Euro Car Park Wapping Wharf Bristol

Painman

My wife is the registered keeper of a motability vehicle that I was driving when we overstayed by 28 minutes. My wife has already told them that I was the driver, before I knew about the letter. I am now waiting for a Letter of my own to appeal.

In the meantime, I have written to the landowners and asked them to intervene with ECP on the grounds that my wife is disabled and we had a crappy day. I have added it to the end. I have no idea if they'll even bother to respond but do I have a valid case to appeal if they don't?

My Email:

Dear Umberslade Management Team,

I hope you are well. I am reaching out to you directly as the developer of Wapping Wharf to ask if you might be able to help me with a difficult parking situation.

My wife and I visited the area on September 3rd this year and parked at your Wapping Wharf North car park. We genuinely love visiting the independent shops and restaurants here, and we always make sure to pay for our parking. On this visit, I bought a ticket for 1 hour.

Unfortunately, my wife is disabled, and an incident during our trip, meant that it took us a little longer than expected to get back to the car, making us about 10 minutes late. By the time I safely helped her into the vehicle and loaded up all of her mobility equipment, we faced a further delay because we were temporarily blocked in our space by another driver who was trying to park.

Because of these delays, Euro Car Parks’ cameras logged us as overstaying by 28 minutes, and a £60 charge has been issued.

I entirely understand that parking rules are necessary to keep the site running smoothly. However, we never intended to overstay or park for free, and the extra time was purely down to the physical realities of moving equipment and ensuring my wife was safely in the car. The car park had plenty of empty spaces at the time, so no other drivers were inconvenienced.I entirely understand that parking rules are necessary to keep the site running smoothly. However, we never intended to park for free, and the extra time was purely down to the physical realities of moving equipment and ensuring my wife was safely in the car. I would have gladly paid for the extra time we used, but the on-site ticket terminal doesn't provide any obvious way to extend a stay, or pay for an overrun at the end. Since the car park had plenty of empty spaces at the time, no other drivers were inconvenienced.

As the landowner, I know you have the ultimate oversight of the car park management team. I was hoping that, as a gesture of goodwill, you might consider contacting Euro Car Parks to see if this charge could be written off for us?

We really enjoy supporting the Wapping Wharf community, and it would mean a huge amount to us if you could help us resolve this.

Thank you so much for your time, reading our story, and considering our request.

Warm regards,

Gr1pr

Its a £100 charge, not £60. ( the £60 is a strictly time limited early settlement offer. )

You should have added the Equality Act 2010 required reasonable adjustment, if she is disabled

Painman

Thanks. I agree with what you’ve said about the charge being £100 and about mentioning the Equality Act reasonable adjustments.

I kept my email to the landowner polite and “soft” on purpose, because they’re the only people with the power to cancel it outright, and I didn’t want to come across as confrontational.If they don’t respond or don’t intervene, then I’ll follow your advice properly when my own Notice arrives and make the Equality Act point in the appeal.

No reply from the landowner today, so I’ll wait to see if anything comes back

Painman

One week on and still no response from the Landowner and nothing yet from ECP to me directly. I sent a follow up email to the landowners, reminding them that my wife is disabled and that we needed reasonable adjustments to park. Seeing as it was radio silence to the first email, I'm not holding out much hope for a positive outcome. I'll appeal aggressively if/when the letter arrives from ECP

Painman

I had a response from the landowners who have said that they will look into it for me. That's a start at least. I've also had my own demand for payment from ECP.

Would the advice be to strenuously appeal this on the grounds of disability now, or to await the outcome of the investigation by the landowners?

I am conscious of the time limits imposed by ECP and don't want to make things more difficult for myself down the road.

All advice greatly appreciated

James_Poisson

ECP won't cancel they are a greedy profit hungry company, you can appeal if you like but don't hold your breath, but why do you think you will "make things difficult down the road" Euro are just scum bags not an authority.

Umberslade state they are a family owned business they may well come up trumps with plan A

Gr1pr

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82150795#Comment_82150795

ECP via DCB Legal always discontinue just before the hearing fee is due, so it definitely won't make things difficult "down the road " !

Painman

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82150890#Comment_82150890

By 'making things difficult down the road' I meant by missing the Appeals deadline whilst waiting for Umberslade. I agree that Plan A is probably my best hope

Painman

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82150998#Comment_82150998

That's good to hear. I think I'll appeal at the last possible moment to give Umberslade time to review it

Gr1pr

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82151086#Comment_82151086

Good choice, I would do the same