Parking Notice - Brookwood Railway Station - CP Plus Ltd

[Zangy]

Hi all, please help!

 

I returned back to my car to see a horrible yellow "Parking Notice Enclosed" stuck to my windscreen.

 

It seems I have been issued an £80 charge with a reason code 03 - which looks like it says "Not displaying a Valid Pay and Display Ticket"

 

In my windscreen, highly visible was the £6 parking ticket I had bought this morning.

 

The description bit of the ticket says hand written "No Valid Season Holder's Ticket on Display". When I looked at where I had neatly parked it seems I may have parked in the "season holders" section of the car park because I arrived very early in the morning and naturally parked in the closest available and free spot. I am not a season ticket holder.

 

The paint on the ground that tells you that you've parked in a season holders spot is written in fading white paint about 5 metres up the road from where I parked and ealy in the morning its not exactly visible even if you were looking out for it!

 

The ticket was issued by CP Plus Limited - looks like a private company ticket.

 

It seems particularly nasty and unfair to issue a ticket for what appears to me to be the most minor of infringements, if it can even be called that. It is not as if I didn't actually pay for the full price ticket, or didn't park properly! I have never been warned or told in any way this is a penalty before.

 

What do I do? Should I just hand over the money? please help as I'm pretty concerned

 

Thanks

Andy

 

p.s. it says I should respond within 7 days to appeal?

Edited March 16, 2010 by Zangy

[kiptower]

firstly its not a PARKING TICKET

 

its a [problem] invoice

 

IGNORE it

 

they are not going to anything more than send you stupid letter

 

have a read of the many posts regarding PRIVATE PARKING Co's

 

they sit back and have a chuckle to your self about their feeble efforts

[Zangy]

Are you sure? It really looks official? I so want to believe you!!!

[crem]

Are you sure? It really looks official? I so want to believe you!!!

 

of course it does! If it didn't look official how can they expect anyone to fall for their [problem]?:grin:

[diskmandave]

Is it a

 

• Penalty Charge Notice
  
• Fixed Penalty Notice
  
• Parking Charge Notice
  

???

[letshelp]

Check out the numerous other threads about Private Parking Companies and how to deal with them. The advice you have been given is good, follow it.

regards

[diskmandave]

It's on a railway station, is it issued under the Railways Bylaw ?

[Zangy]

It says "Parking Charge Notice".

 

It is on a railway car park - and the notice ticket says "In Accordance with the conditions of contract relating to parking as detailed on the signs"

 

It says reason code 3 which just says "not displaying a valid pay and display ticket". I guess they are arguing it was not valid as it wasnt a "season ticket" holders parking ticket - just one I bought from the machine.

 

Just seems so harsh...

[kiptower]

firstly there is no such thing as a legal / official "Parking Charge Notice"

 

all part of the [problem]

 

3 simple rules to follow WHEN THEY WRITE TO YOU using various titles , pre-court . plasitc solicitors , all claiming they MAY do or will recomend that legal action is about to take place

 

1) IGNORE

 

2) IGNORE SOME MORE

 

3) GOTO 1

[Zangy]

Ok - although I am sick with worry about this, I cannot and will not pay £80 for simply parking in a badly marked "season ticket holders only" parking bay when I have actually paid the parking fee and displayed the ticket correctly. Its so wrong for them to do that.

 

Can I keep you guys updated for when the letters eventually arrive? Just so I get some re-assurance I should ignore them. ARE YOU GUYS CERTAIN I SHOULD IGNORE THIS?

[kiptower]

Zangy

 

thats how the [problem] works, they know many people do get worried about it

 

take a bit of time to read about the [problem] NCP use one of the biggest to run this on railway stations and the never do court

 

whoever sends you letters have no more power than your local dustman / postman etc, infact the postman is one of the few people that have a right to come to your door on behalf of royal mail

 

they can say anything in a letter , but doing it is another thing, they have one intention , to get you to pay by scare tactics, if they really could do anything the county courts would be full of PPC tickets, but they cant in reality they can only sue for their loss which in most cases is less than £2 , and that would never get to court

 

doorstep collecion threats, is hogwash , if on the rare occasion ( and it is very very rare ) they turned up, yuo have ervery right to tell them to foxtrot oscar, they have legal rights @ your doorstep , and the same applied to the toothless DCA's

[Zangy]

Thanks kiptower and the rest of you all - especially for responding so quick and putting my mind at ease. I hugely appreciate it and feel more confident to ignore the notice now.

 

I'll keep you guys updated in the hope that anyone else who comes across this thread will hopefully see that the outcome is as predicted - i.e. nothing will come of it.

 

a more relieved and slightly less nervous poor blighty!

