ParkingEye blunder-team install ANPR on a car park not surrounded with barriers

ParkingEye's blundering sales team sold an ANPR system for a car park which was not totally surrounded by barriers. Their blundering installation team then installed ANPR on the one official exit wihout noticing the gaping holes not covered by camera. Finally, their blundering legal team tried to enforce charges for motorists who had not parked there, but merely 'passed through'.

The car park no longer exists. Possibly this is not because anyone at ParkingEye noticed what buffoons they were; more likely (although this is not confirmed) this is because the landowner informed the leaseholder they did not have permission under the lease to use the land as a car park. Preston council confirmed there never was any planning permission to use the site as a pay and display car park.

The car park is Springfield Road in Preston.

The probable car park boundaries are shown here.

The big problem the ParkingEye engineers seem to have missed is here.

As everyone but ParkingEye can easily see, there is no barrier to stop cars driving onto the grass. Equally, there is no barrier to stop cars driving onto the one-space parking area owned by the Wellfield pub.

One unlucky motorist fell foul of this when DJ-ing at the pub. They got a parking charge even though they parked in the pub car-park. The ParkingEye photograph even shows this, capturing the vehicle as they turned into the pub car park.

Despite the evidence of their own eyes, and the '19 separate steps of checking and auditing by ParkingEye personnel' nobody seems to have picked this up.

Rachel Ledson , Head of Legal, also failed to pick this up during her careful scrutiny of the case prior to filing legal action.

Despite the defendant pointing out the error of their ways, ParkingEye's legal team declined to cancel the claim, stating 'There is no evidence to support the defendant's claim they did not park in this car park.' and 'ParkingEye ensure that the landowner has all the relevant planning permission before we install ANPR cameras on site.'

It was only when The Prankster intervened that ParkingEye finally backed down. Perhaps the 8 witness statements from the landlord, waitresses and customers also helped. Perhaps it was the photographs, maps, or land registry plans. Perhaps the threat to report Rachel Ledson to the Solicitor's Regulatory Authority for continuing to pursue a case when there was no reasonable cause of action also contributed. Who knows.

Sadly this is not an isolated case and The Prankster is aware of several other ParkingEye car parks where the ANPR cameras do not cover all potential entrances and exits. If you are aware of such an ANPR controlled car park run by any parking company, please contact the Prankster so he can add it to his files.

You should also consider reporting the operator to the British Parking Association Limited aos@britishparking.co.uk for running and ANPR controlled car park where not all entrances and exists are covered by camera.

Happy Parking

The Parking Prankster