Except, of course, it ain’t. A fine, that is.
A car park at a popular UK seaside spot has left locals and visitors fuming over massive fines they’ve been given even when they’ve not used it.
Sea View Car Park in New Polzeath, Padstow in Cornwall has been fining drivers who drive into the car park, fail to find a space then drive straight out again in search of somewhere else to park.
The car park has been fitted with new automated licence plate reading cameras that scan car number plates as they enter, reports Cornwall Live.
The problem is that the operator is not allowing any leeway time to find a parking space which means that many car parking users have been stung with £100 fine just for driving in and out a couple of minutes later.
Apparently the operator is denying this. So it’s a matter of who you believe. There is a code of practice for these operators and they must allow a ten minute grace period, so if you arrive and leave within that, no parking fee is due. In this case, the appropriate response is to appeal. If that is denied, then let them go to court over it. They do not have the power to fine anyone, they issue an invoice. It is up to you to either pay it if you broke their terms and conditions or refuse to pay it if you didn’t.
Like the High Street has found to its cost, if they keep penalising and generally making life unpleasant for those who visit wishing to spend their hard earned, they’ll end up not counting the takings when people simply stop going.
I’m sure Amazon and Ocado just love this sort of shenanigans.
JonT
Seems to be the same saga as Sandhills car park Instow. It has been on TV. The reg got taken as you turned into the one lane road and gave about 10 mins to get a ticket. In season could take you 10 mins to get down the lane and find a parking space. Then you had to pay, got to remember your car reg. If there is a queue takes longer. So you still got fined if you paid because you were out of the 10 min slot. They have lost the car park so looks like they might have moved to Cornwall.
Refer the company to the Unfair Contracts Act 1977 and state that any other correspondence will be classed as an offence under the Prevention of Harrassment Act. Attempting to Obtain Pecuniary Advantage (an offence under the Theft Act) could also be thrown in to the reply (sent in an envelope without a stamp on).
Yep, it’s a PCN not a fine
“Jacob Rees-Mogg´s attack on fixed penalty notices is too little, too late
The problem with FPNs and PCNs is they have unleashed a culture in which police, councils and other authorities of the state have been able to extract large sums of money from the public for very minor infringements of laws and bylaws – without any proper right to appeal, writes Ross Clark
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/jacob-rees-mogg-s-attack-on-fixed-penalty-notices-is-self-serving
@Judd
+1 Councils deter shoppers in cars, then whine when shops close and parking revenue falls. Response: increase parking fees to fill shortfall
Sadly Gov’t is equally stupid
In the market town of Beverley in East Yorkshire, there is free parking in all the carparks for the two weeks before Xmas. So there are some slightly more enlightened councils.
In many parts of France, as elsewhere, there is pay parking. The twist in France is that the lunch break (12:00 to 14:00) is often free. Pay for two hours (say) at 11:30 and you’re good until 15:30!
Wouldn’t it be tragic if, on a wet and windy day, a plastic bag or a sheet of newspaper blew onto your front number plate and obscured it so that the number plate reader couldn’t read it? Totally deniable, if stopped and questioned. The cut backs in council spending on street cleaning is to blame.
Of course, one of those plant mist bottles and a spare plastic bag or newspaper kept handy for dry days could substitute … You’d need a bike rack for the back of the car but that is just a detail.
Not that I would advocate such a NAUGHTY course of action.
@Phil B
Been doing those sort of naughty things since 1980s
😛
Good lad! >};oD