Parking Ticket

My sister, who lives in London, told me that she was fined recently. Apparently their photo showed her illegally parked in Residents Only Street. Actually the photo shows her parked legally outside her own house in Residents Only Road. She is still trying to sort it out.

I parked in a food store car park. I was 5 minutes over. I received numerous letters demanding £30. I ignored them all including one threatening court action.The letters eventually stopped coming. I believe we only have to pay fines issued by Police or Local Authorities. I live in Scotland. Fortunately no hospital parking charges in my area.

As I mentioned earlier in the year, I am planning a holiday in the UK this year (will be coming in September). We shall be driving around Northumberland, the Lake District. Liverpool, Manchester. Should I download an app for parking or can one always use a credit card even when the carpark is linked to the app?

And while I'm at it, have there been any changes in the bank notes I should know about? The time before last when I was there, none of my £20 notes were accepted because they had become obsolete while I'd been away (due to COVID, I hadn't been over for more than a year.) I was last over in July 2023 and have a couple of £20 notes in my purse.

We got a parking fine without realising we had done anything wrong!

Back story to it, we were having a holiday and desperately needed to do a laundry wash. We found DIY laundry machines outside Londis in Wales so parked up and waited in the car until our laundry was done. We didn't see any notices in the car park, on a cursory glance. But there must have been one - because of the ticket. So we coughed up the £60. It turned out to be a very expensive laundry session! 😵‍💫

While my mum was dying in hospital, I drove in at 6am and parked in a nearby car park attached to a church. I paid for the maximum amount of time allowed which if I recollect was six hours. Around the time the ticket would have run out, mums breathing changed and we knew she didn’t have long. Needless to say I didn’t care a jot about a parking fine at that point. She slipped away an hour later and it was another couple of hours before my siblings and I left the hospital. My car was just being clamped as I reached it. I told the clamper my situation and he was respectful and sympathetic but said I’d have to appeal. After the funeral a week later I wrote a letter of appeal - they demanded to see a death cert which I did supply. And then they refused the appeal. Discretion at its best, huh!!

JackyB, you'd be better off starting a new thread with your question. People rarely seem to read the posts except for the OP!

They're heartless bullies, Mamo.

I'm sorry about your Mum

Let’s hope the next government get rid of the parking —gangsters— companies. My ex husband typed one digit of his reg incorrectly and was pursued relentlessly despite the pictures showing his car with one letter different. They are like modern bandits.

Macgran43

I parked in a food store car park. I was 5 minutes over. I received numerous letters demanding £30. I ignored them all including one threatening court action.The letters eventually stopped coming. I believe we only have to pay fines issued by Police or Local Authorities. I live in Scotland. Fortunately no hospital parking charges in my area.

I would not follow the insinuated advice in this post. I had a parking ticket for parking with a Blue Badge outside our city library, presuming I had 3 hours as usual. There was a tiny notice apparently saying 2 hours only including Blue Badge holders. I sent a letter and apologised and asked for the fine to be cancelled as it was rather unusually in this particular street. They say they sent me an email to say I still had to pay within 30 days, I never got it, always check my junk box daily. Next thing I had letters from the Debt collectors, one a week for 3 weeks when I rang them they reduced the fine which by then was over £300 but I still ended up paying £150 to get them off my back. They persist until you give in, I can assure you. It is really threatening and frightening.

JackyB

As I mentioned earlier in the year, I am planning a holiday in the UK this year (will be coming in September). We shall be driving around Northumberland, the Lake District. Liverpool, Manchester. Should I download an app for parking or can one always use a credit card even when the carpark is linked to the app?

And while I'm at it, have there been any changes in the bank notes I should know about? The time before last when I was there, none of my £20 notes were accepted because they had become obsolete while I'd been away (due to COVID, I hadn't been over for more than a year.) I was last over in July 2023 and have a couple of £20 notes in my purse.

I think your £20 notes will be fine.

It's a bit confusing, but the Bank of England website says that there is no time limit on exchanging old bank notes, though unless you are paying them into a bank account, in which case most High Street banks will take them, you have to take or send them to the BoE for the exchange

www.bankofengland.co.uk/banknotes/exchanging-old-banknotes

After all, the bank note is a 'promissory note', it says on it that the BoE (which issues them) 'promises to pay the bearer on demand the sum of £x'. It is supposed to fulfill that promise, however old the note is 😁

I wonder if they'd fulfil that promise if someone turned up with a 100 year old bank note

Beware of the RINGO app! Whenever I go to the shops in the local town I always park in the same car park and use the Ringo app. Never park anywhere else and the app always automatically comes up with the details of that particular carpark. Except... got back to car one day and had ticket, rang up about it and it appeared I'd paid to park in a completely different carpark that I'd never heard of on the other side of the town. I was told that because it was a first offence it would probably be OK but I had to write in with explanation. I did this and had a letter rapping my knuckles but telling me the fine would be rescinded but only on this occasion and not again .

I squeezed my car into the last space in a full car park and came back from shopping to find I had a ticket for not parking in the marked space. Well, the car next to me had overlapped into 'my' marked space, but it had gone when I came back, so no chance of an appeal 😥

It's one to watch for, though. Make sure you park between the lines...

