Private Land ticket cancelled ... how many others have simply paid up?

Neil Herron, Metric Martyr campaigner, took on the parking enforcers for me
Christopher Booker
Sunday Telegraph 1st May 2011

A veteran campaigner, Neil Herron of Metric Martyrs fame has turned his attention to parking law, writes Christopher Booker.
Neil Herron, a veteran of the Metric Martyrs
campaign, is also tackling parking law
Photo: JULIAN SIMMONDS
Last January I became embroiled in a little problem that I suspect others have shared. Unavoidably delayed overnight in London, I returned to my car parked at Bath station to find a penalty notice for £80, because I had overrun my allotted parking time. I explained to the parking company, Apcoa, why this had happened, and enclosed a cheque to cover the additional time. I also asked why there were seemingly no arrangements to allow drivers unavoidably caught like this to extend their parking time. Apcoa dismissively returned my cheque, insisting that I still owed them £80.

I then consulted my doughty friend Neil Herron, hero of the Metric Martyrs campaign, who has also in recent years become a scourge of the parking industry, by uncovering all the ways in which enforcement so often goes beyond the law. He said that his Parking Appeals Ltd would be delighted to fight my cause, because he had long been waiting for a test case like this.

Parking on private land is subject to contract law. Since I had immediately sought to remedy Apcoa’s loss by reimbursing them the money they were owed, I had honoured our contract – as he looked forward to explaining in court. Apcoa’s response was to send in debt collectors to demand their £80.

Neil’ s reply was, in effect, “See you in court” – knowing this was a case they would not wish to see put to legal test. The debt collectors now reply that Apcoa has decided to drop the matter – just as Neil predicted. He only regrets being deprived of that test case he has long been hoping for.

Where will the dam crack first ?

Simon English is on the ball again. As storm clouds gather over parking enforcement contracts across the country more and more information is being leaked by individuals concerned that they may be held responsible for the failings of others.

A reminder to all the parking officials across the length and breadth of the land that YOU will be PERSONALLY liable should it be shown that you have acted criminally or even recklessly. It is worth repeating the extract from the Local Authorities (Indemnities for Members and Officers) Order 2004
Restrictions on indemnities
6. - (1) No indemnity may be provided under this Order in relation to any action by, or
failure to act by, any member or officer which -
(a) constitutes a criminal offence; or
(b) is the result of fraud, or other deliberate wrongdoing or recklessness on the
part of that member or officer.

As indicated previously, there are lawyers sitting waiting and the evidence is building. The amount of evidence is growing by the day and more and more are looking to get the matter before the courts.

Westminster faces court fight over its car parking deal
Simon English
06.04.10
Westminster city council is facing a High Court battle amid allegations of favouritism in the awarding of a £50 million four-year parking contract.

In a lawsuit filed over the weekend Apcoa, one of the world's biggest parking enforcement firms, claims it was cheated out of the contract by what it sees as improper behaviour.
The Westminster parking contract is one of the most lucrative in the industry and competition to secure the tender is intense.

In February Westminster announced that Mouchel,the publicly listed engineering company, was the preferred bidder ahead of incumbent NSL and Apcoa, formerly known as the Airport Parking Company of America.

The lawsuit says Westminster broke the law by using “unpublished and unannounced criteria” in deciding which firm to employ.
Apcoa alleges the council “steered” the contract towards “one particular preferred tenderer” even before the three bids had been evaluated.

The allegations could prove highly embarrassing to Westminster and potentially costly to council taxpayers.

In February Westminster pulled the press release announcing that Mouchel had won the contract from its website, but offered no explanation why.

It later emerged that it is running the entire bidding process again, at a cost of around £100,000, following what Leith Penny, the council's strategic director of city management, claimed was “the discovery of a flaw in the contract document”.

The lawsuit suggests it was the bidding process itself which was at fault.
Apcoa, owned by French private-equity house Eurazeo, is best known for running parking at Gatwick and Heathrow. It is demanding either that it is awarded the Westminster contract or else compensated for loss of profits.

The suit, which names the Lord Mayor and citizens of the city of Westminster as defendants, says: “The claimant's case is that the exercise ought to have been (and ought now to be) re-run in a manner that is fair... the claimant claims damages in any event.” Apcoa said it would have won had the process been fair.

