ADP

Hi All

Just been issued with a parking ticket for "vehicle parked on the road not in a marked bay" ???!!!!!

It was in a retail park (halfords, jjb, argos etc) and the car parks are patrolled by "euro car parks" - http://www.eurocarparks.com

In basic terms I parked on the end of a row - not obstructing at all - plenty of room for other cars. I have contested the parking ticket below, but who the hell are these people, if I dont pay will they come after me for £50?? really?

Andy


==============

Ticket Ref: A 303644
Date: 20/12/04
Location: West Quay Retail
Site No: 217
Vehicle Reg: FG53YDU


Dear Sir


With reference to the above parking ticket I am writing to appeal against the Parking Charge Notice I have been issued with on the 20th December 2004.

To set the scene, I have arrived to shop at Halfords and JJB sports on the West Quay Retail Park. It’s a very busy day being only 5 days to Christmas and parking slots are scarce to say the least. Being unable to find a slot, I use some lateral thinking and park my car next to the last slot in the bay. I am not obstructing ANYONE by doing this, all cars are able to exit slots freely and flow around the bays is not obstructed. After about an hour I arrive back to my car to find I have been issued a ticket for “vehicle parked on the road not in marked bay”. As I have already explained I haven’t caused any obstruction in my action (I notice this is box C on your ticket) nor do I believe I have inconvenienced anyone in any way. I therefore would ask you to re consider my case for this parking charge.

I understand the rules outlined on your ticket boxes A,B,C and E. However, I would ask you to justify your decision for issuing me a ticket on this occasion and hope that you will re consider the charges made against me.



Kind Regards




Andrew Powell

mart360

bol

i doubt you,ll get off, private land and private company...

depends who has the most money to fight it

Mart

SiPie

Reply....

Dear sir

You were not parked in a designated bay.

Please cough up

Thanks for your letter

See ya

Frosty The Snowman

I would suggest just leaving it and wait and see what they do next cos it's not a criminal matter and about the most they can do is take you to small claims court which won't be worth it for them.

speedking

"Being unable to find a slot, I use some lateral thinking and shopped elsewhere." Is more likely to have an effect.

Was there a notice displayed outlining the fine system and what constitutes acceptable parking? If so, then you are bang to rights I'm afraid.

mart360

dont you believe it..

a local company not very far from where this was issued (40 miles)

charged £1000 for cars ticketed, clamped and removed!!!!!

and they were approved by the local council!!!!!


pay it, all they will do is escalate it and pass it on with costs

Mart

Pastor

Now you have admitted being there you have a problem.

I've had a few tickets like this (ie from crappy private firms) and I dealt with them by sending a letter telling them I had never been in their car park and have no wish to ever visit their car park. I then tell them they will need to provide photographic evidence as I am now concerned about the possibility of car reg cloning.
So far this has resulted in a letter telling me that the matter is now closed. NEVER admit being there, NEVER admit liability, it is upto them to prove it.

Of course some of these pr1cks just stick a ticket on the car, I remove it and bin it at my leisure. If they then do some reg tracing I hit them with the reply outlined above.

David Lock

Are you sure there wasn't a light dusting of snow that obscured the parking bay lines??

I presume they have to prove there wasn't

Mind you Pastor's advice above seems the best bet.....

InvisibleMan

who has ever had a ticket cancelled??? i had to park in a carpark that had 100spaces & i was the only car in the carpark, there were no on-the-street-parking anywhere & unfortunately i happened to have no money on me to pay the carpark ticket. I thought i am literally only going to be 10mins so parked & went off.

8mins later i had a ticket

did i get off did i ****! (plus i mentioned i was unemployed at the time) for all the fat load of sh1te that did me...

brybusa

yep, I gotta a ticket for taking up 2 bays at my Morrisions by NCP..

however, as I "may" have had modified number plates,I binned it

ADP

its only 30 quid if I pay on time, however Id rather put some kind of fight up - even if its fruitless

andrewdelvard

I think you should 1st investigate the terms and conditions of parking in that particular retail park and also check any warning notifications posted in the parking area and what the wording is.

Pastor

As I said above I've had a few of these tickets cancelled. The key fact here is that these are private firms operating outside of the road traffic act and without powers devolved to them from the local council.
The law still applies to them and following a quick look at the ECP website it seems their enforcement procedures don't include photographing vehicles infringing their petty rules. That being the case my advice would be to deny ever being there.

