Will Hurley and John Davies member reaches new low

Will Hurley and John Davies run the Independent Parking Committee. Their members are essentially the bottom feeders of the industry, using dodgy tactics and pushing the envelope of what is and is not allowable. Recently for instance, some of their members stopped allowing vehicle keepers to appeal either the notice to driver or the notice to keeper. This is ironic since their appeals service, the Independent Appeals Service, fits all the criteria for a kangaroo court and finds increasingly desperate ways to avoid allowing motorists appeals. John Davies boasted his service only allows 20% of appeals and even one of their own members accidentally revealed the service's results were a formality.

The IPC attract the worst of the parking companies and it has been said that each time a company leaves the British Parking Association for the IPC it simultaneously raises the level of ethics in both trade associations.

The jewel in the IPC crown is Excel Parking/Vehicle Control Services. The Prankster is disturbed to find out that VCS have found a tactic which hits a new low, even for IPC members. According to this post on moneysaving expert, VCS are now issuing tickets to vehicles for stopping where stopping is not permitted - while queuing at a barrier!

This tactic is particularly disturbing because this is the barrier to the hire car return pool, and typically hire companies will add an extra £50 or more on to any parking charge for administrative purposes. Although their contracts generally do not allow them to do this, this does not stop them and it is then a fight for the motorist to get their money back.

The parking charge was issued by the VCS mobile car who doctored the evidence by cutting off the car that was at the barrier from the picture but you can apparently still see 3 cars in the queue and the wheels turned on the motorists car in order to get through the barrier. It is clear then this is a deliberate move by the VCS car operator, and since the headquarters staff (who have full access to the CCTV and vehicle location) did not quibble and still issued a PCN it appears this odious practice must have been condoned by management.

The Prankster has been banned by Will Hurley from contacting the IPC to report incidents like this, but when The Prankster reported similar evidence doctoring to the British Parking Association this resulted in UK Parking Control getting banned from the DVLA for forging timestamps on photographs.

The Prankster will therefore wait and see whether anything happens about this, or whether Will Hurley and John Davies are too scared to discipline their top customer. In The Prankster's opinion, if Will Hurley and John Davies do not stamp this practice out and impose a temporary ban as a warning to others, this will confirm them to be shysters of the top order, condoning the worst practices of the private parking industry.

If you think people like Will Hurley and John Davis are not competent to regulate the parking industry, consider signing this petition to ask the Government to look at the issues.

Happy Parking

The Parking Prankster