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Wednesday 7 May 2014

ParkingEye drop case. Breightmet Street signage does not give grounds for claim

[This post appeared earlier but mysteriously disappeared. The Prankster does not know why but he may have accidentally deleted it with a random click while trying to change his mouse. Apologies for any comments which are now lost. Edit 2. Yippee, comments are back too]

The ParkingEye sign-writers only have one task; to write signs clearly stating the terms and conditions of parking. Sadly for ParkingEye, their skills do not seem to be up to the task.

A picture tells a thousand words (or perhaps around 200 - the Prankster does not want ParkingEye to send Hill Dickinson after him for stating their signs have more words than they actually do)


In a recent court case involving a motorist parking in this car park, Breightmet Street, ParkingEye were suing the motorist for overstaying the time purchased. However, this was not a parking event liable for £100; only parking outside of bays or in blue badge bays without a blue badge are liable to a parking charge according to the signage.

When the Prankster advised the motorist to point this out to ParkingEye, the charge was quickly dropped.

The moral is, if you get a parking charge, always check the wording of the signage carefully. Significant numbers of court cases have been lost or dropped by ParkingEye because the signage was deficient.

Happy Parking

The Parking Prankster

14 comments:

  1. Great sign: I think you don't need to buy one of those £120 season tickets as there is no charge for exceeding the 10 hour maximum so you might as well pay £3.80 and park there until the end of time.

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  2. The Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 say:
    Section 7.

    (2) If there is doubt about the meaning of a written term, the interpretation which is most favourable to the consumer shall prevail but this rule shall not apply in proceedings brought under regulation 12 i.e. Injunctions to prevent continued use of unfair terms.

    So watch the signage carefully and photograph it!!!!

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  3. I was very amused at PE's observation that courts are working through a backlog, I wonder if that might have anything to do with the 1000s of cases they bring every month?!

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  4. Like Mr Mustard states, pay £3.80 and park there for as long as you want. The sign openly admits that there is no charge beyond 10 hours for doing so. Only that maximum parking is 10 hours. No remedy for parking beyond that.

    Out of interest, no one has every mention whether you need planning permission to erect a sign on private property where access is granted to the public?

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  5. Another PE signage error is the one that says "blue-badge holders only in marked bays" . Does that mean that BB holders can only park in those bays and nowhere else?

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  6. You could argue an ambiguity on the tariffs themselves. All tariffs apply 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, so presumably 90p buys you a 24/7 tariff as much as £3.80. I am not clear what less than an hour applies to... is it also a dogging site?

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  7. prankster...do you have update on you Hill Dickinson letter/case??

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    Replies
    1. Many letters have been sent to Hill Dickenson asking for a crime reference, but there have been no replies. As Hill Dickenson have been warned that all their letters may be published on the blog, perhaps they have decided to shun the limelight

      Delete
    2. Perhaps a complaint to the SRA about their possibly misleading letter might spur them on?

      Still, it's nice to know that every time you write to them it costs PE money.

      Delete
  8. Replies
    1. They seek him here, they seek him there,
      Hill Dickinson seek him everywhere.
      Can they gag him? Who can tell,
      That damned elusive, Prankster-nel

      Delete
  9. The parking tariff does not give carte blanche to park forever for your £3.80 as it clearly states 'Maximum stay of 10 hours'. After that time the motorist would be in breach of the contract for parking & liable to damages to the operator. These would of course need to be a Genuine Pre-Estimate of Loss which is as per the board up to £3.80 for 10 hours overstay.

    ReplyDelete