3. "Park with Ease" at RHDR.
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roythebus

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"Park with Ease" at RHDR.
« on: February 22, 2025, 05:03:29 pm »
Living near the Kent Coast, we have the delightful Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway in our locality, a 15" steam Railway in miniature celebrating its centenary in 2026. To celebrate this event, they've just contracted Park With Ease Ltd to manage car parking at their station, parking which was previously free. I know the railway is short of funds, as indeed are most heritage railways but their charges seem to be £2,50 for up to 2 and a half hours with a £60 "fine" for overstay etc.

Do we have any information on how Park with Ease Ltd works? I've not heard of them before. they are using ANPR on entry cameras and pay machines on site to collect the £2.50. I don't have a picture of the T&Cs to post at the moment for our learned members to comment on.
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666

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Re: "Park with Ease" at RHDR.
« Reply #1 on: February 22, 2025, 05:46:05 pm »
Quote from: roythebus on February 22, 2025, 05:03:29 pm
Living near the Kent Coast, we have the delightful Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway in our locality, a 15" steam Railway in miniature celebrating its centenary in 2026. To celebrate this event, they've just contracted Park With Ease Ltd to manage car parking at their station, parking which was previously free. I know the railway is short of funds, as indeed are most heritage railways but their charges seem to be £2,50 for up to 2 and a half hours with a £60 "fine" for overstay etc.

Do we have any information on how Park with Ease Ltd works? I've not heard of them before. they are using ANPR on entry cameras and pay machines on site to collect the £2.50. I don't have a picture of the T&Cs to post at the moment for our learned members to comment on.
For some reason the old phrase "... and repent at leisure" sprang to mind.

But perhaps I was wrong. On their website they say "Park with Ease is the UKs ethical parking management system". That seems to be an oxymoron: it would certainly be interesting to hear of any first hand experience with them.
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andy_foster

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Re: "Park with Ease" at RHDR.
« Reply #2 on: February 22, 2025, 05:54:55 pm »
Apparently they were established in 2012 - which is pre Beavis - which means that they must have lied about their penalty charges for parking on other people's land being a genuine pre-estimate of their loss. So "ethical" in very much the same way that the communist states with the word "Democratic" in their names were democratic.

If you want to know what the small players in the PPC industry are like (beyond the subtle clue in the words PPC industry) try googling their name.
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DWMB2

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Re: "Park with Ease" at RHDR.
« Reply #3 on: February 22, 2025, 06:02:04 pm »
They don't crop up very often, so I don't know if they still do this, but they used to claim that they could "enhance" the quality of ANPR images in order to prove the keeper was the driver if the matter got to court (I've never seen them sue anyone).

Nothing says "ethical" quite like lying in a bid to elicit payment.
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roythebus

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Re: "Park with Ease" at RHDR.
« Reply #4 on: February 22, 2025, 06:20:50 pm »
From their website which hasn't been updated to include the RHDR yet, this gem:

"What happens if I do not pay?
If you do not pay within 48 hours for your parking then the matter will be forwarded to a third party company."

So the RHDR gains sweet FA from it, another comany will no doubt send out the threatograms.
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Lodesman

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Re: "Park with Ease" at RHDR.
« Reply #5 on: February 22, 2025, 08:59:56 pm »
Roy, we live close to the RHDR and the story, when I queried the parking charges, was that local commuters were parking there, sharing a car to a common destination, returning in the late afternoon, picking up their cars and driving home. This reduced the number of spaces available to customers of RHDR.
How true this is I have no idea but I wouldn’t be surprised if it were the case.
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roythebus

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Re: "Park with Ease" at RHDR.
« Reply #6 on: February 22, 2025, 09:22:22 pm »
That surprises me but again it doesn't. there's plenty of free parking in the trading estate alongside New Romney station, a couple of council car parks at Dymchurch and at Hythe. Let's see who whinges first.
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Lodesman

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Re: "Park with Ease" at RHDR.
« Reply #7 on: February 24, 2025, 05:14:39 pm »
Let’s face it Roy, three cars parking for free in the RHDR Hythe car park rather than pay £10.80 a day in the Military Road car park is a no brainier if you all then pile into a fourth car and drive to Ashford/Canterbury for work. Small wonder the spaces get used up in Hythe.
« Last Edit: February 24, 2025, 08:33:31 pm by Lodesman »
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The Slithy Tove

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Re: "Park with Ease" at RHDR.
« Reply #8 on: March 01, 2025, 10:43:34 am »
Park With Ease used to manage the Lake District National Parks* car parks. Of all the private parking schemes, theirs seems to be one of the fairest. ANPR clocks your car coming in. When it's time to go, you enter your reg and it tells you what you owe. And even if you forget/don't have any money or cards, you have up to the end of the following day to pay online. I even "got away" without paying once - it was raining so hard I think the cameras couldn't pick up the car reg. It couldn't find the reg when I typed it in, so I took a gamble and didn't pay. Never got a "fine".

*Previous to Park With Ease, ParkingEye (mis)managed their car parks, I presume there were many complaints. Now LDNP have brought parking back in-house with old-fashioned Pay & Display, so I assume even Park With Ease wasn't good for them.
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DWMB2

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Re: "Park with Ease" at RHDR.
« Reply #9 on: March 01, 2025, 10:57:49 am »
To their credit, allowing payment up until the end of the day is certainly more generous than the opposite end of the scale, with Excel's "pay within 5 minutes of arrival or we'll sue you" approach.
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