New Private Parking leglisation

[DBC]

I recently made a complaint to the BPA over that letter and this is their reply. :-

 

Thank you for your recent email to my colleague in which you raised a concern over a reference to the use of the Civil Procedure Rules by AOS member Roxburghe.

 

In your communication, you have quoted the Civil Procedures which states that the relevant parts 31.16 and 31.17 ‘do not apply to the Small-Claims track’. BPA agrees with this statement.

 

When I contacted the operator to obtain their views about your concerns, I have been assured that the statement exists in Roxburghe’s documentation for information only, advising recipients of the letter to seek proper legal advice, rather than relying on some popular internet sites. There is no implication at this point that the Civil Procedure Rules will be used of a certainty. I was also assured that any such cases which require use of the Civil Procedure Rules are sent through the County Court track, and as such the Civil Procedure Rules can be applied if necessary. I was also assured that this process is only applied when absolutely needed.

 

 

I leave you to draw your own conclusions !

[DBC]

To quote someone from another parking forum:-

 

The general consensus is that it will be business as usual post this "keeper liability" coming in as the advice will still be to ignore and the PPC will still have to enforce in court. Therefore all the old obstacles to court enforcement, such as the invoice being an unlawful penalty, no contract being formed and particularly the recent VCS case ruling practically all PPC tickets unenforcable, will apply. The measure is only a right to claim against the keeper if the driver is not known, it is not legitimising PPC invoices in any way.

 

The keeper liability measure will only come in when an "independent" appeals mechansism run by the BPA is set up. Naturally no-one expects such a service to be independent. However it will allow motorists another avenue if they so choose and then the PPC will not be able to enforce anyway unless they go to court. Overall very little will change, despite the spin that will be evident from the BPA and assorted PPCs.

 

And:-

 

For a start, this goes right up against the principle of privity, i.e. that a third party cannot be held to a contract he had no part it. This has yet to be tested in court, and it's not likely to happen soon (or even soon after the law comes in later in the year).