Proof that ANPR cameras in car parks don't work

[The Bald Eagle]

http://parking-prankster.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/parkingeye-anpr-system-fatally-flawed.html

Wednesday, 8 April 2015

ParkingEye ANPR system fatally flawed

ParkingEye recently issued a parking ticket to a motorist who they said had stayed almost 3 hours in a car park. They based this accusation on pictures their ANPR had taken of the vehicle arriving and leaving.

However, the motorist had visited the car park twice, once in the afternoon and then later in the early evening. ParkingEye’s system, being unfit for purpose, had failed to take pictures of the first exit and second entry.

The motorist appealed; ParkingEye responded with a threatening letter

Luckily for the motorist, they had a tracker device in their vehicle which showed their journey.



 They informed ParkingEye they had as evidence a vehicle tracker and two witness statements.

On receipt of this, ParkingEye had no option but to realise their system was fatally flawed and cancel the parking charge.

The Prankster wonders how many other motorists have been charged because bugs in ParkingEye’s system fail to record two visits. Most of these motorists will not be fortunate enough to have a tracker in their vehicle, and will then be up against the ParkingEye juggernaut. The Prankster has helped many motorists in court cases where ParkingEye falsely claimed the motorist had visited once where in fact they visited twice.

Happy Parking

The Parking Prankster

[The Bald Eagle]

Web Admin note: Parking Collection Services (PCS) Ltd are members of the BPA Ltd and operates "in accordance with the British Parking Association's Code of Practice"

The Code of Practice states:

"21.3 You must keep any ANPR equipment you use in your car parks in good working order.

http://www.parkingcsl.co.uk/

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

Orchard Centre parking tickets cancelled after machine glitch

Andy Jarvis was incorrectly issued a parking ticket. Picture: David Fleming

MORE than 100 parking tickets issued over Christmas by Didcot’s Orchard Centre had to be cancelled after a technical glitch.

The centre’s parking contractors have written to residents to say they will cancel every ticket issued, correctly or not, between December 22 and January 7.

Parking Collection Services (PCS) said tickets were incorrectly issued because of a “technical problem”.

The Oxford Mail understands a total of 150 parking charge notices were incorrectly sent out.

Our top stories

Andy Jarvis, of Ladygrove, said the situation was “ridiculous”, calling PCS “amateur”.

Mr Jarvis received a letter on February 24 fining him £25, or £100 if not paid within 14 days, for a parking “incident” at 6.15pm – but there was no date given.

The letter said he had overstayed, but as he does not finish work at Cartridge UK in Botley Road, Oxford, until 5.30pm most nights, he said it would be difficult to get to the Orchard Centre by 6.15pm.

Mr Jarvis, 52, said: “I phoned the Orchard Centre first and they said they thought there had been a mistake with the parking system “They said ‘loads of people have rung us’.”

But when he called parking firm PCS, he was told he should pay up.

He said: “It’s amateur – they hadn’t passed the information on to their staff taking the calls.”

He put a message on the Spotted: Didcot Facebook page and said from the overwhelming response he got: “It seemed like just about everybody had got the same letter for various incidents, but none of them had a date.”

Last week, he and others received a letter from PCS saying it would cancel all tickets issued for the car park between December 22 and January 7.

The letter writer apologised for any inconvenience caused.

Hammerson, which runs the Orchard Centre, issued a statement blaming a technical fault with its ANPR (automatic number plate recognition) system and saying a “small number” of customers had been incorrectly issued with parking tickets.

It said all customers affected had been contacted to inform them of the mistake and issued with voided tickets or refunds.

Hammerson also apologised for any inconvenience caused and said anyone affected could call 0161 214 8058 for further assistance.

The company refused to say how many tickets were issued during the 16-day period, how many complaints it received, and how many refunds it was making.



http://www.heraldseries.co.uk/news/11848859.Machine_glitch_parking_tickets_are_cancelled/?ref=twtrec

[The Bald Eagle]

http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/local/localbrad/11825232.Driver_in_parking/

Driver in parking penalty battle at Bradford retail park

 A DRIVER has been locked in a battle with a car parking company after being sent a penalty notice for a time when he claims his car was not there.

