Unfair NCP Parking Ticket referred to Debt Recovery Plus

[neilpaul89]

Hi all,

 

I have been pointed to this forum by a friend who was certain someone on here can help.

 

Back in November, I parked in my usual train station car park, run by NCP. I arrived later than usual, so there was no spaces in my usual spot downstairs. I had to drive to the top floor, where i found plenty of spaces.

 

I parked up and walked away, paying for my ticket on the 'Ringo' mobile app as I do every morning.

 

When I returned to my car I was surprised to find that I had received a ticket, as had about 12 other cars around me.

 

It turned out that the space I parked in was a 'Premier Bay' (not usually what I'd expect to find on the top floor of a multi-story).

 

When I looked closer, the bays were indeed marked (unclearly) 'Premier Parking', however the words were spaced about 15 foot apart, meaning in front of my car there was just the word 'Parking'.

 

There was also no visible signage. The only sign displayed was next to the pay and display machine, which I never use due to preferring the mobile app. This was on a lamp post around 20 meters from where I parked, positioned side on so I wouldn't have noticed it even if I looked that way. There were two lamp posts either side of my car, neither of which had a Premier Parking sign displayed.

 

I appealed to the NCP but it was declined (in hindsight after reading a few posts, this was the wrong thing to do). I then appealed to POPLA, but they said my appeal was received more than 28 days after the ticket was issued, so was declined.

 

I have now received a letter from 'Debt Recovery Plus' demanding payment or court proceedings may commence. I have genuinely forgotten to purchase a ticket on occasions, and reluctantly paid the fine as I was in breach of the car park conditions, but on this occasion I believe NCP should have done more to make it clear that the spaces were allocated Premier Parking bays.

 

Can anyone please advise me what would be best in this situation? The amount owed is now £120, which is outrageous considering I paid for a ticket that day.

 

Any help or advice will be greatly appreciated.

 

Many thanks

Neil

[ericsbrother]

DR+ are the parking companies' favourite rentathreats and have no powes to do or say anything of any relevance. Ignore them completely and let us know if the parking co write again. Plenty of reasons why the demans is rubbish in the first place.

[neilpaul89]

Thanks for your quick reply ericsbrother, just what I was hoping to hear.

 

Do you know how likely it is for NCP to take someone to court over a case like this?

[armadillo71]

What was your appeal to POPLA?

 

This was from the other day;

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/11376805/MPs-fury-over-motorists-fined-for-putting-their-parking-receipts-in-the-wrong-place-on-the-dashboard.html

[silverfox1961]

What was your appeal to POPLA?

 

This was from the other day;

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/11376805/MPs-fury-over-motorists-fined-for-putting-their-parking-receipts-in-the-wrong-place-on-the-dashboard.html

 

 

I read that too with ever larger gaping mouth. Even putting a ticket on the wrong side of the dash is an 'offence' now.

 

I would let them take court action (if they dare) where this practice would show them up for the cowboys they really are. There must be adequate signage for you to be able to make a reasoned decision whether to park or not and as you never saw the signs as you were allowed to pay by ringo, I feel there points would fail.

[ericsbrother]

All the parking companies are waiting for the outcome of the PE v Beavis appeal, if that goes the way of Parking eye expect a feeding frenzy, if it goes for Beavis then you will see a lot of unemployed people who would struggle getting a job elsewhere as they dont have the necessary customer service skills.

[armadillo71]

All the parking companies are waiting for the outcome of the PE v Beavis appeal, if that goes the way of Parking eye expect a feeding frenzy, if it goes for Beavis then you will see a lot of unemployed people who would struggle getting a job elsewhere as they dont have the necessary customer service skills.

The car park in question is not a normal PE car park though. They pay £1000 per week to rent it apparently...

In nearly all the car parks they ' manage ', they are only agents...

[neilpaul89]

I appealed on the grounds that the vehicle was not improperly parked as conditions were not properly signed.

 

The restricted area mentioned towards the bottom of that article is exactly the area I was ticketed, and was definitely not adequately sign posted.

[neilpaul89]

Thanks for your reply silverfox1961. I'm hoping it won't go as far as court action but I think I would have a pretty strong case to prove the area is not adequately signed

[renegadeimp]

It is extremely unlikely it will and not f it does it would be extremely easy for you to win

[neilpaul89]

Funnily enough Robert Halfon MP, mentioned in the Telegraph interview, is my local MP and has contacted me in reply to a tweet. Great to see MP's take this seriously