Am I in the wrong??? Smart parking now gone to debt recovery!!!

JaySmiith

I recently appealed a parking ticket (Smart parking) I received at Towan car park in Newquay. I lost the appeal and now I have recieved a letter from debt collectors asking for a payment of £170.

I entered the car park at 10:01 as per what the camera shows. The car park was busy and it is small. It took time for me to get around the car park in my van and to get into a space as I had to wait for multiple cars to move and park.

I have evidence that i did indeed pay for parking at 10:15 once I had parked up, walked over to the pay and display machine and then input the information into the app and completed payment. I then left at 12:13 having paid for a 2 hour slot leaving me with 2 mins spare. 

My friend who also parked and left at the same time as me also received a parking ticket and appealed his. Yet he received an email saying his parking ticket had been dropped.

Now I’ve got to decide whether to keep ignoring these letters or pay up for something I shouldn’t have too!

Any advice is much appreciated!!!

James_Poisson

Why would you pay a bunch of scammers?

Car1980

Must have let the work experience kid be in charge when they cancelled your friend's ticket.

Just keep ignoring. "Debt recovery" is just powerless companies sending begging letters.

Come back if you receive a letter of claim from a bulk litigator (usually DCB Legal).

Coupon-mad

Of course it's at tedious debt letters stage. See post 4 of the Newbies thread.

Half_way

You have used the word "I" far too may times

There are many ways to beat the scum in the parking companies, and often an easy one is if they have failed to comply with the protection of freedoms act (POFA), something that despite the fact that the PoFA hs been around for a good few years many parking companies (PPCs) are seemingly unable to comply with.

 However why should PPCs go to the hassle of actually having to engage a brain cell on compliance, when they can rely on people blabbing who was driving.and in turn throwing away a slam dunk win in getting rid of the scum chasing them for an unreasonable amount.

You have these distinct entitys

 1: Registered keeper - this is the person/entity that is named on the vehicle's V5C document ( log book) 

 2: Owner of the vehicle - the person that actually owns it

 3: Driver on the day

All of those can be different and the parking company can only go after the registered keeper if they comply with the legal aspects (PoFA) - or someone tells them who the driver is by using terms such as I did this, or She, husband, wife, daughter, son, even friend or neighbour and so on

Mini rant over.

You said this:

Now I’ve got to decide whether to keep ignoring these letters or pay up for something I shouldn’t have too!

And the answer is nether, you do not pay them, waiting for a space is not parking

https://parking-prankster.blogspot.com/2014/03/waiting-for-space-is-not-parking.html

the above is a court case, you want to prevent this going to court in the first place without paying.

So a landowner complaint is usually in order, you can use the above case to highlight the issues to the landowner and you should engage fully with them, reminding them that they are jointly liable for the actions of their agents, in this case ( not so) smart parking

Google search Ai thing shows this

The landowner of Towan Car Park in Newquay is Cornwall Council, as confirmed by their use of Pay on Exit technology with barrier-controlled access in some of their car parks. You can typically find information about car park ownership and charges by checking the signage at the location itself

which brings up an interesting question, if the car park is council owned, is it relevant land as per PoFA and/or covered by a TRO ( traffic regulation order) 

JaySmiith

I have found a photo of the sign put up in Tower road car park. It does actually state you have to pay from the moment you go in, do I still have a leg to stand on? 

I really don’t want to pay this but I also really don’t want to go to court 😂 

JaySmiith

I have also tried looking for the owner of the car park and there’s no direct way of contacting them. It might even be owned by Cornwall council from what I’ve read.

Car1980

I really don’t want to pay this but I also really don’t want to go to court 😂 

In won't be "going to court" as such. It'll just end up being one of DCB Legal's 1000 Money Claim Online claims for that week, where defended claims are discontinued.

JaySmiith

Ah I see, so basically I just don’t respond unless I receive a letter from DCB like you previously said. 

Coupon-mad

Yes.

Please can you edit & remove the exclamation marks from your thread title because DRA letters are nothing at all.

We don't want to spook forum-browsing people over a 'nothing' stage!