The Prankster visits Leigh Delamere

Following the discovery of the X-Ray camera, The Prankster visited Leigh Delamere to see for himself. He visited twice, once to check the camera, then a second time to get pictures of signage. No doubt he is at risk of getting a ticket for overstaying due to CP Plus's defective technology, but luckily he has plenty of witnesses he visited twice, plus pictures of his vehicle elsewhere.

The exit camera on the eastbound side is indeed obscured by a tree. The branch moves in the wind, so sometimes the camera is not obscured; at other times it is.

Now you see it

Now you don't

The terms and conditions do not appear to be in line with current regulations. The Prankster is reluctant to revisit in case he gets wheelclamped and is forced to pay a £90 release fee.

The signage does not appear to correspond to the signage map produced by CP Plus for POPLA hearings.

Notice the over-sized blobs, designed to give the impression that signage is plentiful. Several blobs are in the middle of the bays, giving the impression that the signage is placed in positions where it will be easily visible.

Here is The Prankster version. Signage is shown 6 times actual size, otherwise it would be hard to spot on the map (just like it is in real life). The two purple lines represent entrance signage.One is sited behind a tree and hard to spot. These are 1 and 3 on the CP Plus map. 1 is not sited correctly on the CP Plus map.

The red lines are the terms and conditions (4 on the CP Plus map). None are in the middle of the bays as shown on the CP Plus map. The green lines are pay by phone instructions (5) and the orange reminder signs (6). 

All signage is facing 90 degrees from the direction of travel, apart from the entrance signs hidden behind trees and the sign at the entrance to the building. many signs are on very high poles and difficult to read. Drivers just using the car park to sleep will therefore never spot the signage even exists. Other drivers have one chance to spot the entrance sign at they enter the building.

Spot the one visible sign facing the driver.

Several areas have no signage at all, which violates BPA Ltd guidelines which state signage should be visible from all parking bay. The entrance signage is not compliant with the required format. It contains far too much information to be read at speed, and the font size, apart from the information that there is 2 hours free parking, is too small. It also contains information not repeated elsewhere.

Google Streetview visited the site in 2010, showing the signage to be essentially unchanged between 2010 and the present day.

The Prankster does not know why CP Plus deliberately deceived POPLA regarding the signage. However, it is a general rule for the disreputable elements of the parking industry that lying is acceptable behavior if it get the result you want. The map they submitted to POPLA was in this case sufficient to deceive the assessor, Nozir Uddin, who stated 'I am satisfied that the terms and conditions of parking would have been visible to the Appellant from the signage on site' and rejected the appeal. 

CP Plus will therefore no doubt be pleased with Ranger Services who submitted the appeal on their behalf.

Happy Parking

The Parking Prankster