SUN!!

All, I forgot I had the letter from the Council in Electronic format. Here is what they say about me being stopped by the police. As you can see I was wrong before and they state that the police are working with the Bailiff company rather than themselves. Does this not make it worse? 'With regards to you being stopped by the police, Manchester City Council have registered 3 unpaid parking tickets issued to your vehicle as debts at the County Court. These debts have subsequently been passed to a bailiff company for recovery. The bailiff company works with Greater Manchester Police to identify vehicles being driven with outstanding warrants and it was on this basis you were stopped by the police on 22 May 2008.' And here's what the TEC said about it. 'Any warrants issued by a local authority would be enforced by private certified bailiffs; the police would not have any involvement unless called out.'

That's fab Fairparking thanks very much. I will be intrigued to hear more on this.

Hi all Fairparking has kindly taken this up on my behalf so I will let you know what happens. In answer to your question though I have a letter from MCC stating that it is they that work with GMP on these matters so this suggests that this is down to the local authority. Time will tell I guess.

Hi all Firstly thanks for your responses. Just to update you, I tried to sort this out informally by involving HR and trying to reason with my manager which was a waste of time. My manager has made my life a misery everyday since I returned to work from being of sick with stress (stress was actually a polite way of saying depression whihc I have suffered from for years but which has been made unbearable by my manager). I therefore intend to now go down the grievance route, not only on account of the flesible working but also in relation to the way I have been treated over this. After having many discussions with HR on this they continue to insist that the flexible arrangement was discretionary and that they can take it away at anytime. Naturally I am not buying this and going ahead anyway. They then said that even if it was a contractual matter (whihc obviously it is or why mention it) that they could change my contract for 'business reasons'. Is this correct and would they have to back up their 'business reason' claim or can they just do what they want hear? For interest the 'performance issue my manager is refering to is my failure to ahere to a list of 'action points' whihc she gave me over four months ago. I did not strictly adhere to this as it was not my understanding that this was a 'once and for all' list of things to comply. I have of course raised the point why has this not been mentioned for four months and why was I not given the chance to adhere to the list before losing the flexible working arrangement, but they just keep saying I need to be in the office so I can be supervised???? Any thoughts on all this? Thanks

Ok getting back to the actual topic now, just for info I have since taken this matter up with Manchester City Council and the TEC. TEC informs me that the police have nothing to do with the porcess of recovering unpaid PCNs but MCC's letter says that they work 'with' the police on this. I am more confused than ever

Because they move house and have to wait for a month (yes really) for BT to install a phone line. Only then can they order broadband which takes another 10 - 15 days!! Fairparking, it is very late and I am just catching up on this after a long spell offline. I will come back tomorrow and fill in some of the gaps I have found i.e. about the warrant, drakes etc. I do very much appreciate your offer of assistance and will contact you tomorrow in relation to this.

Hmmmm. Does this mean they were in their rights to do what they did? Or does it depend on what the PCN in question said?

:D:D:D

For the last 12 months I have had a flexible working arrangement with my employer whereby I have been allowed to work from home two days per week. This was 'unofficial' and therefore never written into my contract. Last week my boss decided to take this arrangement of me. The reasons given were that I was not getting adequate supervision from more senior members fo staff and that it was performance related. Neither of these arguments stack up as no one has ever said there was a performance issue before and the supervision thing is rubbish. I can back up both of these arguments with HR which I intend to do. They insist that this is not disicplinary action or a 'punishment' for anything, but as it is the most important part of my job to me I cannot see how it could possibly be anything else. I intend to argue that this is disciplinary action and therefore that the correct procedures have not been followed. Can anyone advise me if this is the way to go? Also I wondered if because I have had this arrangement for over a year, albeit unofficially whether or not I have now have any rights in relation to it? Surely they can't just whip it off me now because they feel like it? Your help would be greatly appreciated.

Guess what? Yes it was. What do you mean a 'sweetheart deal'?

Lamma, thank you bery much indeed. That is as I suspected but I had no real idea of the details to back up my suspicions. I will indeed be making a complaint as the police were also very agressive towards me and confiscated my car cars. I think I am going to go down the assult line on this. And yes it is indeed very worrying that PCN's are on ANPRs. I will be investigating this too. Thanks guys.

Quick question for you, what do the police have to do with the enforcement of PCn's under decriminalised parking schemes? The reason I ask is that yesterday morning I was stopped by the police on my way to work and detained for almost an hour. They told me this was becasue there was a warrant against my car for an unpaid PCn and forced my to call Drakes / Marsden Group before they would let me leave for work. Only as I was driving away did it occur to me that this wasn't really a police matter, as its not a magistrates court fine and is a civil matter. Or can the police get involved to help Drakes out once it becomes a warrant? I must say I am a bit disturbed that the police are hand in hand with Drakes for PCN fines. Oh yes one final thing, I was stopped because they said that the ANPR flashed up that there was 'something outstanding' on my car. Again, if this is a civil PCN why would the police be informed of this and why would my car be on their database?

