Bradfield Road car park (Hillsborough) - charges and "fines"

[sgtkate]

It's from highview parking not sheffield city council and its a charge notice

 

Ok, then it's not a fine. It's an invoice. The difference is important. There is an excellent guide here on what to do now:

 

http://www.parkingcowboys.co.uk/parking-tickets/

 

Basically:

 

- Did you get a letter in the post or was it a ticket on the windscreen? If it was a ticket on the windscreen, do NOTHING at this stage until you receive a letter. Some of the car park operators do not have the legal right to retrieve your details so have no means of contacting you or sending you an invoice. If you right to them then they get your details so do NOT send them anything until you get a formal letter sent to your address.

 

- Once the letter arrives or now if you already have a letter, formally appeal to the parking company stating something along the lines of 'you used the businesses that the car park serves, spending x amount of money and if this ticket stands you will no longer use those shops etc.' Could try contacting the shops too and see if they can cancel the ticket. Say if the ticket is not cancelled that you wish to review the case to the IAS or POPLA and demand the case reference number.

 

- If they refuse to cancel at this stage then use some or all of the following when it goes to the appeals court:

 

•Did you see the signage?

•Was the signage clear (e.g. legible, written in plain English)?

•Were you the driver?

•Were the markings clear?

•Were the parking rules reasonable?

•Is the amount be requested reasonable for the contravention?

•Were you entitled to park in the disabled bay?

•Do you own the parking space?

•Does the parking company have the right to offer parking?

 

- If the appeals service refuse then you still don't need to pay unless the parking service decide to actually take it to court. Few do but if they do it is important that you prepare a case properly and it may be worth getting proper legal advice at that point.

 

There is a company (I have no connections with them nor have ever used them so cannot vouch for them in anyway. Do your research first!) who claim to have a very good success rate in getting tickets cancelled http://www.parkingcowboys.co.uk/appeal-service/

 

Hope that helps.

[carosio]

some info here:

 

http://www.parkingcowboys.co.uk/highview-parking/

 

Highway are members of the BPA which specifies grace periods for people to leave the park after the time allotted and this appears to be 10mins:

 

13 Grace periods

13.1 Your approach to parking management must allow a

driver who enters your car park but decides not to park,

to leave the car park within a reasonable period without

having their vehicle issued with a parking charge notice.

13.2 You should allow the driver a reasonable ‘grace period’

in which to decide if they are going to stay or go. If the

driver is on your land without permission you should still

allow them a grace period to read your signs and leave

before you take enforcement action.

13.3 You should be prepared to tell us the specific grace

period at a site if our compliance team or our agents ask

what it is.

13.4 You should allow the driver a reasonable period to leave

the private car park after the parking contract has ended, before you take enforcement action.