BW legal fluttering ticket - LBC

Larry_Houdini

Good morning. 

Please could one of you experts give me a steer on my situation. 

I have a letter before claim from BW legal from a car park in Devon last year on holiday. I had a valid ticket but it had blown into a recess in the dash and was difficult to observe. 

I never thought it would get this far and due to naivety I have made a number of errors. Initially I appealed directly to Premier Park thinking once I showed the valid ticket that would be the end of it.  At this stage I admitted to driving my partners car. I now know this was foolish and has likely closed some avenues of defence. 

The signage was very confusing (although this was not upheld at POPLA) and I inputted the VRN into the car park machine. Generally when this is done, pay and display is not required. However the operator claims they do not use the VRN (other than to stop people sharing tickets!) and pay and display is mandatory.

I tried to obtain CCTV from the site but the parking operator said they didn’t own the site or cameras and refused to provide the landowners details. 

Should I continue or have some of the usual lines of defence been closed off and therefore pay and put this down to experience. 

Thank you. 

prowla

A bit after the event, but I use a clothes peg in the car to stop fluttering tickets.

Nellymoser

How unhelpful of Premier Park not to give you landowner details. Of course PP want to stop you from contacting the landowner incase landowner instructs PP to cancel your pcn. They don't want anything to stop their attempts to gain more money from you.

PLAN A in NEWBIES thread is often successful.
If you name the car park the landowner may be known on here and the linked post suggests other ways.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6337652/how-to-find-details-of-landowner

2nd post in NEWBIES titled Small Claim tells you how to deal with LBC.

Coupon-mad

prowla said:

A bit after the event, but I use a clothes peg in the car to stop fluttering tickets.

I keep a blob of blutack

Larry_Houdini

There are loads of people who have had the same issue according to the Google reviews of the car park. 

The ticket is so flimsy, whatever happened to the gummed edges you stick to the windscreen. 

Unlikely I have the time to contact the landowner now even if I could identify them. 

prowla

Larry_Houdini said:

There are loads of people who have had the same issue according to the Google reviews of the car park. 

The ticket is so flimsy, whatever happened to the gummed edges you stick to the windscreen. 

Unlikely I have the time to contact the landowner now even if I could identify them. 

Well, if the ticket becomes unstuck then it can be argued that it's the PPC's fault for providing inadequate glue.

So, they avoid the issue by not making them sticky and saying you have to "display" the ticket (ie. not stick it).

Also, as I recall, they can leave residue on your windscreen.

That has got me thinkng though...

Remember when you used to see cars with lots of tickets on their windscreens.

I wonder if it would be a bit of fun to keep a board with loads of tickets on it (all clearly visible) so the parking checker would have to play hunt-the-ticket?

Anything that eats up their time means it's longer till they get to the next car.

rdr

my Skoda has a useful clip on the windscreen for this

Larry_Houdini

I like that idea Prowla!

Bit of an update - I paid £7 with land registry to find the landowners so will be putting a complaint to them. 

Not sure how I will fare. The car park is owned by the harbour company of said little Cornish town. Already found other threads on here about them as they control the harbour parking also. So the harbour company has the monopoly of parking in the town. 

Coupon-mad

And there's likely no keeper liability, if harbour byelaws apply. Sadly, that won't be a point you can use:

At this stage I admitted to driving my partners car. I now know this was foolish and has likely closed some avenues of defence.

Oh well. There are others.

Larry_Houdini

The plot thickens…the Harbour company have stated they do not own the land of the car park despite what land register states! 

I have contacted the town council who due to data protection cannot divulge the owner but will pass my contact details to them. 

Coupon-mad

Larry_Houdini said:

The plot thickens…the Harbour company have stated they do not own the land of the car park despite what land register states! 

I have contacted the town council who due to data protection cannot divulge the owner but will pass my contact details to them. 

The town council must tell you who pays the business rates. Ir's public information.