Proof that ANPR cameras in car parks don't work

[Web Admin]

#290

I was fined £100 for queuing up at a carwash queue

The forecourt cameras only monitor the time a car arrives and departs rather than what the owner does on site

Zoe Wood
Tue 3 Oct 2023 07.00 BST

My husband had to wait in a long queue at the carwash at the Applegreen petrol station near our home in Bristol, and was shocked when a £100 fine (£60 if paid within a fortnight) arrived in the post from the car park management firm Parkingeye.

We appealed and sent it evidence: the actual carwash ticket, the receipt and credit card payment – but it was rejected. We went back to the petrol station and the staff there promised to get the fine cancelled.

But we have since received a “final notice” from Parkingeye for the £100, which threatens further action, including hiring a debt recovery firm or pursuing legal action if we do not pay. We tried going back to the petrol station but the staff seemed unable to help. This doesn’t seem fair.

MW, Bristol

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I receive a fair number of letters from readers battling parking charges, with the proliferation of parking apps and number plate recognition software turning the once simple process of using a car park into a technological nightmare.

In this instance, the cameras monitoring this forecourt clock the time a car arrives and departs rather than what the owner does while on site, which in your case involved sitting in a queue.

However, when we contacted the Applegreen head office, they intervened, and the fine has been cancelled. They also contacted you directly to apologise.

Applegreen said: “The customer shouldn’t have been charged in this instance. When they contacted Applegreen locally to query the charge, the fine should have been cancelled at that point, as it is clear they were waiting for a carwash. Unfortunately, this didn’t happen. We are happy to resolve the matter and again offer our apologies.”

You were determined not to pay this charge despite the threatened consequences as it was “so bizarre” to be fined for queueing at a carwash. This is not the first time this has happened and is a reminder to be vigilant of signs setting out the maximum stay allowed. Still, a parking tale with a happy ending.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2023/oct/03/i-was-fined-100-for-queuing-up-at-a-carwash-queue

[Web Admin]

#291

Driver in two-year battle against ‘bully boy’ parking firm finally gets payout

Martin Anderson, 65, took on the firm and successfully fought off the court claim against him after being fined £100 for parking in a pub car park in Northamptonshire.

James Cheng-Morris·Freelance news writer, Yahoo UK
17 May 2024


Martin Anderson spent two years battling a parking ticket he received at a pub. (SWNS)

A motorist has won a two-year battle against a car park enforcement firm after being wrongly fined - and persuaded a judge to award him a payout instead.

The volunteer litter picker had pulled up at the Cardigan Arms in Corby Old Village, Northamptonshire, to collect some rubbish in March 2022.

The pub acts as a collection point for the "Corby Wombles" and while Anderson was picking up some litter bags, he stopped for a pint.

However, he was given a fine despite the landlord having an open agreement that the group can use the ANPR-controlled car park for its work.

Anderson appealed the fine on the basis he had permission to park there but Civil Enforcement Ltd, which manages the pub's car park, refused to back down.

The father-of-two's appeal was rejected despite the pub landlord also offering to help him get the charge overturned.

He claimed the firm then threatened him with county court judgements (CCJs), bailiffs and court action while the price of the fine also rose to £277.65 to include fees and costs.

Anderson, a retired principal building control officer for Bedford Council, said: "I had two or three letters from different debt collection companies.


Martin Anderson outside the court. (SWNS)

"They just try to bully and manipulate you.

"They threaten you with CCJs, and I’m a landlord with several different mortgages so that could have some serious consequences for me.

"[But] I don’t like being bullied and I didn’t want to stand for it. I was just enraged by it, I was just going for bin bags and I was invited there by the landlord.

“I just said 'I’m not paying, take me to court'. I never thought they would. I thought they’d think it was ridiculous.”

The firm argued he should have entered his registration details at the bar to register his vehicle - but there were no signs in the car park to inform Anderson of this.

He stood his ground and decided to represent himself in court last week for the "David v Goliath" battle against an advocate for Civil Enforcement Ltd.

After a two-hour hearing at Northampton County Court, the case against him was dismissed and district judge Nicholas Glassbrook awarded Anderson £100 in expenses against the company.

The judge said there were inaccuracies in the firm’s witness statement which said that signage made clear that customers had to validate their parking - but it did not.

'What's £100 for two years of grief?'

