Probably a straightforward parking thread

[matt100]

Well my day just took a turn!

I just popped into the local waitrose and came back out to find a parking ticket on my windscreen, I've just moved to the area and it turns out the car park attached to waitrose isn't all their car park so I've inadvertently parked in a private car park for all of 7 minutes and managed to get a ticket.

This is the car park, the space I was in is actually obscured by the waitrose opening hours sign! Its the only entrance to Waitrose, there are no offices nearby and the car park was basically empty, I thought I was doing everyone a favour by not driving round in circles to try and park by the door the entrance is just to the right of the bit that has a second storey, I know it looks like thats miles from the door but it really isn't.

Basically the spaces on the left are private, yes there are signs which I guess I assumed were the standard "this car park is operated by blah blah and 2 hours max etc", turns out they're signs that say that its private land. Frankly I'm a bit surprised waitrose either don't put their sign further in/have a barrier to make it more obvious where one car park starts and the other ends, I must have been about 4m from being in a waitrose space.

here's a pic!

It's Britannia parking and I read that they're relatively easy to appeal reading through the MSE forum..

Just wondering if anyone had any thoughts/experience appealing against this sort of thing? Any more sites with easy instructions on what to do? I find MSE a bit like XDA, the info is there but they do love making it acronymy and difficult to follow and my attention span is super low

I gather ignoring it is no longer the thing to do although I should ignore it until I get something through the post?

So irritating! For all the fuss I'm vaguely tempted to pay although that sort of attitude is the thing that makes this a business worth having I guess.

Yarg! So annoyed!

 

[Sasso]

ay, may as well appeal it. worst case they say no and you pay the lesser fine and know better in future

bit silly though and I probably would have done exactly the same thing. you're driving into a carpark... next to waitrose, with a waitrose T&C board and opening hours listed at the entrance. you'd think it's a pretty safe assumption that some spaces won't be offlimits (minus the usual disable/family parking) and belong to a different company or what ever!

like if they put big red X's on those spaces it would make people think twice before parking in them... but then.... how can they catch people out to make zee monies

also the fact you were there for only 7 mins... granted it doesn't make it right to park somewhere you shouldn't.... but even council ticketers(?) have to wait 10 mins supposedly they must have literally seen you park up and write the ticket while walking out the door. how did they even do it so fast?! xD

good luck with the appeal anyways

 

[ttaskmaster]

Get in touch with your local Trading Standards (they have a free advice line) - They regularly go out after the parking people, especially clampers.
TS will check out every single aspect for you, right down to the wording of the signage and if there's anything amiss, it could be grounds for refusal.

Worst that can (legally) happen is you wait for something in the post, find out you did make a mistake and must now pay for it.
Legally questionably, you may get the postal notice and find all manner of 'hidden charges', but again TS will be on your side with this.

 

[matt100]

You know what, reading the MSE threads it sounds like you can get off pretty much any PPC company charge, either way I'll be fighting it just because I'm offended!

There's absolutely nothing stopping them making it much clearer that those spaces are private. If its such a problem they need a warden (bearing in mind its about 12 spaces miles rom anything else I can imagine requires a private service so they must be on site or close) then they could help themselves with a barrier or painting the spaces etc.

I've been living in flats for years so I'm pretty well tuned into what's a private space and what the rules are so I definitely wouldn't do something like this unless it was pretty well hidden.

So screw them, they've picked on the wrong guy!

And I'm really surprised at waitrose actually.. again I would have thought it was in there interests to have that made more clear, it's maidenhead so there's tons of very well heeled, very fighty, very old and arguably perhaps less switched on to the risks people shopping there, they're got to have a stream of admirals and ladys shouting at them for getting a ticket on their bentley!

 

[Spartacus]

If it's a private parking company arnt they only allowed to charge you for any losses incurred? I'm pretty sure they can't fine you. So how much money did they lose by you parking there for 7 minutes? What's their parking rate per hour etc.