This location has been attracting a great deal of attention on other parking websites and blogs recently (Mr Mustard blogged about it here:
http://lbbspending.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/predatory.html and there is a thread on Pepipoo here:
http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=103550&st=0 ), and since it is being enforced by a parking weasel company as opposed to a local authority, I am pleased to say that me and Mr Mustard were privileged to have undertaken the first ever private parking weasel $chunt by NoToMob members.
In order to understand how the parking weasel employee (see attached pictures below) plies her dubious trade you need to understand the layout, so
here is a long view of the area on Googlemaps.
Our informants told us that the parking weasel employee (I will call her Ms Sunglasses for now) is in the habit of hiding round the corner by the Sainsburys Direct shop, and when she sees a car pull up she pops out from her hiding place to take a photo on her hand held digital camera.
On arrival there was no sign of Ms Sunglasses, but we thought we'd hang around to see if she would turn up. We weren't disappointed, nor were we surprised when we saw a car pull into the loading bay, only to have its photo taken by an emerging Ms Sunglasses before the driver had even had a chance to get out of the car to read the 9.5 foot high signs.
In fact the driver didn't even get out of the car (for whatever reason) and chose to drive off instead. No doubt he/she will receive a ticket through the post at some point in which a demand for payment of £100 is made for breach of contract, even though no contract could have possibly been entered into due to the fact
THE DRIVER NEVER HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO READ THE SIGNS AND THEREBY ENTER INTO ANY CONTRACT! This is one of many reasons (in my opinion) why no Parking Charge Notice will ever be enforceable at this honeypot, but I will let others more knowledgeable than me deal with those. On with the $chunt report.
Having observed Ms Sunglasses getting up to her nasty little tricks, we decided to assist her with motorist compliance levels. It was as we approached the bay that I took the photographs attached. It is part of the IPC's Code of Practice that its members should not indulge in predatory practices like those me and Mr M had just witnessed, so I reasoned that it would not be unreasonable to take a photo of Ms Sunglasses (we don't know her name - yet
) and put it on our forum for the record, just in case a victim wants to point this out to the appropriate authority.
We deployed ourselves on the corner of the loading bay so that we could keep an eye on both it, and Ms Sunglasses if she hid round the corner, and we waited for the fireworks. Would she confront us? Would she call the police and get them to confront us? Would she call the boys in and get them to confront us? Needless to say we were prepared for all of the above and had our own plans to deal with whatever came our way, apart from what actually did. But more of that later.
So there we all were, standing on the corner together, carefully ignoring each other while Ms Sunglasses spoke to someone on the phone. After about 15 minutes of us shooing motorists away from the loading bay and her being constantly on the phone, we returned from educating yet another motorist to find both the lady and the sunglasses gone, without a word or even a wave goodbye. How rude!
We searched around to see if she was hiding and ready to return if we left, but she had disappeared without a trace. However, just in case she had been able to hide from us we resolved to hang around and educate motorists for a while, and that's when the unexpected happened.
A driving instructor had told his pupil to pull over into the loading bay and Mr M went to instruct him in the error of his ways, while I stayed on the corner waiting to educate the next potential victim. It was after a little while that I heard a raised voice and I turned round to witness the instructor swinging his car door (still attached) at Mr M who was, at the time, taking a photo of the instructor's advert which was stuck by magnets on said door.
Turns out that this idiot had got hold of the wrong end of the stick and thought we were telling him he couldn't park there, as opposed to what we were doing which was advising him that he might want to think about stopping there in the future due to the antics of Ms Sunglasses. He was positively incandescent with rage and ranting by the time I got there and was shouting the odds about his right not to have his photo taken, or any photos of his car or driving school details taken without his permission. He was adamant that a policeman would tell us the same thing.
It probably didn't help that both me and Mr M were smiling at him and completely in control of our emotions during the whole of his rant. In fact it probably wound him up even more that we were not in the least bit intimidated by him or his threats of fetching a copper and, in fact, were inviting him to pop across the road to the local police station (it's about 100 yards away) to get a policeman who could advise us of our rights. His problem was that, unlike him we know exactly what our rights are.
I will let Mr M give you his own account of his encounter with Mr Shouty Driving Instructor, and perhaps he will share the photos he took (illegally according to Mr Shouty) of the car and driving school details?
After about an hour and a half of educating drivers, and with no sign of the return of Ms Sunglasses we called it a day and returned home with a resolve to go and find the owner of the sunglasses, or any of her colleagues, as often as possible.
Anyone who fancies a trip to sunny Barnet can contact me and I will be happy to arrange a $chunt (sunglasses and camera hunt).