ALL - Private car parks and the DVLA

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Sat 5 Dec 2020 20:40
ALL - Private car parks and the DVLA - sammy1

Reading today of a BP petrol station in GTR Manchester. It has additional facilities such as a car wash and shop. Customers are given !5 minutes to visit the forecourt for whatever and thereafter risk a fine for PARKING on private land. Short of not using the BP station the unwary are being sent "fines" by the parking enforcement company Euro Car Parks. This would maybe not be too bad if the "fines" were reasonable, but the company are demanding £100 for breach of time and generously offering a fine of £60 if paid early! I understand that this company is operating all over the country presumably with the agreement of the land owner who presumably gets his share.

How can the DVLA condone this blatant rip off of innocent motorists. They apparently have contracts with councils and companies to provide the Registered keepers details given a reasonable excuse for such information and for a fee! I would suggest that parking on private land is nothing to do with government and the DVLA and any information should not be released especially to these rip off merchants

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Sat 5 Dec 2020 21:01
ALL - Private car parks and the DVLA - RT

DVLA is a government AGENCY - that means it has to raise it's own income - so it charges parking company for that information, just as you could pay to find out the owner of a car parked on your drive.

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Sun 6 Dec 2020 00:03
ALL - Private car parks and the DVLA - Terry W

Similar issue near where I live - albeit Lidl not BP.

Due to the location close to the town centre people were parking FOC. They now bar code the till receipt. Shoppers input registration number which I assume is linked to a ANPR camera on the entrance. No shopping or more than 90 mins = fine.

I don't have a problem with this - I rarely spend a lot of time in Lidl. I don't know Manchester but if the pertrol station is close to town and motorists are abusing their generosity, one can't blame them.

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Sat 5 Dec 2020 23:28
ALL - Private car parks and the DVLA - Avant

On the face of it that sounds ridiculous - but have there been cases of people leaving their cars in a corner of the service station and pushing off to go to a meeting or to nearby shops?

I Googled this and apparently some people were fined for spending too long queuing at the car wash. To do that for over 30 minutes sounds like a masochistic love of queuing, but even so all that will do is discourage customers from using the facilities.

As so often, stupid IT software at work again. It'll have to be adjusted if the service stations install EV charging points.

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Sun 6 Dec 2020 00:33
ALL - Private car parks and the DVLA - Zippy123

We used to shop at a supermarket that did this.

£60 fine for 5 minutes over, due to stupidly long queues at checkout. Appealed to the parking company and supermarket but nothing.

So they lost us as a customer.

£120 a week and it has been 5 years now. For the sake of a £60 fine. I guess thy must have added it all up and say it is worth it but I recon they have lost over £30k in sales and would expect the profit to be more than £60.

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Sun 6 Dec 2020 01:06
ALL - Private car parks and the DVLA - alan1302

As so often, stupid IT software at work again. It'll have to be adjusted if the service stations install EV charging points.

In what way is this to do with IT software? The petrol station or the parking company have decides on the short 15 minute rule - can't see where IT comes in the issue?

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Sun 6 Dec 2020 09:31
ALL - Private car parks and the DVLA - Andrew-T

In what way is this to do with IT software? The petrol station or the parking company have decides on the short 15 minute rule - can't see where IT comes in the issue?

I think most sensible people will accept the rules in principle - problems arise when it fails to allow for 'unusual' circumstances such as other delays which force drivers to stay longer than they intend. No concessions are made as it would create an awkward precedent.

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Sun 6 Dec 2020 09:55
ALL - Private car parks and the DVLA - daveyjp

I received my one and only speculative invoice about 12 years ago, it was from the scammers who were brought in to manage a car park I had an annual pass for.

Their ilegally installed ANPR cameras and database weren't tied together and me and my colleagues all ended up with invoices in the first week. The company that owned the car park were inundated with complaints which weren't dealt with so we withdrew all our annual passes. About 100 at £300 a year.

Since then I have avoided any private car parks as the systems are flaky, the companies behind them are all dishonest, they need to be as they rely on people paying to stay afloat and the appeal system is nothing more than a kangaroo court. One of the supposedly independent appeal bodies is run by one of the companies dishing out the invoices!

