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Thursday 6 July 2017

Link Parking in parliamentary question

Link Parking featured in a Ministry of Justice written question – answered on 4th July 2017.

Here is a link to the question and answer.

Stephen Doughty Labour/Co-operative, Cardiff South and Penarth
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many cases brought by Link Parking Ltd against residents were heard in UK courts in each of the last three years.

The Ministry of Justice did not have the information to hand, so instead answered a slightly different question.

Dominic Raab The Minister of State, Ministry of Justice
The number of County Court judgments made in relation to cases brought by Link Parking Ltd against UK residents in each of the three years last is shown below:-

2014     0
2015   14
2016 113

Although the Ministry of Justice does not have this information, the British Motorists Protection Association (BMPA) does. According to their figures the number of court hearings were as follow

2015 41
2016 191
2017 142 (so far)

Link Parking keep their own figures. According to their website, they have won a total of 549 judgments as of 6/7/2017.

This seems a far cry from the MoJ total of CCJs, which is 127 up to the end of 2016.

According to a different page on their website, they have only won 124 cases.


The Prankster does not know which of the two figures, if any, is correct.

According to the BMPA, the county court which heard the most Link Parking hearings in 2016 was Cardiff, with 94 Link Parking cases. This is actually by far the biggest total of any court in the country for one Parking company. The next highest total is for Manchester,which has joint second place; it has heard 49 cases from Excel Parking and 49 cases from ParkingEye. Link Parking is essentially a one man band run by Martin Gardner, and is a minnow in comparison to Excel and ParkingEye.

Link Parking were the second worst parking company in January 2017, totalling 8% of complaints to the Prankster. Simon Renshaw-Smith's companies Excel and VCS were top, accounting for 41% of all complaints.

The Prankster has assisted with a number of Link Parking cases, and in his opinion they have little merit. Martin Gardner appears to specialise in bringing bogus claims which have little chance of success against an informed defence. He brings claims against residents who have the unfettered right to park given by their lease or tenancy and against motorists in sites where the signage is poor so no contract can be entered into by performance.

The Prankster therefore considers that Martin Gardner's trade association, the IPC, should step in and educate him on parking related law, and should consider removing his right to DVLA details until he shows this understanding. it is not right that a parking company should bring bogus no-hoper claims against motorists in the hope they will either be bullied into paying, or will make some procedural error and lose.

Happy Parking

The Parking Prankster

5 comments:

  1. << The Prankster therefore considers that Martin Gardner's trade association, the IPC, should step in and educate him on parking related law, >>

    There's a dangerous assumption that they themselves understand parking related law. There is precious little evidence.

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  2. Ah, someone beat me to it.
    Well done Patrick. Two minds.........

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    Replies
    1. Posting on here has become a new hobby of mine. Poking a camera up ladies skirts is so yesterday, and I'm making huge savings on lube. :)

      Delete
  3. Yes indeed. So many companies and not one have I seen that complies.

    Link need taking down and out.

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  4. Anyone want to raise an ASA compliant on Link for that 'advert' on number of judgements they have (noting it doesn't say successful ones....)?

    ReplyDelete