Be aware though they do seem to use their links with the DVLA to get your details. Therefore in the case the thing to do would be to wait until they contact you and then hit them with the "I wasn't there" reply.

The way I look at it is this, my memory is pretty poor and I can't remember exactly where I was on a given date. That being the case they need to prove it don't you think?

Game, set and match.

speedking

... but go in a different car in case they catch you on the CCTV

darts_aint_sport

Was it a free carpark you illegally parked in?

And are there any free/non-free car parks in the near area?

Pastor

lol@ the idea of them checking CCTV footage for a parking infringment. In any case pehaps on this occasion you've chosen to visit their car park, it in no way proves any previous offence or infringment. They need to provide photo evidence just like the local council does in these parking cases.

Chris L

Send a copy of the letter along with an expression of your disgust at how you (a long standing customer etc etc) have been treated, to all the stores that share the car parks. Copy the letter into their head offices. Kick up a fuss - bad treatment of customers etc. Never know might get a reaction

RussBoy

I'd agree with Chris. The stores are going to be pretty pi$$ed off if they think bad publicity over parking through no perceived fault of their own is driving valuable punters away. Plus they act as one authority with whom the parking company will want to keep sweet...


R

Pastor

I think you need to realise that a lot of these stores merely rent their space from whoever owns the retail park. Even if they don't what happens is this- they put a tender out to manage their car parking. A company wins it, then they agree on a strategy- revenue generating or perhaps,as is the most common case, stopping abuse of their facility from non-customers, long stayers etc.
That being the case they often have NO SAY WHATSOEVER in how the place is managed and run other than as tenants. I hardly think one disgruntled customer is going to make them rethink their entire strategy do you?
A very long shot might be them using their limited power to get the fine quoshed. However what does work is asking the parking company in question to produce their evidence, as they probably haven't got any. If they want to play games enforcing penalty charges for minor infringments then you need to join in and play the game yourself.

Chrisgr31

If memory serves me right then the car park involved is free. I believe there are notices up that say its controlled by Euro Car Parks but never read them in detail to see what they say.

The problem here is that the car driver has admitted that they parked their outside of a space, and therefore assumming that the regulations are clearly displayed I suspect it will be difficult to provide a defence in this way.

The real problem I suspect is that this car park is just off Southam[ton City Centre and is therefore probably used by people shopping in the city centre as its free whereas the official city centre car parks are not. I would have thought Euro Car Parks would be better concentrating on drivers parking who are shopping elsewhere, where the moral case is also higher.

Pastor

Another thought occured to me when reading some of the response from people who seem happy to just pay up.
I might get myself a bunch of parking tickets made up (with small print disclaimers on them that I have no right of enforcement), then go around sticking them on people's cars. Judging by the some of the people on here I could expect a reasonable proportion of them to send me the money. Particularly if I make it a small amount say a tenner?

darts_aint_sport

What has the clamping company actually done that is so wrong here? "Clamping company in 'ticket on a car that isn't legally parked' shocker".

chris's scooby

Just a thought, why not wait for a space to become available rather than part blocking the roadway?

King RA

Oh no!!! Surely not!! Why should I have to wait for a space, thats for all the other people to do.

Chrisgr31

Because he wasn;t apparently blocking the roadway! Also there is another option which is to go and shop elsewhere. However the retailer which ulltimately pays for the car park wouldn't like.

My suspicion is that the real problem here is that the car park needs to control those that park here, but are shopping elsewhere. That would free up spaces for the genuinue customer.

King RA

Bays are there for a reason. I'd expect to be in trouble for parking outside of them, and so would most other people I imagine.

What if everyone thought they'd park at the end - "cos he's done it", soon you'd all be stuck there.

darts_aint_sport

I bet it's a free carpark which everyone uses to do their shopping, while 100 metres away is a massive half-empty pay carpark. It's no wonder they'd clamp a car that looks like it's been parked by Stevie Wonder.

DrEvil

ADP - tough one, but unfortunately if the signs are up warning shoppers about the rules, then you aren't going to get anywhere.

ADP

well there option D: is "other" so can they fine me for my car being the wrong colour? it would seem they can if other means anything else they decide to fine me for, licence to print money and let brainless iidiots run around car parks fining people for petit quibbles.

DrEvil

ADP - I had the same in a car park in Newbury, and I'd paid to park.
It was because someone else parked next to me, as I spoke to the attendant, that I got fined as well. Just one of those things