ParkingEye M1 Services

[Scouse Magic]

Hi All, we have seen many notices sent out to RK's who have been targeted by this company for alleged breaches of contract on retail parks for overstaying the max time for free parking...Even though they don't own the land.

 

Well I am happy to report that the Scouse Magic had a lovely bank holiday with his Mrs but whilst travelling back on the M1, we decided to stop at a Welcome Break motorway service area in Newport & Pagnell..

 

Upon entering the main entrance we observed signage issued by ParkingEye which says this...

 

"Maximum stay 2 hours, between 2 and 24 hours £10" along with all the usual speil about contracts..and goes on to quote "ParkingEye are authorised to monitor parking on behalf of Welcome Break."

 

The companies at the service station were WH Smith, Eat Inn, Starbucks, KFC and Waitrose..

 

The first thing that struck me was that why are these terms and conditions different to a retail park ??

 

The Signage went on to say "You can pay by paybyphone dot co dot uk or at WH Smith"

Upon googling the above, it appears that payment is made to ParkingEye who is listed on that site as a operator.

 

So I asked myself where does the £10 go to and why should I pay £10 for maybe 3 hours when someone staying 24 hours pays the same....Do ParkingEye keep the £10 or pay the Landowner or the busnisess's who pay a premium to be there....?

 

Not that I wanted to stay longer than 2 hours, or indeed anyone would for that matter, I concluded that as I had no mobile telephone, option 1 was out so I went to WH Smith and bought a CD then asked the young lad about extra parking to which he had no knowledge....

 

Next on to KFC and after asking for the person in charge, and thanking him for a lovely 2 pieces and chips, I asked how much parkingEye had paid KFC for either charge notices issued, or each £10 collected......Answer.."No Idea"

 

I wonder if ParkingEye are paying business rates to the council for operating on this site along with every other business who pay a premium...?

 

Lastly Im not convinced Welcome Break own the land, will cost £19.95 on the land registry website I believe to find out....

 

Nowhere on the signage did it state 'ParkingEye have authority to issue court proceedings.'

 

Happy Hols !

Edited August 25, 2013 by Scouse Magic
spelling

[Grundles]

I think (correct me if I'm wrong here) that at a service station the chains are franchises so the employees you were talking to are employed by Welcome Break, not KFC or WHSmith. That was certainly the case at the one I used to work in.

 

Parking Eye works that the account holder gets a percentage of each fine paid. If it isn't paid, then the account holder doesn't get a percentage. So the company (say Welcome Break) pays a monthly invoice based on how many parking fines are issued. So I doubt they are paying business rates no, as they are employed by Welcome Break or whoever to operate on the site and so do not operate their business as such. I imagine it is similar to a gardener gardening for you, you are paying him to provide a service on your land and so he does not pay business rates on the premises. That's my understanding of that part of it anyway.

 

There is a self ticketing system you can use whereby you issue the ticket, take a picture of the car reg and the ticket in situ and send it to them via your account online. They then process the "invoice" and you sit back and hope you've duped someone. If you go on their website there is a customer login area where you can do this. I had to investigate this for some tenants parking in each others spaces on an industrial estate, apologies I went to the dark side briefly, and had to hold my tongue when threatening them with these tickets that actually they weren't really worth the paper they were written on!!!!xx

[Scouse Magic]

Sorry forgot to mention that on the Welcome Break website, it states "When you pay £10 you get a £2 meal voucher" but the £10 goes to ParkingEye I assume

[Scouse Magic]

I think (correct me if I'm wrong here) that at a service station the chains are franchises so the employees you were talking to are employed by Welcome Break, not KFC or WHSmith. That was certainly the case at the one I used to work in.

 

Parking Eye works that the account holder gets a percentage of each fine paid. If it isn't paid, then the account holder doesn't get a percentage. So the company (say Welcome Break) pays a monthly invoice based on how many parking fines are issued. So I doubt they are paying business rates no, as they are employed by Welcome Break or whoever to operate on the site and so do not operate their business as such. I imagine it is similar to a gardener gardening for you, you are paying him to provide a service on your land and so he does not pay business rates on the premises. That's my understanding of that part of it anyway.