[kiptower]

glad we have been of help to you

 

when they send their toilet paper file it under rubbish and have a chuckle to yourself, that its getting to then that your not responding

 

one thing you can do is forward the information to all your family / friends workmates etc , they more that know the more the [problematic] loose

 

 

like cooking check this out

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/bear-garden/218990-cooking-halogen-cookers.html

[Zangy]

you have to laugh - this is on CP Plus' website:

 

"When it comes to parking enforcement issues, we emphasise the positive. We prefer to work through encouragement and prevention, identifying parking abusers and persuading them through a range of strategies not to re-offend, rather than primarily focusing on punishment and penalties."

 

Utter rubbish - never had anything from them before ever.... what a load of sh1t

[kiptower]

And just how would they do this "identifying parking abusers and persuading them through a range of strategies not to re-offend"

 

take them round the back of the building and give them a kicking

 

in the first place they have no legal rights to do anything

 

more twaddle from the PLANET PERKY

[lamma]

"re-offend" what are they smoking.

[Zangy]

Im back to being worried again (sorry). i can't help but read more and more about railyway bye-laws etc...

 

see this thread;

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/parking-traffic-offences/207364-private-parking-fine-i-2.html

 

seems like there was not a conclusion drawn....

 

Does someone DEFINITIVELY have a view on tickets issued at railyway stations?

 

[lamma]

yours is a PPC 'scamvoice'

[asmodeus]

The ridicilous amount charged shows that it is a [problem] invoice

 

Ignore

 

You will receive reminders increasing in the amount charged - IGNORE

 

you will then receive letters from their debt collectors - IGNORE

 

you will then receive letters from their solicitors - IGNORE

 

you may receive a phonecall from the solicitors - IGNORE

 

If uncertain of any of the above proceedures try IGNORE

 

The Debt Collectors and Solicitors are the PPC in its many disguises trying to frighten and bully you into the paying. Only way to deal with bullies is to stand up to them or IGNORE them

 

If still uncertain then read through the various threads and you will see that IGNORE works well - have used it on several occasions and have invited the PPC's concerned to take the matter to court however they seem reluctant to take this step probably because they know they would loose and it would cost them money

[NobbyD]

The view I have taken is absolute worse case is a visit to the civil court with a judgement to pay the parking notice.....in other words no worse off and the PPC has had to go through a great deal of time and cost - and probably more cost than the value of the payment received!

[pin1onu]

Im back to being worried again (sorry). i can't help but read more and more about railyway bye-laws etc...

 

see this thread;

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/parking-traffic-offences/207364-private-parking-fine-i-2.html

It is almost certainly an invoice. Do the signs mention the rail byelaws? Does the invoice? Other key terms to look for are Penalty Charge Notice, Excess Charge Notice or Fixed Penalty Notice. If they don't contain these terms then I would say that you are looking at a private parking company invoice. If they do it might indicate legitimacy but be warned that some PPC's use these terms (unlawfully IMO) in an attempt to appear legitimate when they are not.

 

If you are really worried you could contact the car park owners (usually Network Rail) and ask if CP Plus are acting as their agent?

 

A couple of other things if they are enforcing under the byelaws then you go to magistrates court as this is technically a criminal offense (albeit a minor one). The fine would be paid to the court and the PPC would receive sweet FA. As PPC's want the dosh they seek redress via invoices and contract law. This matters are in the settled in the county court (small claims) if it ever gets that far.

 

I don't ever recall a case of CP Plus doing court on this forum. They are definitely "court shy" because their invoices are dodgy on a number of grounds. The model for PPC's rely on people not knowing the that the invoices are dodgy and blindly paying up.

[Zangy]

It is almost certainly an invoice. Do the signs mention the rail byelaws? Does the invoice?

 

No mention of rail byelaws on the penalty notice.

 

I have to say, I have been on this forum for the last three days learning an awful lot since I got the PCN. I would probably have paid the fine if it was a reasonable sum. £15, 20 even £25. But £80!!! It was probably the size of the "fine" that stopped me in my tracks because it was in my view pure extortion.

 

I also had a look at some screenshots that other victims had put on the web from CP Plus. Looks like last year their standard penalty charge was £50 so they have increased the standard fine by £30 (approx 60% inflation rate in a year?!).

 

Does the government seriously not want to get involved to stop this practice?

[letshelp]

I also had a look at some screenshots that other victims had put on the web from CP Plus. Looks like last year their standard penalty charge was £50 so they have increased the standard fine by £30 (approx 60% inflation rate in a year?!).

 

Takings are seriously down due to forums such as this, so they need to up the bill to the mugs that actually pay.

 

Does the government seriously not want to get involved to stop this practice?

 

Do you really want the Government to get involved? They would only make a bad situation worse, look at the hash they made of clamping.

 

regards

[Zangy]

I've managed to now get a photo of the sign in the car park and it does mention railway byelaws. Does this make a difference? Should I pay this?

 

the pcn does NOT mention railway byelaws specifically, but it does say subject to the sign in thhe car park which does.

[crem]

does the ticket mention county court or magistrates court if they pursue you through legal channels?