Brighton and hove have now changed to pay by phone only.

So I have tried on and off to download an app and pay successfully during the past few months.

I have never been successful - I simply don’t understand what I’m doing wrong! But it makes life impossible!

This happened to my husband in a Parking Eye carpark in Weymouth. We appealed on receiving the fine. Instead the amount to pay rose. I then wrote to Weymouth Borough Council asking if they would really penalise tourists who are dyslexic or had a stroke when letters and numbers are a problem. The cameras are there and the parking company could easily match up the car with the almost registration number. The fine was cancelled.

They’re all robbers - at least Duck Turpin had the grace to wear a mask!!

Duck!!!! I’ve just laughed at myself!

Dick, of course, Dick.

It is not a fine - only the council or police can issue these. It is a charge. What happens is the landowner enters into a deal with the car parking company whereby the latter takes over the running of the car park paying a fee to the landowner. The car park company then set up cameras on the entrance and exit which use automatic number plate recognition to record when you entered and when you left the car park and if you paid. So they charge you to park. If you don’t pay it is a civil matter not a criminal offence. They then ask you to pay a penalty having obtained your details from DVLA Swansea provided they belong to an approved car parking group.

If you don’t pay the penalty they may threaten you with court action but only 10% of these are successfully so they are more than likely to hand your case over to a debt collection agency who can be intimidating. The thing to remember is that such an agency cannot send the bailiff round without a court order which will be difficult if not impossible to obtain as you don’t owe the debt collecting agency anything. It is only the parking company that you owe and they will need to pursue it themselves.

Tough luck.

The problem with the one I mentioned 25Avalon is that we can't pay, there is no option to do that any more; there is no charge but the time limit is judt one hour.
Not everyone can do their shopping in one hour.

There is number plate recognition.

Any time after the hour, even five or ten minutes, means a fine is issued even to Blue Badge holders.

Motorists are happy to pay a fee for eg two hours.

More and more places are leasing out their car parks to these companies who operate in this way. They are rogues and the practice should be stopped.

Yes the freeman are strict no matter what time you go. Terrible really it is.

I regularly park in a car park at our local village hall. It is free for 2 hours but if you are actually going in the hall and will be longer you use a terminal which allows you unlimited stay that day. I try to remember to enter my reg each time even though my vissits are usually about 2 hours in case I get held up. When I put my mumber in it tells me the make ,model and colour of car so I know I've registered the right car. If all such terminals had such a system it would avoid this kind of mistake. Hoping you manage to sort t out. If that system is not in place you won't know unless you get a ticket by which time it could be too late. Good luck!

We lease our football car park out. We make sure to tell people they must pay within 15 minutes or they will get a fine. Some people still get caught out however because they think they pay when they leave although there are signs everywhere and we’ve told them. Also occasionally people put the ar registration number in wrongly. We sell a year’s pass for a tenner but people forget to get the system updated when they change cars. Provided they tell us within 36 hours we can get it altered in time. Waiting till the charge arrives two weeks later is usually too late although we do have 3 lives we can use in a month. So do speak to the car park owner. They may be able to help. Go to POPLA - I know someone who got off after putting his registration in the wrong way round. Don’t let debt collectors intimidate or harass you into paying - they do this because they have no power except by frightening you.

Once I overstayed in a car park that had previously been free. Parking Eye sent me a fee which I ignored as the car was registered to the company and they did not know who the driver was. I had several unpleasant letters which I threw in the bin and did not acknowledge. Then they threatened court action but nothing happened. Then the debt collectors started writing. All ignored. This went on for about 3 years before they gave up.

On the positive side. We had a vehicle stolen from the car park. The police were able to find out the exact time it left the car park from the parking company so could then check street cctvs checking the route the stolen car took. Still didn’t get it back though.

It is correct that only the police and local authorities can fine people. I have had 2 parking tickets one due to a small mistake when entering car registration, and another when I failed to notice some small print. I ignored both of them, yes I had letters from debt collecting agencies for a couple of years, but eventually they stopped. If an agency DID take you to court, as they threaten, the judge would look at how disproportionate the fine is for a couple of minutes use of their land and would dismiss it. It's only peoples fear that lets these greedy companies get away with it. Stand up to them.

@Jackyb most car parks in Northumberland use a time clock type ticket available from machines and local businesses for £1. You set the wheel for the time you arrive. The same wheel can be used throughout the county, so you only need to buy one. You also have to check the notices as to how long you are allowed. Some car parks are confusing (Wentworth in Hexham!) because the lines separating the car spaces are different colours which correspond to how long you can stay (shorter times nearer the supermarket have red lines for example)
Then there are a few private car parks where there are pay and display rules- but they are all run by different companies with different apps and regulations. (Watch out for the former M&S one in Hexham run by Hozar they show no mercy, lots of locals have had fines when they’ve pay by card - all quickly sorted IF they have kept the parking ticket, but who does that? )
Hope you have a great trip- it’s an amazing, varied and very large county. So much to see and do.