Morning folks. Me and hubby are chuffin fuming! Got a parking fine in the post. £60 chuffin quid!
There is a car park in Halifax, where he drops me off and picks me up, after a days shopping. We pull in there as it is away from moving traffic (well almost). He opens the back of the van, deploys the tail lift (you know, the one that he`s just fitted and sweated blood and tears over) and out I come on me wheelie.
So this flamin` fine shows photos of him arriving at 11.28am and leaving at 16.59pm…therefore saying he was parked for 331 mins!!!
Oh this is soooo not right! If their cameras were fully working, they would have seen him -4 times…
I have sent them an e mail, appealing against this action and explaining that we need to park in a safe place…that I am seriously disabled and can do without this stress…etc.etc.
Do you have a local councillor you can contact? Might be worth contacting someone now before you even get any further with appeal.
If you don’t know one, look up your local authority on web. There should be a list of councillors for your area with contact details. It’s exactly the sort of thing that they are very good at dealing with and will hopefully stop it in its tracks.
Hi Karen,no the entry and exit areas are one and the same. Not sure if it is a free carpark if you have a blue badge, cos weve never actually parked there.
What I would do is write to them and explain exactly when you were parked there, and get them to check the cameras for the in between times.
eg. If you were parked there from 11:15 - 11:45, 13:15 - 13:45, 15:30 - 16:00 and 16:45 - 17:05 and they were to check the cameras for 12:30, 14:00 and 16:20 this would show that you weren’t there continuously.
Unless they check all the footage, they cannot prove that you were parked there all the time, and thus you shouldn’t have to pay the fine.
You could also threaten them with a formal complaint for Fraud, and for Extortion, and for Harrasment.
If you feel in a good mood, you could write to them first asking why you should not make such a complaint.
Copies of the letter (marked as cc on the original) to local paper, MP, local radio, of course. Let someone there feel the same way as they have made you feel.
Firstly, is it a fine (parking on public property or land managed by Local authority), or a penalty charge notice (pcn) issued for parking on private land.
If its the first then take it up with the council using their APPEALS service, explaining that if they viewed the cameras they will see you arrived and returned.
If its from a private company then it cant legally be a fine. It is an invoice for parking that is made to look like a fine. Many companies use this to ‘extort’ money from people. See moneysavingexpert website (sorry mods for advertising site) for info on how to fight PCN. They recommend to ignore, ignore, ignore. The usually threat is £100 charge (reduced to £60 if paid early). It is not a criminal offence and worst case scenario can only take you to small claims court (£70 cost to them to do that). They usually send 4-5 letters, worded stronger each time to get you to pay & then threaten debt collector / bailiifs. They later could only be appointed after not payment following a small claims court order.
The company will usually stop sending annoying letters after you ignoring them as they will know a small claims judge will chuck out the claim (unlikely to ever get there) as they need to prove you did not leave and come back.
Please DO NOT pay a penny, they are trying to make money by threatening action.
I have just been through the same in Leeds and the company finally lost interest.
Please pm me if you need further info but pleae do not pay a penny.
I got a PCN from my local council - parking in a disabled bay (my car has hand controls and a wheelchair lift with appropriate stickers) for not displaying a valid blue badge - the clock had slid over it on my sloping dashboard. And I lost the appeal. They obviously were short of tickets to issue that day. £70.
We’ve had this a couple of times lately - you will get repeat letters saying they could take you to court/send the debt collectors round etc just ignore them all and they eventually stop.
You can’t ignore council ones but you can these private companies, they have no right to demand the fine money.
Please don’t be stressed about it or even ask about the cameras etc. Just ignore it.
At my local asda about two months ago my aunty was parked in disabled bay showing badge, time etc anyway a couple of weeks later she got aparking fine through the door, apparently number recognition in and out of car park and we were over the hour allowed by ten minutes. She appealed and lost, we had been held up that day in the building society making us late back to car but we didn’t think anything of it at the time as it was minutes. Her appeal was refused and she paid up. I wish I had known about this earlier, however I think the thought off courts and debt collectors would of put fear of god into her, such a shame.
This is not one of the big asdas, it’s only a small one and If I remember correctly the car park is privately owned, we actually went back to read the notice as we were surprised to say the least at the parking fine, now the huge asda we can park as long as eerily like.
I hope you get it sorted out with no more hassle!