Hi I am about to send off CCA letters to a couple of creditors, one of which I know I entered into an agreement with post 6 April 2007, so the amendments contained in the CCA 2006 will have taken effect. Could anyone please clarify what the position is in relation to the pre-contract information to be provuded and the enforceability of agreements? Thanks

Google 'Think Banking' its actually a RBS account. Does DD's and is a basic account. There is a monthly fee for it though, at least there certainly used to be.

Right, firstly don't panic. :grin: Take a deep breath and a step back. I am not the world's expect on these things (some people on here are and they will be along shortly) but I do know enough to tell you that you have rights under the law to protect you against these people. All you need to do is get yourself abreast of your rights and deal with this calmly and formally and there is in fact very little they can do to you. What you need to do is deal with them in writing and have everything formally documented. Dealing with them on the phone leads to a potential 'their word against yours' situation which is not helpful at all, besides which if you call them they are likely just to stress you out more than you already are. All these people care about is getting your money, they don't care if they worry you into an early grave in the meantime Request copies of all paperwork in relation to this matter (including the Warrant of Execution which is what their letter is suggesting they have) and if I were you I would be checking these people out to see if they are legit. Finally, their letter to you sounds dreadful and potentially threatening. These people are regulated by a professional body in the UK which you can complain to (I certainly would) also if they cannot produce the warrant they are claiming they have they could find themselves in hot water with the OFT. In the meantime though, please be aware that even if they do turn up at your door unless you let them in there is very little they can do. I would not be parking your car in view for a few days though if you have one. As I say, there are people on here who will give you really good detailed advise about this, but this is just to say please don't panic, this is not as bad as they are trying to make out it is and is easily sorted once you know how to go about it. Chin up ;-)

That's what I thought. Stalling tactics methinks.

Forgive me BTB for I am a natural blonde . Do you mean allege the ticket is invalid and if so on the 'make your cheque payable' wording?

I have just recieved an email from MCC in response to my request for a copy of the Parking Order. This is what I got: 'Thank you for your request for information which was received by Manchester City Council on 17th March 2008. It may take up to 20 working days (approximately 4 weeks) for the Council to consider your request and to provide a formal response. If this timescale needs to be extended to consider an exemption you will be notified and kept informed. If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact me.' Not very helpful considering I only have 28 days to appeal. Is there anyway I can push them do you think, should they be responding quicker and would you advise I put the appeal in anyway and if so on what grounds? Thanks

Hargy001, I think what BMWman is driving at (cuse the pun) is can you get a picture of the back of the ticket and put it on the forum in the same way as you did with the front of it. The reason he is asking this is that the wording on the back needs to be in the correct format too to make it valid. For example its validity may be in question if it says 'you have to pay'. On the same subject BMWman I have a ticket which says 'send your cheque to .........'. Is this not an example of the same thing eg it should say 'send cheques to'. It also says 'make your cheque payable to' rather than 'cheques should be made payable to', or am I clutching at straws here?

Ooooh very cloak and dagger!! I shall await the full details with baited breath. Best of luck to you both in the meantime.

This all sounds fastinating! I assume that the background to the incident / complaint is on here somewhere? If so can you point me to it as I would love a read. Thanks

Right all, an update. I have the car back. I went last night paid the £135 and the car is now home. I simply cannot get to work without it so couldn't wait to do the Statutory Declaration to get it back. Tomtubby, perhaps outside of London NCP are a bit more generous!! I have finally got to the bottom of the whole NCP vs Council thing. It turns out that in Manchester the Council and NCP have got together to form a 'Public Private Partnership' so NCP are working for the council. However I have to say, this being the case its impossible to tell whether or not you are in a private car park or on a council one. Maybe this means they are all council owned now?? Who knows. So I guess now I have to do the Statutory Declaration and arrange to pay these tickets off, as with them being PCN's I am responsible whether or not I was the driver. Oh joy. Just one thing Tom Tubby, could you please tell me what ANPR is? Also the Regulations you refer to are these purely in relation to congestion charges in London or does this go for three or more PCNs regardless of what they are for throughout the country?

Hi Ida No it wasn't actually it was in the parking / traffic offences forum.

I spoke to them last night. When I asked who the tickets had been issed by they said NCP. Again I assumed that this meant that this was in their capacity as a private company. Pin1onu may indeed be right. I am now quite confused and I guess the only way to resolve this is to contact NCP. I assumed that if a car park was marked NCP and was asking you to pay and display it was private and not council owned. If this is not the case should it not be made clear?