Drivers who have had medical emergencies, drivers stopping at zebra crossings on private land to let people cross the road, drivers caught in queues due to a broken down vehicle, drivers stuck in car parks due to failed barriers, the infamous double dip where you return to the same car park in the same day and get an overstay and the infamous tale of the person who tied a number plate to a shopping trolley and ended up with an invoice (despite the companies supposedly being audited and saying there are rigorous checks throughout the whole prcoess).

Since then I have read far too many stories which show the issue is the appeals system. If it was ran by the same as Council tickets there would be far more faith in the system, but it isn't its run by an algorithm. Computer always says no and in most cases you need to wait for Court papers.

English and Welsh Courts currently have a total backlog of about 45,000 cases. Going to Court for disputed invoice for £60-100 (plus the added costs Courts have said are illegal) is an abuse of the system and can take 12-18 months.

The companies don't want a fair appeals process as it costs money and it means they lose income.

A new Bill to try and sort this again (seocnd time since 2012) is due soon, but my advice is to simply avoid anywhere which uses Private parking companies.

Edited by daveyjp on 06/12/2020 at 09:56

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Sun 6 Dec 2020 09:58
ALL - Private car parks and the DVLA - Bromptonaut

Restrictions of this type, ie very short permitted stay, are usually intended to deal with some specific local problem.

Googling suggests the filling station here is in Rowlandsway Wythenshawe, a short distance from Manchester Airport. I suspect the 'mischief' they're dealing with is people trying to avoid parking/drop off charges at the Airport.

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Mon 7 Dec 2020 12:30
ALL - Private car parks and the DVLA - Gibbo_Wirral

Restrictions of this type, ie very short permitted stay, are usually intended to deal with some specific local problem.

Googling suggests the filling station here is in Rowlandsway Wythenshawe, a short distance from Manchester Airport. I suspect the 'mischief' they're dealing with is people trying to avoid parking/drop off charges at the Airport.

If not the airport, probably to nip to the shops in the retail park behind it. Although Asda does free parking....

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Sun 6 Dec 2020 11:17
ALL - Private car parks and the DVLA - SLO76
Private parking invoice, not a state fine. Throw it in the bucket and any further letters from the firm or the fake debt collection firm they pass it onto. I’ve had numerous over the years and have to date paid none. I treat them with the contempt they show us. Work colleague has ran up hundreds of pounds in these invoices and has never been taken to court or seen a debt collection agent at his door.

While I agree that private landowners have a right to control parking on their land I believe that local councils and shops should be duty bound to supply free parking for customers and there should be no hard and fast penalties for overstaying by a few minutes. If you want people to come to your town or store then provide parking and don’t penalise those who stay a few minutes longer.

Every large shop in my area has such restrictions in place and they’re quick to issue penalty invoices despite none ever being busy enough to cause any issues for customer parking. It’s an extortion racket and should be treated as such. I shall continue to bin any I receive.

Edited by SLO76 on 06/12/2020 at 11:32

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Sun 6 Dec 2020 12:04
ALL - Private car parks and the DVLA - Falkirk Bairn

Law on parking on private land in Scotland are different than the rest of the country.

If a contract in parking exists then there could be liability if the "contract" is broken.

In E&W the car owner is liable for an invoices sent by the companies.

In Scotland the car owner is not liable to pay invoices sent to him/her and under no duty to who was driving/parking the car. Therefore not having a name means the invoice cannot be taken through the court system to retrieve the "amounts due"

In Scotland the Parking Company will give up after increasing threats of higher amounts due with every letter - usually around 6 months.

Fines by Police or Councils must be paid in Scotland just like anywhere else in the UK.

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Sun 6 Dec 2020 20:45
ALL - Private car parks and the DVLA - ExA35Owner

Not quite as simple as that, but exactly right, it isn't a fine, it's an invoice.

Whether it's enforceable in court depends on many things, including correct use of the Protection of Freedoms Act. Simply ignoring can end in tears, but can also be successful: depends on the company involved.

At a first step approaching the shop management as a customer they are about to lose is an effective step.

Pepipoo is the most informative website for this.

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