Anderson, of Corby, said: "I’m glad that I won but I’d asked for more money to cover the incredible amount of time I’d put into this.

"They pursued me for two years, bullied me, and stressed me out.

"They wasted the court's time and my time. What's £100 for two years of grief? It’s laughable."

The process was so time-intensive that he said it was even a factor in him deciding to retire from his day job.

"It’s quite a job to take on the parking bully boys. I would not recommend anyone go through this. The government need to reintroduce the private parking code of practice. We need people to kick up a stink to get this legislation implemented."

Civil Enforcement Limited has been contacted for comment.

How to contest a parking fine

As per Citizens Advice, "how to appeal depends on the type of parking ticket you have". Most fines will be one of:

a penalty charge notice (PCN) or an excess charge notice (ECN): usually issued by a council on public land such as a high street

a parking charge notice: issued by a landowner or parking company on private land, such as a pub car park

a fixed penalty notice: issued by police on red routes, white zig zags or where police manage parking

These come with different routes to appealing, with further information available on the Citizens Advice website.

As a general rule, however, it's always a good idea for motorists who believe they have been wronged to take photos, for example to show there were no road markings to indicate parking restrictions, or that a sign was misleading.

It's key to not immediately pay the fine if appealing: this will be seen as an admission that the ticket was issued correctly.


https://uk.news.yahoo.com/parking-fine-battle-payout-northamptonshire-133428906.html

[Web Admin]

#292

Pensioner gets payout after taking parking company to court over 10p

Jim Hibbert took Smart Parking to court after receiving a fine over a parking charge he actually overpaid.

Ellen Manning
Updated Fri 16 August 2024 at 11:18 am BST


Jim Hibbert, won a court case against a car parking company after he filed a claim over just 10p. (SWNS)

A pensioner has been awarded a payout after taking a car parking company to court over 10p.

Jim Hibbert, 85, paid for a 50p parking charge at Middleton Shopping Centre in Middleton, Greater Manchester using three 20p coins because he didn't have exactly 50p - yet then received a Parking Charge Notice (PCN) saying he owed £100, or £60 if it was paid in two weeks.

The pensioner proved he had paid more than the required amount but then received a reduced fine of £20 from Smart Parking for providing the "incorrect vehicle registration".

Hibbert wrote back in January last year and said he had entered his registration number correctly.

But when he received another letter from a debt recovery agency demanding £170, he decided to fight the company in court, making a claim at Manchester County Court and studying for months to represent himself. He argued the company had become the "beneficiary of unjust enrichment" and breached its contract by failing to adhere to its own signs.

Solicitors said Hibbert's claim costs, which included the 10p change, £4.96 in printing and postage costs and the £35 claim fee, was "spurious, opportunistic and an abuse of process".

However, before the case was due to be heard this month, he received a settlement offer of £40.06, and a letter saying that while the company believed his claim was "hopeless and entirely misguided" it had decided to pay out "to avoid further wasted time and costs".

Hibbert said: "I was polite in my letters but I thought they could get stuffed. I decided to give them a taste of their own medicine. The more they tried to bully and intimidate me, the more determined I became. It's not a fine, it's extortion."

The centre's signage became a central part of the dispute as Smart Parking's solicitor said the sign indicated a need to pay and to provide a vehicle's registration.

But Hibbert provided photographs that proved otherwise, as the sign only indicated a need to pay the correct tariff before leaving the car park, with no mention of providing a registration number. The pensioner also argued the payment machine's keypad and display were "unusually small" and that the machine did not inform motorists how long they had been parked.

He added: "I spent a good few hours of my time but it's quite satisfying that they spent so much on lawyer's fees - when all I wanted was my simple 10p change."

'State-of-the-art' system

A Smart Parking Limited spokesperson said: "Smart Parking was brought into manage the car park at Middleton Shopping Centre in order to address parking abuse and to ensure consumers can always find somewhere to park.

"To do this we operate a state-of-the-art ANPR parking management system that monitors cars entering and exiting.

"There are numerous signs across the site that clearly set out the terms and conditions of use, one of which is that you must correctly enter your registration number into the machine when purchasing parking. In the case of Mr Hibbert, he did not do this and was correctly issued a charge.

"It is important to say that Smart Parking refutes the comments made by Mr Hibbert and at no stage was he the subject of any “intimidation”. The proceedings were initiated and pursued by him. Smart Parking advanced no claims against him.

