This was my response for Popla
"Premier Parking state, “The hatched markings are in place to allow disabled motorists additional space to manoeuvre around the vehicle and are used by motorists on both sides. They do not form part of the marked bay.
By the Appellant parking not wholly within a bay and over these markings, the vehicle was further causing an obstruction.”
No part of my vehicle was on the hatched markings, as evidenced by Premier Parking’s supplied photo. Therefore, my car was neither an obstruction to any other vehicle or to any other wheelchair user.
Premier Parking state, “motorists are given a reasonable grace period to check the terms and conditions and to leave the site before a PCN is issued.”
This is both inaccurate, misleading, and discriminatory. According to the law, it is a consideration period; not a grace period, and because there were no terms and conditions displayed at the disabled parking bays so therefore were no notices for me to consider and thus no contract was entered into. To add further insult, to expect me to leave the site because I had not read a notice that was ultimately not visible from the disable parking bay, is wholly discriminatory against myself as a disabled person.
Premier Parking states, “It is the driver’s responsibility to seek out the terms and conditions and ensure that they understand them, before agreeing to the contract and parking.”
A stated in my response above, there were no terms and conditions at all, that were visible from anywhere near the disabled bay in question. This is against regulations / law, that require such notices to be observable from the disabled bay itself. As such, no terms and conditions could be read or accepted, and thus no contract entered into.
The pictures provided by Premier Parking to illustrate positioning of such notices, are actually from 2017 and 2019, as evidenced by the fact they show Mothercare which closed down over 5 years ago, These photos do not portray the positioning of the signs as they are today. In reality, the nearest notice, from my subsequent research, is half way across the centre of the carpark, as shown by my own photos that were supplied previously, in a location that can easily be missed, is dangerous in the middle of the road and is in no way observable from the disabled car parking bay as legally required as facing opposite way.
For Premier Parking to insist that a disabled person should hunt around the car park for these notices, is both disgusting and discriminatory.
It is actually the responsibility of the operator to ensure that the terms and conditions of parking are visible from a disabled parking space. Premier Parking have quite clearly failed in this regard.
Premier Parking did not respond at all to the fact they have breached the BPA CoP in that the disabled parking bay does not meet expected practice, as well as fail the Equality Act.
They offered no explanation for why they failed to provide the 1200mm of additional hatched space for access for wheelchair users as required by law as well as rear hatchings. If their parking bay had met these guidelines, I would have been able to park within the bay, without my tyre on the yellow line because I would have had ample space to operate my wheelchair to access both sides of the car? However, this was not the case.
Further more, no explanation was given by Premier Parking for why bollardss have been placed on the line of a disabled parking space that should have had 1200mm of space and did not. To place bollards there, and then penalise people for having to position their vehicle accordingly so that doors can be opened and wheelchairs removed, is both ridiculous and discriminatory against wheelchair users.
It also makes it difficult to turn into to park and dangerous.Probably a Health and Safety issue.
I have protected characteristics and have been discriminated against because Premier Parking have treated me less favourably than it treats others, by providing a disabled parking space that does not comply with the requirements of both those stipulated in the guidance in the Equality Act and in the BPA’s own CoP".
