Yay! Fun starts here. Nicole got one in the post today. £40 quid for an overstay at Aldi, picture of car numberplate. timed leaving and entering.
I have put a new tab on the filing draw, first one goes in there. Lets see how many we get.
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Got our first one a couple of months ago: £80 for 18 minute overstay, commuted to £50 if paid within X days.
10 days later another saying it would be increased to £110 if we didn't pay within X days.
Think we received one more advising further guff about legal/debt recovery/etc.
Bring it on.
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If she's not a regular it can be ignored as with Iffy and Moto. Slight worry about being clamped if one needs to go back though.
I'm spending around £100 a week in the local Aldi (weeks groceries plus popping in for wine/beer) I might be inclined to 'fess up' & appeal to their better nature.
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She never goes in there. Just used the car park.....
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>> She never goes in there. Just used the car park.....
>>
Maaaaaaybe, just maybe, that's why Aldi teamed up with these crooks?
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In-laws got one for overstaying in Lidl ... by 8 hours. Of course they weren't there that long. They went and came back again (some people just can't get enough bargain food) but the camera or operative didn't register this. They spoke to the manager who was able to over-ride it. Depressingly sensible!
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Coincidentally, my neighbour was round tonight. His wife received a Euro Car Parks PCN with photos of the front numberplate at timed entrance and exit. Overstayed the 4 hour limit by 23 mins.
Had first threatening letter - I have referred him to various topics via Google including Pepipoo but even then, he thinks his missus might still pay up as she gets frightened and intimidated by these sorts of things.
I have told him I will disown him if thats the case!
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>> Maaaaaaybe, just maybe, that's why Aldi teamed up with these crooks?
That's the local issue FF. The store is a short walk from Franklin's Gardens, home of the Saints.
Never ceases to amaze how a car load of 4 don't blink at £25 a ticket for a rugger match but cannot muster less than a fiver between them for the extensive P&D behind the ground.
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They should install a barrier, pay machine or verify tickets at the till.
The PCN is the lazy way.
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>> They should install a barrier, pay machine or verify tickets at the till.
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>> The PCN is the lazy way.
Up to a point, but there's a limit to customer's willingness to jump hoops when the problem is freeloaders.
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To paraphrase Z...
The PCN is the unenforceable way.
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An Aldi near us has a screen inside where you need to enter your reg number after shopping. Failing to do so can result in a letter (fine?). I was in there recently (wife likes their Merlot and it's £2.99!) and someone had been done. They were talking to a member of staff who said they'd sort it. But it seemed they were regulars and maybe entered the wrong reg.
In reality they can do nothing. Especially if you don't go back.
The car park for the gym where we go (also restaurants, cinema etc) now has a 4 hour limit. It's near a train station mind.
And most places say 'no return within X' so that if you stay to the limit, go and then come back you're not covered. But I sometimes pop to our local Tesco Express, find we've still forgotten something and end up going back. I call that good custom. In the week the Tesco Extra is open 24 hours and not much further.
Last edited by: rtj70 on Mon 12 Dec 11 at 22:54
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Don't get me wrong, I am not condoning her behaviour, if she had to pay it it would serve her right, she is extracting the urine a bit, but hey ho, never look a gift horse in the mouth, as was said up the thread, bring it on.
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>> She never goes in there. Just used the car park.....
And popped it in a disabled bay?
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>>>> I have put a new tab on the filing draw, first one goes in there.
>> Lets see how many we get.
>>
I say four.
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Our local Morrisons...grotty place, ex. Safeway, has just installed a parking firm due to the Metro station being right by their car park.
It's run by ' Parking Eye ' whoever they are. I think it's camera in, buy a ticket with reg. on.
It's two quid, if you spend more than two quid then you get your money back at the till. I'm expecting a PCN 'cos I went in to try and get something which I was sure they wouldn't have...and I was right. That little trip would have cost me to search. !
I'll report when it comes !
Rip-off Britain, last week featured our other car park...also camera entry. As you come down a short stretch of public road, it becomes the car park. There are cameras on a pole clocking you in. Trouble is, there is an access road to the back of the shops on the main road to the right before you enter the actual car park.
