I parked in a no through road which leads to the entrance to a supermarket car park and a derelict building site, which after many years of standing empty is finally being redeveloped. The road is accessed from a main road, where there are normal road markings and no signs stating that you are entering a private road and there is No Parking or any charge if you do park in it. Shoppers often park in this road for a short time whilst they go the supermarket, even when there are spaces available on the store car park. One day I parked in the road because the supermarket car park was full. I parked for less than 10 minutes behind a car that was already there and didn’t think anymore of this until I received a PCN in the post from a private parking management company. I was shocked that this stated I had parked in an un-adopted road which was no parking allowed and had a £100 parking charge. The council confirmed the road is un-adopted whilst the site is being developed. The company had taken photos of the car I was driving, which was parked alongside a derelict building in the road. The signs stated Attention Private Land – The site is managed & operated for No Parking at anytime and that there is a parking charge of £100. These signs are not in the line of sight of a car driver and when you leave the car to go to the entrance of the supermarket they are behind you and there are no signs in your line of travel. You might see the signs on your way back to your car, but that is obviously too late. The signs are on the perimeter of the building site, which the derelict building is part of, and they refer to “Land” and “Site”, so you would assume they refer to the building site being developed, and not the road. If the road is included then there should be a sign at the entrance stating this is a Private Road and the terms and conditions that apply, as was in the Supreme Court case Parking Eye Vs Beavis. To make matters worse the signs on the derelict building are not illuminated and are less visible at dusk when I parked and when it is completely dark they cannot be seen at all! I disputed the charge with the management company because there were no signs at the entrance of the road and the ones on the building alongside which I parked had not been visible and referred to the building land/site. This was rejected because the IPS had approved the signs and location of them. I tried to appeal to the Site Owner/Director of the company who are developing the site, but he ignored my letters. His company finally did respond after my Father wrote to them. They confirmed that they had appointed a parking management company to control misuse of their land. I and other shoppers, unaware of that this is a private road with no parking, are hardly misusing the land by parking here for a few minutes! Even Police have been seen parking here and I am aware that at least one unmarked Police car was issued with a PCN. The management company have had many requests from the Supermarket store management and people like me to improve the signage and/or paint double yellow lines, to remove any ambiguity, but they have repeatedly refused. One store manager even complained that an employee of the Management company was parking by the derelict building, adding further to the misleading situation. In fact I am sure it was one of their employees whom was parked in front of me when I was issued with my PCN. It certainly was the same type and colour of car that I have seen driving around checking for parked cars. My Father did a study and saw 13 cars park there in one hour one lunch time, including an armed Police woman! I foolishly tried the IAS appeal process, knowing that I only had a 20% chance of being successful, because it is well known that this is not independent at all. True to form my appeal was rejected, even though I had pointed out and given proof that the evidence given by the management company was incomplete and the site plans and photos showing the signs were over two years old and not what were in place when my alleged parking offence took place. The Arbitrator dismissed these facts and still rejected my appeal and asked me to pay the charge within 14 days. I informed the Parking Management Company that I did not accept the decision of the IAS and the reasons why. I stated that I would not be paying the charge and requested that they followed the correct legal process and take me to court and not waste time and money passing this onto a debt recovery company. My letters, including to the MD were ignored and the charge was increased to £160, to cover admin charges. I heard nothing for four months then out of the blue I received a letter from a Debt Recovery company asking for the £160 to be paid. I have denied the debt, and asked them to ask their client to take me to court, so that this can be decided fairly. Their response states if the account remains unpaid it will progress to the legal stage and be passed to the solicitors. I would welcome further advice to what I have already received. This situation has been very upsetting and stressful for my family and I, especially when I am an honest, law abiding citizen, who has not committed any parking offences before. In the meantime, roll on the passing of the Private Parking Bill!

parkingbill2018, where are you with this case? I've got the same problem on the same location, but mine is on early stage, have only passed to the ZZPS LTD Could you please update when you get a resolution Thanks,

Hi please can someone give me some advice. I received 2 penalty notices for driving i a bus lane in reading 1 yr ago. I was pregnant and suffering from anxiety and depression and didnt pay them these were passed on to collect services who called at my address in january. ,My cgarges were £90 each and the bill they presented to me for the first visit was £419 they blocked my car in and i paid £212 i felt at the time that the charges they had added on were too much so sent them a letter informing them of my vulnerabe situation. last stages of pregnancy, im on income support and under the care of mental heath team and asking them to refer my case back to the council. i recieved a statment with 0 balance to pay and thought yeah ive won. 3 months later after ive thrown away this statement i get another visit from a baliff adding on another £134 i of course rang them and disputed saying id been sent a letter to say i owed 0. they keep visiting and have sent me a letter to say they are going to take me to court. they have also spit these charges and attached them to my pcn numbers. i dont think this is legal or correct. they say my current balance is £348.23. i need help to template some letters to get these fraudsters to refund me the excessive charges and complain to reading council about the way they ave treated me and keep harrassing me. thank you

hi i will try and keep this brief I have had contract phones with Three (My First Mistake) since around 2008, i had 2 nokias that were both insured. i received a call from them stating I could upgrade to the iphone 4 and i accepted paying an extra £20 a month making it £50 (second mistake).i asked the operator numerous times if i would be insured etc and that it was just a handset upgrade and nothing more, i also got my girlfriend a contact with three on a iphone that i pay for. now i have come to claim on the insurance for the first time in 4 years to find out that when i upgraded, they cancelled my current account and opened me a new one, therefore I am uninsured. I did make it clear that I would need to be insured and I was told that I would be So now I have with a broken iphone since Feb 2012. I called them at the time and got nowhere so i thought i would try again today.they gave me a FINAL offer of a Samsung Europe worth 49.99 (less than my monthly line rental. as far as they are concerned that is the end for me and they will not entertain anymore complaints. what is the next thing to do? Thanks