Parking Fines

[DKZ5745]

Interesting development in private parking fines.
I just received a £90 fine for parking in a Lidl car park in Barnsley. It was an ANPR camera car park, that I had used many times, and was under the impression was free for the first 90 minutes.

I was parked for 26 minutes, and the fine letter says you are only allowed 10 minutes free!. :wtf: I have appealed, but don't expect much.

I have seen on the money saving expert website a way of putting your case to a tribunal, that apparently nearly always finds in your favour if you do it right (popla). So will wait for the inevitable response from Athena Car Parks who sent me the fine, then it's letters to POPLA :roll:

 

[DKZ5745]

Got a couple of nice piccies of the Z going into & coming out of the car park if nothing else :lol:

 

[Abzynthe]

If its a private car park, they aren't allowed to fine you. If you offer to pay the cost of the parking, then they cant do anything as you are paying for services rendered. Its only council owned car parks that can fine.

This site explains it quite well.

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/scotland/ ... land_s.htm

 

[the big blue]

Hi DK5745 :greetings-wavingblue:

PARKING FINES arrrrrgh as got one myself a month ago (ticketed) at 20.50 hrs and didn't appeal as have done so in the past to no avail when I had a genuine reason. With most of the parking fines now that all those rogue private clamping firms have been outlawed it all comes down to the small print and what is stated in law of course. Always be mindful of the notice stating parking fees & times even though some take some working out as summonses are time consuming even if not costly. Councils have taken our once free streets and now on-street permit parking supplements the council tax !

£90 sure isn't nice unless you are a shareholder in Athena of course. ,,Maybe you should consider buying some shares before paying your fine thus reaping the rewards of your fine to the best you can. :eusa-think:

.the big blue (..a CEO of Athena ,,,,JOKE as I'm more likely to be the cleaner seeing as I'm only a Back Bencher) :beer:

 

[DKZ5745]

Thanks for that Abz. I honestly don't think they have a leg to stand on after having read up on it. The charge has to be justified for loss of income, in other words, if they charge £1 per hour & you are parked up for 5 hours without paying, they could charge you £5 legally.
So £90 for 16 minutes over the allowed free time........ That would take some justifying that works out at @ £5.63 per minute!

I will see what the initial response is from Athena & then launch into it. They picked the wrong person this time

 

[DKZ5745]

Hi Big Blue, if you ever get another, check in MSE website. They are currently running at 100% success rate in appealing parking fines on private land. It's just a bit long winded to get there.
Had it been a tenner, or even a bit more then I might not have bothered but at £90 they are taking the p#$$

They don't mention this on the Lidl Christmas adverts do they?

 

[Abzynthe]

I think its pretty disgusting that you can only park for 10 minutes at a supermarket! What do they want you to do? Re-enact supermarket sweep and run off without paying?

 

[the big blue]

.....a balaclava and leave the engine running and ten mins is the maximum it should take you for your weekly shop unless you want free bed& breakfast accommodation at the taxpayers expense ! :lol:

.the big blue (..thats what happens when supermarkets sell off or lease their car parks to private companies to supplement their annual profits of which Sainsburys got into it before many of the others in Kent at least) Im Morrisons to the core

 

[DKZ5745]

Morrisons Barnsley £1 upto 2 hours and you get that back at the checkout :clap:

 

[tianorth]

They try and make their "tickets" look authentic but isn't it the council and police that can issue parking tickets?

 

[DKZ5745]

Yes Chris, it's a bit complicated, but after reading in depth on money saving expert website, it isn't really a fine, coz like you say, they are not legally able to do that, it's more of a claim for potential lost revenue, coz my car was parked in a space that someone else could have been using and presumably paying for.
The reason they can't win when it goes to the POPLA tribunal, is that they cannot possibly justify a £90 charge for 16 minutes. There is no way they can have lost that amount, so they are going to fail.
It's just that as with all legalities, you need to get the legal arguments right or you will fail.
That's where MSE website. Ones in they have draft letters for you to use, just inserting your details & circumstances.

Still waiting to hear from Athena re my appeal email, then when they kick that out, it's off we go :twisted:

 

[DKZ5745]

So, after a few emails backwards and forwards between Athena & myself, I got an email from them today saying the parking "charge" had been cancelled !

I told them I had been shopping at Lidl on the day in question and that I regularly shopped there and hoped that I could continue to use this store in the future.

Even with money grabbing private companies, the softly softly approach is sometimes the best first course of action, before going down the threatening route.

You can always fall back on that, whereas once threats are made there is no going back.

Anyway, Merry Christmas Athena :beer:

 

[Abzynthe]

That's good news :thumbup:
Some people (including myself) often forget the softly approach :lol:

 

[Anonymous]

Nice one