The claim by Brittania was wholly disproportionate, punitive and unjustifiable given the large number of empty spaces on the day, in a car park which they paid to be in.

I am writing to you in the hope that you will raise this with these parking cowboys, who are threatening pensions with bailiffs, and seeing the unjustice in the fine have the ticket cancelled as you can appreciate this whole process almost centerly removes the desire to attend West Quay Retail park - an otherwise excellent facility.

Since there is now a threat of legal action I would greatly appreciate your prompt attention to this matter.  The PCN number on the ticket is: XXXXX

Yours sincerely,"

Next day I received an email from the site supervisor at West Quay Retail (Gordon) explaining that although the ticket was fairly given, as a one off gesture of good will it was being cancelled.

Plan A worked again!

fisherjim

Brilliant result, it was never a "fine" though!

Coupon-mad

Perfect!

Please also add this to the thread called:

Successful Complaints About PPCs

It's linked in Crabman's sticky thread plus it's linked in the NEWBIES thread, too.  More people will see this in that dedicated thread.