Westminster said it will fight the suit. Kevin Goad, head of commissioning for city management, said: “As part of the procurement process the council reserves the right not to award a contract and we remain confident this claim will be dismissed.”

Westminster says it will unveil the result of the new procurement process next month.

Southwark Council 'dishonest and deceitful' over parking fines

Yet another example (below) of disgraceful behaviour by yet another council. Council's parking regimes are now on the verge of being exposed for exactly what they are ... a disgraceful, lawless money making operation. Adherence to rules of law whether it be signing, paperwork and even accounting have been disregarded as the need to increase fine revenue at all costs has been driving force.

Game's up boys ... but don't think for one minute that 'Year Zero' is going to be created where those responsible are not held to account and all that unlawfully derived income is refunded.

We have more explosive information to come as more and more officials realise that they do not want to be held responsible for unwittingly becoming complicit in the unlawful actions of others.

COUNCIL ADMITS COLLECTING ON INVALID PARKING FINES PAST OWN 'FINISH' DATE
Southwark News
20 June 2008
EXCLUSIVE
By John Prendergast

DRIVERS IN Southwark were allowed to pay parking fines they shouldn't - as the council maintained a practice they claimed to have abandoned more than eighteen months ago.

The 'News' reported in February that the council's parking enforcement agency, APCOA, were collecting fines on void tickets and not refunding money to honest people who paid them. In their response a council spokeswoman claimed the practice had been abandoned eighteen months ago, but the 'News' has learnt that 157 tickets, coining the council £7,180, have been collected on since that date, including one as recently as January this year.

The council has said that although they instructed APCOA to cease the practice in August 2006, the contractors didn't follow the orders and continued to collect on tickets drivers should not have been paying. From September 2006 to April 2007 a Freedom of Information request shows that 136 tickets were collected on and none were refunded.

In the 2007/08 year a sea change seems to have started to occur with 21 payments collected on and fifteen refunded.

Southwark's opposition Labour spokesperson for Transport, Cllr Barrie Hargrove, said: "This is genuinely outrageous. Taking people's money for invalid tickets is one thing, but telling the public that you've stopped doing it when you quite clearly haven't is another matter entirely. It's dishonest and deceitful, there's simply no other way of putting it."

A Freedom of Information request by the 'News' in February revealed the practice had garnered the council £39,540.

The information regarding the continued practice was gained by Cllr Hargrove, who added: "Lib Dem council leader Nick Stanton now has to answer whether he knew that his spin doctors were telling fibs about this or if they'd been telling barefaced lies to him as well. Either way, when the council's been so dishonest, how can we believe that he won't re-authorise the practice in the future?"

The practice occurs when parking wardens issue a ticket but make an error on the form, therefore making it invalid according to strict parking regulations. However, despite entering the tickets as void on their computer system, the ticket will be set to active once again should the driver then pay the ticket. If the driver ignores the ticket then they are not chased for payment.

Since its articles in February the 'News' has made two attempts to gain information to publish, so drivers can appeal fines and get money back. On both occasions we were not permitted to have the information. We once again made a further request but were told it would not be released.

In response to the continued collection of invalid tickets, a council spokeswoman apologised for stating the practice had ceased. She said: "While it has been normal practice across London to accept payments made for 'spoiled' penalty charge notices (PCNs), we decided to end it in Southwark in 2006 and instructed our contractor to cease the practice. "We later discovered that our contractor had not followed our instructions, so we took action against them and the practice officially stopped in April 2007. The council has since taken steps to make sure this never happens again. We are confident that this issue has now been addressed and would like to apologise for the confusion our earlier statement around this matter may have caused.
She added: "A parking enforcement system is the most effective means of providing equitable use of limited parking space across the borough, and we believe that our policy is firm but fair."

APCOA were contacted directly for a response, but declined to make any further comment on the situation.

Thought parking wasn't about targets ... look at the meltdown in Croydon

We are repeatedly told that Decriminalised Parking Enforcement is not about targets ... but enforcement contract talks are at a stalemate in Croydon ... because contractor it is understood that APCOA are 'demanding the council agree to a clause which would allow them to issue an extra 20,000 tickets each year.'

If that is the case are they expecting that there is to be a sudden collective mental collapse by motorists in Croydon 'forgetting how and where to park' or is there going to be a spate of line painting or is it simply going to be a step up in draconian enforcement to allow a private enforcement contractor a 'nice little earner?'

Read the full story in the Kingston Guardian here