 

There is a self ticketing system you can use whereby you issue the ticket, take a picture of the car reg and the ticket in situ and send it to them via your account online. They then process the "invoice" and you sit back and hope you've duped someone. If you go on their website there is a customer login area where you can do this. I had to investigate this for some tenants parking in each others spaces on an industrial estate, apologies I went to the dark side briefly, and had to hold my tongue when threatening them with these tickets that actually they weren't really worth the paper they were written on!!!!xx

 

Thank you for your input, I do have to correct you, its not a fine, it is a speculative invoice from a company that does not own the land.

Edited August 25, 2013 by Scouse Magic

[Scouse Magic]

Thank you for your input, I do have to correct you, its not a fine, it is a speculative invoice from a company that does not own the land.

 

Also, lets take a retail park for example and ParkingEye...If the motorist accepts the terms and conditions for whatever reason, why cant he or she run into M&S or Halfords and pay extra rather than have a invoice sent for £100

[Crocdoc]

As far as rates are concerned, it would be interesting to establish if the parking area is zero rated.

 

This information should be provided FREE OF CHARGE by the local authority.

 

This particular point has been kicked around for some time and may hit the headlines in the very near future. I am aware that Scottish local authorities and the Scottish parliament are alert to this one, therefore I would imagine that the situation is no different in England and Wales.

 

As the Parking Prankster states , The Genie is out of the bottle on this one.

Edited August 25, 2013 by Crocdoc

[Sidewinder]

The WHS is definitely company owned - AFAIAA they don't do franchises.

[Scouse Magic]

The WHS is definitely company owned - AFAIAA they don't do franchises.

 

Many thanks for that Sidewinder....So I wonder how it works then and who gets the money obtained by ParkingEye, and or paybyphone, and what percentage they pay the landowner and HMRC, and how can they bring court proceedings.

[DBC]

The ultimate land-owner is HM Government. They own the service areas and lease them out to whoever runs it -Moto or a similar company.

[Horsen]

What about the services on the M6 Toll?

[DBC]

Still owned by the government.

[Scouse Magic]

So going back to my original point, where does the money collected by parkingeye go to, from either each £10 collected or charge notices that people have paid, and as they are a business operating on a site, do they pay business rates and everything else that the other companies on that site have to pay !!! I smell a rat

[esmerobbo]

Long term parking on motorway services have always been chargeable, I used to regularly get invoices from the actual operators for overnight parking when I used to have a haulage company. Or they had a man who used to go around with a receipt book and you paid him or not as you wished.

 

Part of the lease agreement is they have to offer 2 hours free parking, after that they can make a charge. The way it was explained to me after I had a run in with Welcome Break is that Parking spy monitor using CCTV anything over two hours gets flagged up, vehicles that have paid which is retained by the operators and does contain a portion for discount for a meal or a drink. are then excluded from the list, the others are sent a NTK.

 

Never ever paid Parking eye or anyone else, if the driver chose to pay I reimbursed them but most just ignored the man knocking on the cab!

[ericsbrother]

They pay nothing to the landowner, their contrcat stipulates that they get to keep all of the money and PE even charge the landowner for putting up signs and cameras. It is laziness of the developers that allows these leeches to make a living to the tune of £150m gross profit per year on a £200m turnover. So, in short, they are paying nothing and ripping off anyone who come their way. Most of the developments they operate on have planning permission that enforces free parking but that doesnt seem to stop the supermarkets wanting to play along.

[Scouse Magic]

Thanks for all the information people...Im surprised legal action hasn't been taken to regulate how these hyenas of society operate and I wonder if HMRC know how much they are making ?

[Grundles]

Having researched this as part of my job they normally pay the landowner or tenant (whoever employs them) something. The contracts are negotiated on an individual basis. Do you really think that the likes of Welcome Break, the Government, all the money grabbers are going to be letting them get paid for something that they could also get paid for???

[Wintonian]

It is important to remember that, while "the Government" owns the motorway service areas, it was the taxpayer who paid for them to be built and who pays for their maintenance. So why are taxpayers also expected to pay for the use of the parking areas? The use of parking management companies makes sense where an area is being abused by a minority, causing inconvenience to the majority - a supermarket car park next door to a station, for instance! But why is it a problem for a vehicle such as a motor home on a journey to spend the night in the motorway car park (all of which are practically empty at night)? In the rest of Europe such parking is free. It also adds to the turnover of the shops that trade there as parked motorists will almost certainly buy something.

 

Is it reasonable to assume that none of the "Contracts" are enforceable in motorway service areas, or has this now changed?

[DBC]

Let's face it, a motorway service area is just a fancy lay-by. Usually you you can park in those for hours without having to pay. Why do you have to pay in a service area?