Garry Mahon refused to pay the £85 parking charge incurred at Forster Square Retail Park which he said was issued in error on February 5.

The company which issued the ticket, ParkingEye car park management, has insisted Mr Mahon was in the car park during the times stated, but said it had now cancelled the charge due to "extenuating circumstances".

Mr Mahon, of Sandholme Drive, Thorpe Edge, said he was dropping his 16 year-old daughter off at work at the retail park when his Citroen Xsara Picasso was caught on camera entering the car park at 4.58pm.

He said he then left the car park two minutes later, returning shortly after 9pm to pick his daughter up.

He was then again caught on camera leaving the car park at 9.20pm, and received a ticket saying he had spent four hours and 21 minutes there, longer than the three-hour limit.

Mr Mahon, who works at a petrol station in Wyke, said he had no idea why the cameras had not filmed him leaving and re-entering the car park while his daughter was at work.

"The car park was virtually empty at 9pm, so I can't understand why the cameras didn't pick me up coming back in," he said.

 "The cameras have either malfunctioned or they have selected the pictures they want to use."

Mr Mahon said in trying to contact ParkingEye, he had spoken to the deputy centre manager at Forster Square, Vanessa Lewis, who spoke to the company on his behalf.

He said he was told the matter would be dropped "as a gesture of good will" before he then received the reminder notice.

"Saying they would drop it as a gesture of good will is very patronising to say the least, it's as though they're the ones doing me a favour," Mr Mahon said.

"If they had admitted a mistake or a malfunction with the cameras and apologised, that would have been another thing.

"I am furious about it, as I have done nothing wrong.

"I even rang Asda to try to get a number for the company, and a member of staff there told me this had happened five times to him.

"I have to use the car park at least twice a week, and I'm not confident this won't happen again."

Mrs Lewis confirmed she had spoken to Mr Mahon to inform him the ticket had been cancelled, telling him to ignore the reminder letter as ParkingEye had said the matter had been dealt with.

A spokesman for ParkingEye, which is based in Chorley in Lancashire, said: "Car park users enter into a contract to pay the appropriate amount for the duration of their visit or to not exceed free parking limits.

"The motorist was parked in the car park for four hours and 21 minutes, and was therefore issued with a charge.

“We operate an audited appeals process which we encourage motorists to use.

 "In this case, due to extenuating circumstances, the charge has been cancelled."

The company would not explain what the "extenuating circumstances" were when questioned by the Telegraph & Argus.

[The Bald Eagle]

http://www.sunderlandecho.com/news/education/driver-hit-with-100-fine-over-trips-to-kfc-and-mcdonalds-1-7066736

Driver hit with £100 fine over trips to KFC and McDonalds
Craig Newall, of Calthawite Close, Hylton Castle, Sunderland with notification of his £100 car parking fine from Hylton Riverside Retail Park

A DRIVER has slammed a parking firm after he was slapped with a fine despite spending just 15 minutes at a Sunderland retail park.

Craig Newell visited the Hylton Riverside Retail Park more than six hours after his girlfriend had done the same.

Both stayed for around 15 minutes as they went to a fast food restaurant, but Craig received a £100 fine after being told his car was parked there all day.

Parking at the retail park is free for people who stay for less than an hour.

Craig, 26, said: “I went to KFC at 7.45pm, got food and left straight away.

“It was the same for my girlfriend, she went to McDonald’s at 1.15pm and drove off.”

Craig, a bricklayer from Hylton Castle, routinely visits the same KFC, so he was shocked to receive a letter from ParkingEye, who monitor the car park.

He said: “The letter had a photograph of the car parked there in the afternoon and another of it leaving at night, nothing else.

“It says if I don’t pay the fine, then they’re liable to get the money.”

According to Craig, plenty of his friends have had similar problems.

He said: “I posted a status on Facebook and soon there was about 40 comments from people who’ve been fined at different places all over Sunderland.