The cameras clock cars belonging to folk who live in the flats above the shops and their visitors.
This was highlighted in our local rag some months ago naming one of the aggrieved residents.
I tried to contact her but she was ex-directory and I didn't know her exact address.
She was on the TV programme being interviewed. What annoyed me there was that no attempt was made by the programme to explain the law with regard to private parking...a god sent opportunity missed...again !
Ted
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Very good report in this BBC Wales consumer programme. A bit more intelligent than the shouting ginger witch's programme.
One case in a South Wales Supermarket went to Court and the judge chucked it out on the grounds that the writing was too small on the boards to be considered a "contract"
www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b017zny0/XRay_Series_11_Episode_15/
Last edited by: R.P. on Tue 13 Dec 11 at 00:54
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>> www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b017zny0/XRay_Series_11_Episode_15/
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Well, of course, they aren't "fines", they are "charges", so the company would have to take you to court to enforce the notice.
At the end of the piece there was reference to a planning dispute. is it a council owned car park? If so, why are more people not pointing the finger at the local council?
What a blasted complicated system! Only the Welsh could come up with something like that!
Why are they all called Morgan?
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In laws got one from Waitrose. They were just going to pay but I suggested the have a word with the manager on their next visit. He was most apologetic, cancelled it for them somehow, and gave them a £5 food voucher.
Pays to shop at Waitrose!
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Also "costs" to shop at Waitrose but I take your point!
I was passing an Aldi early the other morning and there was a solitary car there with a clamp on it so I guess some branches do the clamping thing, perhaps only for returning offenders who have declined to pay the penalty charge?
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>> I was passing an Aldi early the other morning and there was a solitary car there with a clamp on it
If the owner waits long enough then I'm sure ALDI will have a tool offer day where a bolt cutter or angle grinder can be purchased.
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Only the Welsh could come up with something like that!
I think you'll find that the Planning Laws are the same in England and Wales - beyond the camera/planning issue the council have no involvement - otherwise the "charges" would be enforceable "fines" and the processes would be different.
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No clamping in Scotland so there's no teeth at all for enforcement.
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Z - who are 'the enforcers' ?
I had the same issue a while ago - parked in the car park of a Do-it-All (about 6 months after they had gone bust, so hardly inconveniencing any one at all).
Easier for me as it was a company car and there was no way the company was going to tell them who was driving (I'd be interested to know if RP has any thoughs on Data Protection issues on that one), but we had two or three letters from the parking management co. and one from their tame solicitors/debt collectors, but it all came to nothing
Last edited by: borasport on Tue 13 Dec 11 at 13:16
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These are private companies who masquerade as "authorities" they have no rights in respect of identifying drivers - Data Protection Act would actually protect the identity of the drivers from these thugs. DVLA should do so as well, but they don't because they make money out of it.
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The DVLA are legally obliged to provide owner information to anyone who has reasonable cause. Identifying the driver of a car which is parked on private property is a reasonable cause as I am sure you would agree if you were to find a stranger's car parked on your driveway whilst the driver does a bit of shopping.
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The owner is not necessarily the owner as in the case of a company - My belief is that the corporate owner can safely hide behind Data Protection Act. The private owner of a car has no legal requirement to identify the owner other than to those specified in law. Nowhere does it say that you have to do so to some jumped up private car park attendant who send frightening and extortionate demands to sometimes vulnerable people.
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As I said the DVLA is legally obliged to provide the name of the registered owner to anyone who has reasonable cause. That after all is why cars have registration numbers
The issue you have is with the car parking company and how they behave. The DVLA are simply complying with the law in providing the information.
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DVLA do not ask to record either the driver or the owner.
They do ask for and record the name of the keeper.
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>> DVLA should do so as well, but they don't because they make money
>> out of it.
>>
The theory that DVLA should 'grow a pair' is a reasonable one but it falls down on execution. As CG says allowing a landowner to trace a vehicle on or obstructing his property is prima facie reasonable use of registration data. They've tried to work with the British Parking Association as a means of regulating those with 'on line' access to data though sonme of BPA's members are at the assertive end of the business.