"Whilst Smart Parking was advised by its legal advisors that the claim was without any legal merit, it was decided the costs associated with fighting the claim would be highly likely to be irrecoverable so we decided not take this matter further."

How to contest a parking fine in the UK

When it comes to challenging a penalty charge notice (PCN), there are various different rules depending on the type of PCN, but you often have have 28 days to challenge one, according to the government website. If you do it within 14 days and your challenge is rejected, you may only have to pay 50% of the fine.

You will not have to pay the fine if your informal challenge is accepted but if your informal challenge is rejected you will get what's called a ‘notice to owner’ which explains how to pay or make a formal challenge.

You then have 28 days to make a formal challenge (called a ‘representation’) after you get a notice to owner, in which you must explain your reasons for challenging the PCN in as much detail as possible and provide copies of any evidence or documents to support your challenge

If your challenge is accepted you will not have to pay the fine but if it is rejected you'll get a ‘notice of rejection’ which will give you 28 days to pay or appeal to an independent tribunal. If you do not pay or appeal, you will then have to pay a late penalty.

According to the government website, the first step to challenging a ticket from a private company is to find out who the issuer is then contact them to find out how to challenge the ticket.

"If your challenge is rejected, you can appeal to an independent appeals service," the site says, adding: "Find out if the ticket operator is a member of an accredited trade association by looking at the ticket or their website."

If the operator is a member of the British Parking Association (BPA), you can appeal to POPLA (Parking on Private Land Appeals, and if the operator is a member of the International Parking Community (IPC), you can appeal to IAS (Independent Appeals Service).

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/parking-fine-pensioner-payout-101012440.html

[Web Admin]

#293

KFC customers receive £100 parking fines after queuing at drive-through for too long

Updated 17 June 2020



KFC customers were shocked after they received £100 parking fines for waiting too long at a drive-through.

The unsuspecting chicken lovers did not realise they were queuing in a privately owned car park in Wirral, Merseyside, to buy their meals.

The parking charge notices were issued to people who waited longer than the 75 minutes permitted at the reopened takeaway in Rock Ferry.

This was despite long queues that left people with waiting times of more than two hours.


Customers were shocked to be hit with £100 parking fines for waiting too long in the privately-owned car park

Even though none of the customers were in parking bays, they were automatically hit with fines because their registrations were caught on CCTV when they entered and left the KFC site.

The first people knew about it was when a letter landed on their doormat from private car park operator Civil Enforcement a few days later, ordering them to pay a £100 parking charge – reduced to £60 if paid within 14 days.

Read more: Crocs launches a KFC shoe that looks and smells like fried chicken

Mum-of-two Hayley Abbott, who was waiting in the KFC queue for 90 minutes, said it was “the most expensive KFC I've ever had in my life”.


KFC has cancelled the fines.

Abbot added: “There was a security guard bringing people into the car park and there was no mention of there being a time limit and a possible fine.

“Once you're in the queue, you can't get out of it. The cars were bumper to bumper.

“I was fuming when I got the parking ticket through the post a few days later. I was thinking, ‘this is the most expensive KFC I've ever had in my life.’”

Read more: Surprise reopening of KFC causes 'two-hour queues' and 'manic scenes'

Instead of paying the fine, Abbot challenged it – and her appeal was upheld.

Another victim of the fines, who gave her name as Alisha, said: “It wasn't my fault I was waiting in a queue.

“If KFC knew people were going to be fined, they shouldn't have let that many people in.”

There was also a strong response when news of the fines was posted on a Facebook group's page, with many others saying they had had the same experience and were refusing to pay.

After being inundated with complaints from angry customers, KFC said it had now cancelled the penalty notices.

A KFC spokesperson said: "It's great to be back and we're flattered by how much our Rock Ferry fans have missed us!

"Our longer than usual queues did result in a few unfair fines for the car park but we've put that right now by cancelling the charges."

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/kfc-drive-through-parking-fines-merseyside-110742018.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAABWpPUIcW57WGBxwudWmtBaLnrNMoXbzQXZVmVOW8KzWLbnRysXtLQbOSyzMR7faVSidTL8BH_C_zZ9RfrtQnYo4N4IxuwEvs3mi0P41hHHL6DzNR7u-ZaHPX_DiVIcMvLh66Sd3vwEtIewfcKqPIsBFXJMfCERI0Y6SarS9nG1G