“They say I should ignore it, but I don’t want to.”

Craig’s attempts to contact ParkingEye have been unsuccessful so far, including being left on hold for half an hour before being cut off.

Tiffany Stromsoe, media relations executive at ParkingEye, said: “We operate an audited appeals process and encourage people to appeal if they feel there are mitigating circumstances.

“We would request in this instance that the motorist appeals to us, in writing, documenting these mitigating circumstances so that our dedicated appeals staff can look into it.”

[The Bald Eagle]

http://www.shropshirestar.com/news/2015/01/14/telford-shopper-left-reeling-after-asda-parking-fine-blunder/

Telford shopper left reeling after Asda parking fine blunder

A shopper has hit out at a supermarket’s parking enforcement regime – after she was twice issued with parking fines by mistake.


Tracy Newdell with the two parking fines she was sent after visiting the Asda supermarket more than once in a day

In the latest incident, Tracy Newdell was accused of leaving her car at Asda in Malinsgate, Telford, for nearly eight hours after her car was photographed arriving at 9.37am and leaving at 5.26pm. However, the pictures related to two different visits, and the camera failed to register that she had left the store earlier in the morning.

The company has now apologised to Mrs Newdell and told her she would not be required to pay the £40 parking charge.

There is a three-hour limit for shoppers using the car park, and cameras monitor cars entering and leaving the car park.

However, the cameras have twice failed to pick her car as she left the car park.

Mrs Newdell, who lives in the Stirchley area of Telford, said it was quite common for her to visit the shop more than once a day as her daughter was a student at nearby Telford College.

“In the morning I sometimes pick up a few bits and pieces after I drop her off, and I might go back when I go to pick her up around 5.30pm,” she said.

“The first time this happened, I went to work in between, so my boss was able to provide proof  that I couldn’t possibly have been there.”

However, Mrs Newdell, who works in retail, said she did not receive the latest notice until three weeks after the alleged incident last month, and had since thrown away all her receipts.

She said she had spoken to staff members who worked at the store, who had told her that a number of people had experienced the same problem.

“It’s happening to a lot of people,” she said. “I would urge people to be careful and make sure they keep their receipts.”

Her husband Dave Newdell said people should challenge the charges if they felt they had been wrongly imposed.

“I’m concerned that some people may just be paying these fines without questioning the parking company,” he said.

Asda spokeswoman Natalie Cullington said the ticket had been cancelled and apologised to Mrs Newdell for any inconvenience caused.

She said: “The camera may have missed the registration number as the customer was going out of the car park. It may have been that there were two cars going out at the same time.

“We apologise for what has happened to our customer.”

[The Bald Eagle]

'I got a parking ticket because I was stuck in traffic outside Hull shops'

A WOMAN who was stuck in queuing traffic at Kingswood Retail Park while Christmas shopping has had a parking ticket overturned.

Sarah Campbell, 29, was one of dozens of motorists stuck in two-hour queues trying to get into and out of the retail park.

She received a parking ticket for going over the free limited parking time of three hours because she was unable to leave the car park queues.

"I was stuck in the queues getting out," she said. "Because I was in the queues, I went over the amount of time you are allowed in there.

"It is very hard to get in, find a space, get all your Christmas shopping, get food and then get out in three hours.

"They have not got any allowance for it.

"I was really annoyed about it.

"With so many people there in the same situation there must be more who have received tickets as well.

"Nobody realised that it could happen."

A spokesman for ParkingEye, which operates the car park, said: "ParkingEye operates an audited appeals process, encouraging motorists to appeal.

"In this case, the driver appealed and provided supporting evidence, so the parking charge has been cancelled."



http://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/got-parking-ticket-stuck-traffic-outside-Hull/story-25843805-detail/story.html

[The Bald Eagle]

http://www.times-series.co.uk/news/11713987.Grandfather_angry_after_recieving_parking_ticket___even_though_he_had_already_paid/

Grandfather angry after receiving parking ticket at Barnet Hospital- even though he had already paid

A parking firm is reminding people of its rules after a man was ticketed because he failed to type in his full car number plate.