 

Regarding parking at night in service areas, I am sure that the DFT did float the idea of allowing overnight parking for free, but I imagine PPCs won't like that at all.

[Wintonian]

Let's face it, a motorway service area is just a fancy lay-by. Usually you you can park in those for hours without having to pay. Why do you have to pay in a service area?

 

Regarding parking at night in service areas, I am sure that the DFT did float the idea of allowing overnight parking for free, but I imagine PPCs won't like that at all.

 

It is more than a fancy lay-by. It is far safer than a lay-by and there are services to hand.

 

I can't see why PPCs should worry and I cannot see what it should have to do with them, anyway. Their "services" seem to be valueless. Motor Homes do not spend the night at motorway service area car parks, just as most HGVs do not. Instead, HGVs fill up the lay-bys in order to sleep in their legally allotted rest time. When the motorway car parks are empty, this just seems insane. Just take a look at France and Spain and see how many people spend the night in their car parks at night. And no charge is made.

 

It is well past time that the Government made ALL motorway parking free of charge and got rid of all these wretched parking companies.

 

It is simply a case that in Britain, today, if someone finds something that does not carry a fee, then something is done about it and a system of charging is established. It would be interesting to know the total raised in parking charges and parking penalties, together with speeding fines, set as a percentage of total government/local government revenue.

 

BUT...... Is it true that we can still ignore their parking charges without fear of legal action?

[DBC]

[quote=Wintonian;4327791

BUT...... Is it true that we can still ignore their parking charges without fear of legal action?

 

I am afraid that's not true with Parking Eye. They have a new leagle beagle who who is determined to make a name for herself by issuing court papers right , left and centre. Luckily, if it's picked up in time, and you appeal to POPLA then PE are losing many of those appeals. This stops them taking the case to court.

[Liverpool way]

I am afraid that's not true with Parking Eye. They have a new leagle beagle who who is determined to make a name for herself by issuing court papers right , left and centre. Luckily, if it's picked up in time, and you appeal to POPLA then PE are losing many of those appeals. This stops them taking the case to court.

 

 

Yes you are correct DBC, but what we need is more people willing to go to court!!!!!!

 

The fact that people come on here to seek advice, i think we should encourage the court route...would soon stop the vexatious claims!.....and as long as the defendent submits a defence or even better a counterclaim the claimant will run in the opposite direction.

 

I am not a legal bod but am very knowledgable in these matters and willing to help any geniune people.

 

Myself, personally cannot wait to get Northampton Court Papers from ParkingEye......But have to get a speculative invoice first i suppose!

[Wintonian]

I am particularly interested in the situation of a ticket put on the screen of, or photographic evidence of the excess period of parking of a vehicle registered in, say, France. Is there any way that the parking company can obtain the address of the registered keeper of a French registered vehicle? If so, would the company be able successfully to pursue a claim for a debt in a French court?

[Liverpool way]

I am particularly interested in the situation of a ticket put on the screen of, or photographic evidence of the excess period of parking of a vehicle registered in, say, France. Is there any way that the parking company can obtain the address of the registered keeper of a French registered vehicle? If so, would the company be able successfully to pursue a claim for a debt in a French court?

 

 

If the vehicle was registered in Scotland say.........It would have, and does come under different laws...Not that they apply on private land anyway.........IGNORE......Really safe to ignore this one(unless the site team deam otherwise?)

[Wintonian]

If the vehicle was registered in Scotland say.........It would have, and does come under different laws...Not that they apply on private land anyway.........IGNORE......Really safe to ignore this one(unless the site team deam otherwise?)

 

I cannot see how the country of registration can make different laws apply. If a foreign registered car breaks a UK law in the UK, its driver will be subject to action in the UK. I understand that speeding offences are being notified across borders now so that the alleged speeder can be pursued. Nowhere is safe!!

 

My question was more to do with what action would be legally open to the parking company if a foreign registered vehicle were to incur what they deem to be a legal parking charge.

Edited August 28, 2013 by Wintonian
Typo

[Tony P]

what action would be legally open to the parking company if a foreign registered vehicle were to incur what they deem to be a legal parking charge.

 

They would get nothing from where I live!!

Only the legitimate Police can obtain RK information.

 

But interesting point.

Vinci, at least, operate in France and have a UK operation - possibly others. I suppose they could use their UK offshoots to get RK details from DVLA - but that would possibly be in breech as they are obtaining it for a separate legal entity (albeit related).