Gambling Commission, Many thanks for your information, and I will certainly bear that in mind. I should however point out that to date, I have had no cause for concern in dealing with CPS. The practices they have adopted when dealing with us have been good. However, I should point out that we are yet to have a ticket issued, logged onto the system and then 30 days down the line realise it's a mistake and try and cancel it, although I do believe that was mentioned in our T's & C's that I signed, and I think I'll be liable for an admin fee - although again, legally I'm sure there is a loophole, but working on my right from wrong basis, I've agreed to that, so if it happens, I'll pay. I am sure if I looked, I could find reasons not to shop at Tescos, Asda, Waitrose, Morrissons, Amazon or anyone else. I could find reviews and complaints why not to bank with anyone or buy anything ever again. However, sometimes you just have to trust your own judgement, and so far I am yet to have a reason to look for another solution. Just for record, I had 2 other parking solutions prior to CPS - one was a patrolled service who couldn't attend our site for about 2 hours to 4 days on a call out, and another who totally ripped us off. So maybe that might contribute to my appreciation of CPS?

AI, in response to your comment, it may appear toytown, but I can tell you that the parking problems we used to have, we no longer have. I can also tell you that where a PCN has been issued, CPS have persued to collect, and we do not have people who park without consent more than once. AI, as a consequence, if I'd employed the tactic of "don't park there or I'll tell on you" is kind of irrelevant - the solution I have used has achieved what I set out to do, whilst keeping our good reputation with our tenants and other customers in tact.

MightyMouse, In response to your post, the response we have had, on the whole, has been good. Previously, with the "please don't park here" signs, or going knocking on neighbouring businesses, the tenants were under the impression that we were doing nothing, or certainly nothing productive, even though this would take much more time up than our current solution. Now, they are aware that we are doing what we can to resolve our parking issues, and they are happy paying the monthly charges for their own designated parking space. When I say, on the whole, there have been one or two negative reactions, but that will be from people who have parked without our consent, and are irate to receiving a PCN. When they are decent and polite about it, we help them out - if they are rude and impolite, especially to my staff, then we plead ignorance and tell them to ring the number on the ticket. I can 100% claim that we hold no brand loyalty to any of our suppliers, and if another solution was presented to me which was better than our existing solution, I would certainly look into it. However, I must state that I'm certainly not looking for another solution, as the one we have right now works very well for our business.

Electron, I am exactly what I claim, and having the freedom to issue PCN's to people who park in our private spaces, and cancel them for people who have made a genuine mistake, is fine by me. And when reading these forums, or at least extracts from them, the majority of the time, I do not believe companies such as CPS to be acting unfairly. I am not a solicitor, and have not studied law, but I do believe I have a good grasp on what is right from what is wrong. Someone parking in a private space without the owners consent, I believe to be wrong. Someone being issued with a penalty notice, which is clearly displayed will happen if they park in a private space without consent, I believe is right. The intricacies of which defence to use is for legal minds far better than mine, although I am yet to hear anything which indicates I have made a mistake using the CPS solution.

DBC, thanks for the solution, but we have a listed building, and as a consequence there are a lot of things we can't do. We looked into parking cameras, gates, barriers, pay & display, posts and most other more traditional solutions. Even ones that we were able to do were not financially viable from both actual costs and cost of labour point of view. However, thank you for the post.

Please accept my apologies for using the term "illegal" instead of "parking where they shouldn't" or "fine" instead of penalty imposed upon them, or whichever politically or strictly legal correctness term you would prefer I use. I would love to hear from anyone who has been in a similar predicament to the one we were in - and the solutions they found. Maybe another business where their private parking was abused, or perhaps someone who is used to people parking over their driveway. Maybe these people can show be a better alternative to these companies which you all think are so bad.

Kip, I can't imagine anyone would want to pay for losses I incur through people parking where they shouldn't. If it costs me a tenant, it would certainly be more than the parking charges, although again, it would be virtually impossible to prove that the loss of a tenant was directly attributable to the loss of their parking space. However, I feel that this forum is full of people who have one single view, which is down with these parking companies and up with the consumer, and as I have mentioned numourous times, there are circumstances where these companies are in the wrong, but I certainly do not believe it's so clearly black and white. This company provided a service to my business which is invaluable, and I certainly did not see any alternative. The whole fact about how much is fair and reasonable, surely if the fines were cheap and reasonable, then it would be a car park, not a deterrant, and if the fines are so expensive, then surely the solution isn't to park where they shouldn't?

Sorry guys, but if you are referring to "Perky" as Mike Perkins, I'm certainly not him - although on the internet there is no way of proving this. However, obviously I have spoken with him before when I was speaking with a lot of companies to try and find a solution for our parking issues. As I mentioned before, disabled badges "slipping down" etc, I have total sympathy for, although not at our premises as it's totally private parking, which includes disabled badge holders. Just for reference, we do have the power to cancel tickets, so if it is a tenant who hasn't displayed their permit, or even someone who has the decency to come and talk to us "I'm really sorry, I didn't know" etc etc, we have the control to be able to cancel the ticket. It didn't take trawling to find this site - the #2 and #3 listings on Google for Combined Parking Solutions are this site and one other - all posting negative views, and I see it in my best interests to research a company who we use. As I said before, I have total sympathy for people who have been unfairly ticketed, but it's too often you see posts like: "I only overstayed by 10 minutes" "They showed my vehicle colour wrong" "I was only there for 5 minutes" All of these people know they are parking illegally, yet they don't want to face the consequences. I fully support sites like this to help people who's pay and display ticket had fallen off the window, or businesses who are not clearly displaying the CPS signs, and you guys should be applauded for helping these people, but the ones who are knowingly parking illegally, who are trying to find a loophole to dodge a ticket, I think is very bad.

I know I will get totally slated for this, but it becomes irritating after a while to constantly see Parking Companies take the rap. Now, let me make a few points clear. 1. I think Parking Wardens hiding around corners, clampers jumping on cars when they stop to ask for directions etc is extremely bad practice. 2. I do not work for a parking company. 3. This post IS NOT aimed at people who have been unfairly duped by one way or another. I run a Business Centre, and have done so for nearly 2 years. We are located close to town centre, and we have a number of private spaces outside the front of our building. When I took over, I tried a number of amicable solutions to prevent people parking in the tenants spaces. 1. I tried polite notices. 2. I tried catching them before they ran off into town. 3. I tried knocking on local businesses, and even to the church to ask people not to park in our private spaces. None of these methods worked, and in a small town, word travelled that we were powerless to people illegally parking, and therefore it became more frequent. However, we now use Combined Parking Solutions, and it is a breath of fresh air for us. We now have the deterrant to prevent people parking. We do try and catch people before they leave their cars to warn them about parking so they can avoid parking charges, as I know how much I hate getting tickets. We DO NOT like giving people tickets, but I also do not like charging my tenants for car parking which is taken away by someone too lazy to park 400 yds away where the parking is free, or trying to avoid paying a few pounds in a pay and display. We display our signs clearly, as we use the tickets as a deterrant, not as a solution. I believe all of these people who have parked illegally, know they have parked illegally and are trying to dodge the fines on a technicality, perhaps you should think of things the other way around and imagine how you would feel if someone parked at the end of your drive? For the people out there who do not want to pay a parking ticket, I have the best avoidance defence for you. Why not try parking in a space which isn't private parking?