Peter Sherwood, of Crown Road, Borehamwood, took his wife, Linda, to an appointment in Barnet Hospital in November, where he paid £3 to park for an hour and a half.

Drivers must type their number plates into the parking meter to pay, which Mr Sherwood and his wife did.

But two weeks later, he was horrified to receive a letter instructing him to pay £60 for failing to pay, or face an increase to £100.

Fortunately, Mr Sherwood still had his receipt - with his correct number plate printed on the side - and sent it to Parking Eye.

However, he only typed in the first four digits instead of the standard seven, and the machine did not warn him he had done so.

Fortunately, Parking Eye waived the charge as a "gesture of goodwill".

Retired finance officer Mr Sherwood said: “Thousands of people use this car park daily and their systems clearly aren’t working. I’m glad I kept my receipt. Who knows what would have happened otherwise?

“It sounds like a scam and that they’re trying to catch people out. What else are you supposed to think?”

A statement from ParkingEye said:  “When an individual parks in a ParkingEye car park they must enter their registration details and pay for the amount of parking they use. If either of these are not done then a vehicle is liable for a parking charge notice. On this occasion the motorist entered an incorrect vehicle registration number.

 “We operate an industry-leading audited appeals process as detailed on the parking charge notice and encourage people to appeal if they feel there are extenuating circumstances. In this case the motorist did appeal and as a gesture of goodwill the charge was cancelled

“ParkingEye is a member of the British Parking Association's Approved Operator scheme and is required to follow a Code of Practice that is supported by motoring organisations, consumer groups and the DVLA.”

[The Bald Eagle]

'How stupid can you get?' asks Cambridgeshire couple after CCTV gaffe at Cambridge Retail Park

A couple were landed with the prospect of a £110 fine after being presented with CCTV evidence showing their white car entering a Cambridge car park and a black one leaving.

Malcolm and Julie Creek parked their white Ford Kuga for less than an hour at Cambridge Retail Park, but they have been issued with a penalty charge notice for staying more than five hours.

Total Parking Solutions (TPS) has relied on CCTV pictures that shows the Histon couple’s car arriving and a black Vauxhall with a similar number plate leaving. The couple say they have not heard back from the company since they pointed out the error on November 29.

Mr Creek said they arrived at about 1pm, went to an electrical shop before heading to Marks and Spencer for a coffee and then to Homebase and had driven out the park by 2pm.

The 69-year-old, who worked as Addenbrooke’s assistant estates manager until he retired, thinks many people will be so worried by how high the fines go, which starts at £45 and goes up to £110, at they would pay the fine.

The former Sawston Village College pupil said: “How stupid can you get? The car’s a different colour to start with. I worked at Addenbrooke’s and I worked with all the high voltage electrics and if I got it wrong I’d have killed someone.”

“I think it’s absolutely shocking. My mother would read that and be so scared about the escalation of fines she would pay it and I think a lot of people would. People are trying to go about their Christmas shopping and they get this sort of treatment. I’m sure the retail park will be cross about this. It’s going to put people off visiting. It’s put us off.”

“Total Parking Solutions? More like Total Parking Confusion.”

Mrs Creek, who works at the International Whaling Commission, which is based in Impington, got to the crux of the issue in her letter to TPS.

She said: “The picture of the car exiting the retail park is not my car as it appears a dark car whereas my car is white.”

A spokesman for TPS said: “It appears that in this instance the ANPR camera misread the exit plate by one letter due to the dirty condition of the plate. The two plates were almost identical, as a result of misreading a letter on exit, it was flagged as an overstay by the ANPR matching engine."

He added it was a “very uncommon occurrence” and said: “We are sending Julie and Malcolm Creek our sincere apologies coupled with a £20 high street voucher for them to spend at the retail site for the inconvenience caused in this instance.”



http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/stupid-asks-Cambridgeshire-motorist-CCTV-gaffe/story-25741123-detail/story.html

[The Bald Eagle]

http://parking-prankster.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/the-prankster-at-parking-world-end-of.html

Thursday, 13 November 2014

The Prankster at Parking World - the end of parking as we know it

The Prankster was recently invited to attend Parking World 2014 where he was able to mingle with industry names such as Patrick Troy, Chief Executive of the BPA, and Henry Greenslade, Lead Adjudicator of POPLA.

