I have yet to see a single PCN issued by any unregulated private parking company that does not have at least a single breach of PoFA or the PPSCoP. These companies have had nearly 13 years to get their PCNs worded correctly with regards to PoFA, yet it suits them to continue continue issuing them with the various omissions or errors because the overwhelming majority of recipients are none the wiser of their rights.
The PPSCoP is yet another attempt to protect the industry from the upcoming legislation that, if ever implemented, is going to send a large chunk of these ex-clampers to the wall. The BPA and breakaway IPC are not set up to actually regulate their members. Their primary objective is protection their members fr9m over regulation and to lobby on their behalf.
You only have to look at the directors of these organisations and see that they are nothing but incestuous and are a conflict of interest. The public are a trough of pigswill and these companies have their snouts firmly embedded. The source of easy money that funds these companies is not only endless, mostly free from VAT, so the exchequer, gets a reduced benefit.
With over 40,000 private parking charges issued every day, the sums involved are huge. If these companies had any real motivation to do their jobs properly, you’d expect to see some sort of improvement over time. You don’t.
There are plenty of locations that do not need these firms infesting them. For many of the smaller car parks or residential locations, it is well known within the industry that some of these companies actually set up the locations with their own vehicles parking in such a way as to cause problems and then they approach the landowner/agent with an offer of free installation of ANPR and signs and a promise that their car park problems will vanish overnight. In the meantime, innocent residents or motorists start receiving PCNs, more often than not unlawfully in residential cases, and the nightmare begins.
There are many examples of these parking companies, instead of “managing” these car parks, actually drive away business over time, leaving the hapless landowner wondering what went wrong. To presume that they serve a good purpose when their behaviour has caused parliament to react and have to create new legislation to try and control their prolific abuse of the courts system is evidence enough that these are not companies with the public interest in mind.
Don’t even get me started on the abuse of byelaws and fake penalty notices that can only be explained as extortion. The fact that the BPA and POPLA are complicit says enough about those two organisations show the corruption that is endemic in this industry.
So, yes, I am passionate about the rights of motorists to fight against these corrupt, ex-clampers who are unjustly enriched. That they cannot get the legislation right, either through ignorance or, more likely, because there are enough, what I lake to call low-hanging fruit on the gullible tree, out there who have no idea of their rights or that they are being conned, to make it worthwhile for them to continue feeding on this gravy train.
What we see here and over on MSE are a minute fraction of the abuse. Yes, there will be plenty of PCN recipients that think they’ve been caught banged to rights and simply pay up at the “mugs discount” and get on with their lives. However, you only have to spend a little time reading the cases we have on here to see that there is very little “management” of car parking and a whole lot more of abuse and corruption.
I’m not sure how many of these cases that we’ve seen go to court over the last year or so actually reach a hearing and been lost by the defendant. What we do know is that the majority of those that do end up as a claim, never get heard in front of a judge.
So, whilst I may be passionate about these issues and have no fear of exposing my utter contempt for these bottom-dwelling vermin, to date, I have not had a single case that has made it all the way to court and lose. I will continue to campaign on behalf of anyone who has received a PCN from a company that cannot get its act together for what ever reason reason and do so lawfully.
If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck...
