A BPA spokesman has confirmed that ParkingEye will no longer be charging motorists £27 if their POPLA appeal fails. Following a tip off the BPA investigated the situation and confirmed that ParkingEye will in future be obeying the government requirements that the parking industry provide POPLA free to the motorist.
The change will not be retrospective, so ParkingEye will not be refunding motorists who have already paid the £27.
ParkingEye will also not be amending any claims in current court actions, so if they are already claiming the £27 they will continue to do so.
The Prankster therefore recommends that anyone currently involved with court action with ParkingEye post POPLA should check the claim, and if if includes a POPLA fee include relevant material in their claim to contest this.
Following further tip offs, the BPA are currently investigating other parking firms charging for POPLA. These investigations are not yet complete.
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So, funnily enough, no sanctions imposed per event by BPA for breaches of their own code of conduct?
ReplyDeleteAnyone would think that BPA were toothless....
Top Parking(sh)Eye(ster) Mark Anfield is now on the BPA Ltd Council of Representatives,
ReplyDeletehttp://www.britishparking.co.uk/Council-of-Representatives
Hopefully this will not cause a conflict of interest when deciding who should be awarded sanction points.
The Council of Representatives ensure that the association's standards and values are met. Fortunately those standards and values are extremely low so the right people are on the job.
No point in having rules, standards or even a BPA, if sanctions aren't imposed. Like me saying I will pay you a £1m, then when you ask for it, I say I will pay, then never do. You don't have anything.
DeleteWell that's what is says in their 2014 Tender Document.
ReplyDelete"3.2 As a base, Central Government has indicated that POPLA will be:
* Free to the motorist
* Paid for by the private parking industry
* Binding on operators
* Independent
* Available for all tickets issued by a member of an ATA"
Now why would they say that in one document and then let their members do something else? Smacks of a lack of self-regulation here. Perhaps the DVLA and the Robin Goodwill should investigate before going further?
https://app.box.com/s/zcmi9a85xgaqdxvy2k89
Hat tip: Google.
P.S. Their 2014 Annual Report says that 50% of all appeals are successful. Nearly 50% of defended court cases brought by Parking Eye are lost by their legal hired guns. That's a lot of money being hosed at losing cases. No wonder London Councils love the contract they have with them. No wonder the MoJ love the cash they are getting.
Incompetent? I could not possibly say.
A PPC are not going to take a person to Court with the express intention of losing, unless it is profitable to do so. By having to take every case to Court, it probably works in getting a percentage of motorists to pay up out of fear. A kind of loss-leader.
DeleteThere are a lot of companies doing this, some of them add on £27 even if it doesn't go to popla, I have been tweeting the BPA about this in the past, and they have done sod all despite having letters scanned into them.
ReplyDeleteWhat causes you to believe Parking Eye when they claim they will stop? Am I the only person skeptical about this? Maybe they will stop for 5 minutes then start again.
ReplyDeleteIf you have bee charged £27, you could at least send a complaint letter to the BPA stating that you were charged against the rules and asking for sanctions, then when they do nothing complain directly to them. You may not get your money back, but if enough people write a complaint it may just force some action.
ReplyDeleteAnd even if it doesn't force some action, it will waste their time and piss them off which is always good.
ReplyDelete