Among the many interesting presentations was one by John Siraut, technical director of economics at Jacobs. Mr Siraut predicted the end of parking charges due to self-driving cars. At the point when they become commonplace, predatory parking practices will no longer be possible. The car will avoid charges by not parking where it is not allowed, and will simply leave the car park when the time expires, returning later to pick up the passengers. Expensive car parks will become a thing of the past. Cars will either return home, or drive to a cheaper car park. The Prankster continues Mr Siraut's theme by predicting that car park management models will have to change from the predatory model adopted by companies like ParkingEye, where their only income is from parking charges. Instead, the car park company will charge a management fee. Luckily for Capita, who purchased ParkingEye for £57.5 million, Mr Siraut predicted that self-driving cars still have some way to go to become a reality, and we are perhaps 30 years away.

There were also several interesting exhibitors. The Prankster saw an innovative approach to community bicycles, whereby any bicycle can be converted to a community bike by providing a GPS enabled lock.

The Prankster also chatted about ANPR technology with several vendors. One problem with ANPR is that because it is not perfect, motorists can be charged for overstaying when in fact they made two visits. This occurs either when the numberplate is not read correctly, or when the system is misconfigured.

The vendors explained that there are no real civil standards for ANPR for car park enforcement. There is a police standard, NATIONAL ACPO ANPR STANDARDS (available here). This only requires accuracy of 91.1% for static cameras, which means almost 1 in 10 reads will be wrong. However, there is no way for officially getting any civil system certified to say it complies with this standard.

There are no civil standards for camera accuracy, so operators can say with a straight face that their cameras comply to the BPA standards, without this actually meaning anything.

In practice, it was explained to The Prankster, accuracy will also depend on conditions. On a sunny day, glare will heavily affect results, and even more so for infra-red cameras. Rear number plates are also more prone to read errors, as they are often dirtier.

Camera position is also important. The camera should not read vehicles as they come round a bend, but after they have straightened up. The camera should also be high enough to minimise blocked reads due to tailgating, while low enough not to get misreads from skew.

Cameras can also become misaligned, so they no longer cover the whole road, which means that some vehicles may be missed.

All in all it was an interesting conference, which The Prankster finished off by meeting Prankster Jr nearby, where he was featuring in a nearby art gallery.

Parking World is curated by Mark Moran of Parking Review

Happy Parking

The Parking Prankster

[Kill Switch]

Blimey, when you want to make a point, you don't mess around do you...

[The Bald Eagle]

http://www.shieldsgazette.com/news/couple-s-anger-over-40-hospital-parking-fine-1-6950343

Couple’s anger over £40 hospital parking fine

AN angry South Tyneside couple claim they paid for a parking ticket - but were still hit with a fine by a controversial hospital parking system.

Carol Jackson had spent a fortnight visiting her sick mother at South Tyneside District Hospital in South Shields.

The 62–year–old from Marsden, South Shields, had been parking her car in the Harton Lane site’s car park which is monitored by ParkingEye, a numberplate recognition system.

On Sunday, November 2, she paid her £2.40, to cover her for two hours of visiting, but say they never received a ticket because, she says, the machine was broken.

However, last Wednesday, Mrs Jackson received a £40 fine, along with a letter stating she had not paid for her 2.01pm visit that day.

Husband Edward Jackson said: “My wife had been visiting her mother, as she had done for a number of days, and parked up and went to pay at the machine.

“This time it took the £2.40, but it never gave her a ticket.

“Three days later we received the fine.

“The machine is taking the money off people and then expecting them to pay a fine a few days later.”

Mrs Jackson wrote a letter to ParkingEye and sent it off last Thursday to contest the fine.

However, the company says it’s not yet received the appeal.