The 'making money' side is, IMHO, a red herring. The fee for a one off inquiry will barely cover the cost. The management time in drawing up and montoring arrangements with the bigger enforcement companies comes at a cost too.
And no enforcement leads to a free for all once sports grounds, proximity to public transport etc are factored in. Would people pay £7 a day for a commuter station car park if they could leave their cars a Tesco all day free of charge?
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>> DVLA should do so as well, but they don't because they make money out of it. >>
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2064885
"Mr Tse said .... the DVLA did not make a profit from the information given out, charging only £2.50 an inquiry to cover administrative costs."
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>> Z - who are 'the enforcers' ?
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Parking Eye, PO Box 565 Chorley, PR6 6HT.
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Sorry CG, I misunderstood your post. This is one of the few things that still gets my blood boiling. Sadly symptomatic of what's become bad about our country. Baliffs are the others Grrrrrrrr. :-)
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Just playing devils advocate for a moment.
There are some land owners who's land is abused by parkers that are not using their facilities.
Car parks cost a fortune. Land ditto.
I would be seriously hacked off if someone parked on my drive and walked off, leaving their car there for several hours (I think a window would be smashed, the hand brake released and the car rolled off so that I could get access to my property back. )
I do think some car parks are a bit sneaky in the way they operate though and their charges for overstaying are prohibitive. Our local Safeway (those were the days) used to have a man with a bar. If you showed him a receipt you could get out for free. If you didn't it was 50p per hour. Many went in to the shop to buy a newspaper and get free parking.
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>> Parking Eye
different bunch of cowboys from the ones I dealt with. Just a quick trip up the M61 from where I am at the moment though - I'd offer to nip up there and pass on your displeasure, but I don't want to end up like the bloke who tweeted what he wanted to do to Robin Hood Airport :-)
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They were the subject of a similar programme by X-Ray a few months ago - much ineptitude from what appears to be a simple enough process.
I always pay for my parking and or never overstay my welcome - what I resent is their totally draconian fees, their stupid errors and total unaccountability to anyone except their own trade associations - no doubt run by a similar bunch of cowboys all based on some faux authority - why should we have to bow and scrape to these dishonest bunch of muppets.
Last edited by: R.P. on Tue 13 Dec 11 at 16:37
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I was hugely surprised (and a little disappointed) not to receive one of these charges when I visited a retail park in Kiddie a few weeks back. Came back to car after 2.5 hours or so doing the normal thing of shuffling two young kids between a mere three shops (staying for a nappy change and bite to eat in one shop that has a cafe), only to realise that they'd put up signs for parking enforcement. Unbelievably they'd set a 2 hour limit (with no return in 4 hours! Don't even think about taking faulty things back in a hurry....), which we could easily exceed in one shop, let alone two or more...
2 hour limit at a major retail park I ask you! Mrs OB can spend longer than that deciding on a carpet for a coat cupboard FFS! I can spend 20 mins of that time walking one slow toddler from one end of said retail park to the other...
To be honest, I was really looking forward to a "penalty notice" and taking it all the way to court, if they were willing. I would have loved to have shown them up for the unreasonable, petty, money grabbing so-and-so's they clearly are. No judge could have ruled their so-called contract reasonable. Sadly, so far nothing from them...
I also see McDonald's are getting in on this act, showing 90 minute limits at restaurants, even those in the middle of nowhere. Come on now you lardies, eat up and get lost, make room for more!
Last edited by: oilburner on Tue 13 Dec 11 at 15:02
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Few on the Macky D's round here use enforcement. Big story in the local rag earlier in the year over some bloater had visited twice in a day so got ticketed
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Family in Stockport, a coupla years ago, went for a kid's birthday at one of these burger places. All having a good time, dark outside, didn't see the signs and overstayed the allowed two hours.
'Cos they came in two cars, they got tinned for 75 notes each.....then went and paid it !
Nice end to a family celebration....not!
Shysters !!!
Ted
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Parking Charge Notice. - Lygonos
