Parking Eye v Disabled Parker

[sean110869]

Below is a copy of a letter I plan to send to Parking Eye in defence of a "letter before action" claim recently received does anyone suggest I add anything else to the letter.

 

Further to your letter to my daughter, **edit out personal details** , addressed to my property I wish to raise the following points prior to any proposed county court action;

 

1) The judgment in Beavis v Parking Eye was successful based upon commercial justification (the fact that without such charges no parking spaces would be available) and that the judges felt the charge made by yourselves was not unconscionable and extravagant as the sums involved where similar to the charges enforced by local authorities.

 

2) Your ticket was issued as she parked on double yellow lines and not for a “breach” of the parking time limit at this time.

 

3) Daughter parked on double yellow lines within the car park having displayed my son’s badge correctly as per the guidelines laid down by the Blue Badge Parking Scheme, as there were no spaces available. There are no signs in the car park in particular on the disabled bays nor any yellow lines on the side of the kerb indicating such actions are not allowed.

 

4) Clearly, commercial justification therefore for such a charge is not applicable as your company and the landowner had failed to ensure any disabled spaces where available.

 

I would say there is a case to argue that as per the Asda Trafford Centre there is a need to ensure there is an attendant at these premises who prevents anyone abusing the disabled parking system by parking in these spaces when not entitled to.

 

I would say failure to provide such a person could be construed as a breach of the Equality Act 2010 as such a step in such a popular location as a shopping centre is not unreasonable.

 

5) I assume the Asda as this location is your primary client, if not, please forward the contact address for your client so I can get their opinion on these possible breaches of the Equality Act 2010 and the way their disabled customers are treated.

 

6) The BSI British Standards, "Code of Practice for the design of buildings and their approaches to meet the needs of disabled people", recommends that commercial premises with designated off-street parking have one space for every employee who is a disabled motorist, plus 5% of the total capacity for visiting motorists and a further 4% should be enlarged standard spaces. Although unsure of the exact number of parking spaces I can tell you for sure that this car park does not meet the requirements outlined above and therefore is in possible breach of the Equality Act 2010 and the duty within it to ensure reasonable steps are taken for a disabled person to have access to the property. The BSI standards have been accepted in previous cases as persuasive and a good reference point for a Court as to what is reasonable provision.

 

7) I did challenge the ticket back in September 2013, where I simply forwarded a copy of our son’s Blue Badge and a letter outlining the points made in section 3 of this letter and awaited your comments, you chose to ignore this letter and after hearing nothing from you we assumed our defence had been accepted.

 

8) The next time we heard from you was in September 2014, a year later. Naively I thought as it has been a year that perhaps your company trawls through old cases such as my Daughter's in the hope that people pay as they have forgotten the facts, lost any evidence to mount a defence or simply do not want any more hassle and chose to ignore this letter.

 

I felt it was a form of harassment and as I had evidence to prove I had mounted a challenge to this claim back in 2013 was confident I could fight any further action. I find it interesting that again we hear nothing from you for eight months and only hear from you now, as you have been successful in your action against Mr.Beavis.

 

9) As already stated the judges in Beavis v Parking Eye felt your charge was not unconscionable and extravagant as the sums involved where similar to the charges enforced by local authorities. Using the same argument means that in my Daughter's case no charge should be levied, as local authorities do not enforce time limits on Blue Badge Holders nor issue fines to them unless they have breached the terms of the Blue Badge Scheme, i.e. parked in a restricted area. As this did not occur then a local authority would not issue a fine.

Attached is a copy of my son’s disability badge, which as you see had been in force for some time.

 

Amazing how brave they get now a precedent may have been set roll on the supreme court date.

Edited May 27, 2015 by dx100uk

[citizenB]

For the purpose of the forum, I have edited out your daughter's name.

[sean110869]

ok thank you

[citizenB]

[SabreSheep]

1) The judgment in Beavis v parking eye was successful based upon commercial justification (the fact that without such charges no parking spaces would be available) and that the judges felt the charge made by yourselves was not unconscionable and extravagant as the sums involved where similar to the charges enforced by local authorities.

 

this is going to appeal, you may not even have to mention it

[sean110869]

I mention the Beavis case as Parking Eye do so on their paperwork as part of their scaremongering tactics to make people pay as if the decision is final and has set a precedent. One of the reasons for the post is to highlight just how devious these people are.

 

Thank you Sabre Sheep for your reply.

[i hate bailiffs]

I had a letter before county court claim end of last year I am still waiting

They like issuing court papers but they do not always follow through with it

[i hate bailiffs]

Disabled badges are for the highway or council carparks

Any road markings on private land mean nothing

 

You mention asda what have they said about this? Time to complain

[ericsbrother]

Get them to give you a long list of the adjustments they have made to aid parking under the Equalities Act and ask them to explain where and how they are better than the Road Traffic Act