A spokesman said: “ParkingEye understands that genuine mistakes are sometimes made and operates an audited-appeals procedure, encouraging people to appeal if there are mitigating circumstances, such as an incorrect car registration number.

“Unfortunately, ParkingEye has received no appeal from Mrs Jackson, so cannot consider her circumstances.”

Read more: http://www.shieldsgazette.com/news/couple-s-anger-over-40-hospital-parking-fine-1-6950343#ixzz3raerWOhq

[The Bald Eagle]

http://www.eastbourneherald.co.uk/news/local/couple-fuming-at-ridiculous-parking-charge-1-6267638#.VALGpszE3yM.twitter

Couple fuming at ‘ridiculous’ parking charge

An Eastbourne couple have been left ‘fuming’ after receiving a parking charge from Lidl for the time between two separate visits to the store.

David and Sandra Hitchcock were shocked when they received a letter stating they must pay £90 for using the Seaside store’s car park for more than an hour on Tuesday, August 20, despite knowing they spent no longer than half-an-hour in the supermarket at one time.

On closer inspection of the letter, the couple realised they had been charged for the time between arriving on their first visit that day and leaving on the second visit – a total of almost five hours when actually, their car was parked on their drive for most of that time.

Mr Hitchcock said, “My wife and I visited the store in the morning, around 10.15, after an appointment at the hospital with her oncologist. We spent around 20-30 minutes in store before going home. I went back to the store at about 3pm in the afternoon with my grandson after an interview at the job centre and again, spent no longer than half an hour in the shop.

“We’ve been charged for parking at the store from 10.16am to 3.11pm when this is definitely not the case. We have witnesses to say our car was parked on the drive during the afternoon and there are different people in the car in each of the photos.

“My wife is absolutely furious. We made purchases both times we visited the store and we are very regular customers there, but this hassle has made us think twice about shopping at the store in the future.”

After contacting Lidl customer services, Mr Hitchcock was assured the parking charge would be dropped but he has yet to hear confirmation of this from Athena, the company that issued the parking charge. He added, “Even if the charge is wiped off, as it should be, we have not been offered any compensation for all our trouble.”

Lidl has been contacted for a comment but at the time of going to press, had not yet provided a response.

[The Bald Eagle]

Blimey, when you want to make a point, you don't mess around do you...

If a job's worth doing....

[Kill Switch]

Love it mate...

[The Bald Eagle]

http://www.burtonmail.co.uk/Queen-s-patient-faces-parking-fine-ndash-despite/story-22737179-detail/story.html

Queen's patient faces parking fine - despite buying £25 monthly ticket

AN outraged patient at Burton's Queen's Hospital has been fined for leaving her car at the site – despite buying a monthly ticket.

Colette Morley simply could not believe it when a £70 penalty notice from Parking Eye dropped onto the doormat at her home in Dove Side, Hatton, after she paid £25 for the pass to cover her for a month.

She was told by staff at the hospital that there had been a simple mistake in the way the ticket had been registered, but Mrs Morley said she thinks there may be something more behind it.

"If that was the case, why did they not charge me for the other days I went to the hospital. It doesn't make sense.

"There's obviously a flaw in the system," the 53-year-old told the Mail.

Mrs Morley visits Queen's three times a week for treatment, so decided it would be sensible to save money on the trip with a monthly ticket.

The ticket bought on July 18 – which should have covered her to park on July 30 – was the second she had purchased. There were no problems with the first.

When she tried to speak to somebody about the issue, she found there was nobody on site who could help her. She had to write to Parking Eye.

"I was extremely perturbed to be getting a ticket when I had paid, but to have not one single person from Parking Eye on the premises is ridiculous in my opinion.

"I did everything in my power to do it right, and then they made a mistake and I couldn't speak to somebody about it," she said.

She told the Mail she had no intention of paying the fine.

A spokesman for Parking Eye said: "Unfortunately, the monthly ticket that Ms Morley bought at the on-site Car Parking Office was registered incorrectly as a weekly ticket on the system. As soon as we became aware of the issue, the charge was cancelled."