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| South entrance to the car park - no warning signs but can you see the white notice on the wall of the building? That's a Private Park warning sign. |
They got me.
This morning I received a letter from a company called Private Park. The letter included photos of my car "Clint"entering and leaving a private car park. I had been there for twenty nine minutes. They are threatening me with a £100 fine or £60 if I pay up within two weeks.
The underused car park in question is on Guernsey Road and now belongs to a fitness centre called "Xercise4Less". Not so long ago it belonged to "Dunelm" which is a homewares and soft furnishings business with retail units all over the country.
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| Bay where I parked - no warning sign. |
I occasionally parked there - either to visit Dunelm or Langtons Antiques which is on the other side of the road. That's where I went on October 24th in order to find a piece of antique coral jewellery to give to my wife on our 35th wedding anniversary.
When I entered the car park, there was no warning sign in view and in the bay where I parked by the boundary there were no explanatory information signs. I went back this afternoon to check out the location and to take photographs that might support an appeal.
As longterm visitors to this blog may recall, I have a particularly virulent aversion to parking enforcement and the shady folk who are employed in this irksome zone of human activity. If you add to that the obnoxious modernistic spelling of "Xercise4Less" , you may understand why I will do my damnedest not to pay a penny to Private Park if I can help it.
When I had finished taking my photos, I saw that two men had parked up on the holy ground of "Xercise4Less" - near to the spot where I had parked. Like Robin Hood, I bounded over to warn them that they were risking fines. They jumped in their vehicles and zoomed away.
Let battle commence.
How absolutely ridiculous!!! What a blatant rip-off!! What a mob of wankers...proven by the name!! A mob of posers, no doubt!
ReplyDeleteAs is said in some quarters...that parking ticket should be given back to them and "put where the sun don't shine!"
Why don't you say what you really think Lee?
DeleteThank you for your moral support.
I'm a "black and white" person, Yorkie. I try at all times to say it as I see it. :)
Delete...and there was me thinking you were a shy wallflower.
DeleteThat is criminal. Not only 'let the battle commence' but let it end in a bloody and unrelenting victory. We're all behind you
ReplyDeleteWill you join my army Lesley? You get to wear armour and carry a pike (not a fish).
DeleteGood luck with that. I hope they get their arses spanked over this.
ReplyDeleteI might follow the example of Daniel Blake with a spray can.
DeleteXercize4less: subsidized by illegal parking fines.
ReplyDeleteIt's not a way to win over new customers and small businesses located close by.
DeleteSue the rats. This is downright fraud.
ReplyDeleteI guess you don't have the same parking issues in spacious Red Deer.
DeleteOh we have private parking lots. We have good signage. I park beside one for about 20 min. each week. People get tickets.
DeleteThey do not know what lies ahead of them at Xercize4less as a result of sending out their letter of demand.
ReplyDeleteMoney grubbers/grabbers.
Good for you, warning off the people who zoomed away.
Alphie
The notices say that "Premier Park" is a separate business operating in distinction from the fitness club with the awful name.
DeleteWere you wearing green tights?
ReplyDeleteAye Marion.
DeleteWishing you luck but not holding out much hope.
ReplyDeleteWith inadequate signage I think I have a strong argument so we will see.
Deletehere in Australia it is most common for these types of situations to have a sign saying that cars of non-customers will be towed but i dont know how often it actually happens.
ReplyDeleteI hope you win!
most poorly worded comment ever ^^^
DeleteIt wasn't very poorly worded Kylie. Thanks for your moral support.
DeleteIt is stories like this which make me glad I don't go far in my car these days and when I do go I always have my disabled badge at the ready.
ReplyDeleteCould you colourphotocopy your badge and send it to me?
DeleteKeep us posted on the developments, please. I envisage live TV coverage 24/7 of the court case, and eventually, Hollywood will turn it into a film. Whom would you want to play you? And your wife, because of course the story of the coral jewellery for your wedding anniversary will feature prominently.
ReplyDeleteI will play myself. My wife will be played by Charlize Theron. And there will be a part for you as a gum-chewing fitness instructor in "Xercise4Less".
DeleteAs Lee so rightly says, a blatant rip-off indeed, YP. How dare they threaten your good self in such a dastardly way? I wish you every success with your battle, and may you win without a stain on your impeccable character. With a name like "Xercise4Less, you may be safe in the knowledge that the place probably won't be going for too much longer !
ReplyDelete"Impeccable character"... I like that CG. Personally, I think any organisation that sports a mis-spelt trendy name should be heavily fined and their governing body imprisoned.
DeleteIf there's no signage, I think you have a case! I wouldn't give them a penny!
ReplyDeleteThere is signage Steve but it was a good distance from where I parked and by the way over the last thirty years I have often parked there - before it very recently became an exercise centre.
DeleteRe shooting and the farmer. He doesn;t shoot but he does belong a syndicate of farmers who shoot the fields around the farm. He beats and goes along for the pleasure of the company.
ReplyDeleteOh those poor darling creatures! Pheasants and rabbits no doubt. Or when you said he "beats" did you mean he goes along with a drum?
DeleteIn recent years I have twice been clobbered with a parking fine for pretty tenuous reasons. Both times I appealed. I won one and lost one. The one I lost was for parking outside a charity shop on a double-yellow line for 3 minutes to unload several heavy boxes of my husband's clothing just after he died. Three minutes! A camera caught me. They should have seen I was unloading heavy items, but no, they issued their fine. That's how these people make their money from suckers like us. Hope you manage to win your appeal. It's not as if the car park was full and someone needed your space and that tiny white sign is inadequate.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your support ADDY. I thought people were allowed to park on double yellow lines when loading or unloading. That is what the Oxfam shop staff always say when I donate items to their shop on Fulwood Road, Sheffield 10.
DeleteOn the subject of double yellow lines you are permitted to load and unload (what and for how long is not specified but is usually interpreted as things you can't carry far and for about 10 minutes). However if there are also stripes on the kerb there are additional restrictions (depending on stripes and the signage) which prohibit you from stopping in eg the rush hour or a bus lane. Red lines and not even hearses can stop without special permission.
ReplyDeleteI'll post a funny story about that and you'll understand why I know the answers.
As for the parking in the private car park the way they do it now is that if you don't pay it goes to the debt collectors who process it through the small claims court. The deterrent for many is not the money but the fact that they will usually get judgement and that immediately reduces your credit rating. That may not affect you or me but for people wanting a bank loan or mortgage these things are automated and something like that will just generate an automatic refusal. Nor may one be able to get a mobile phone contract (which again won't affect you!). To put it bluntly unless you're parking in a Council facility generally speaking appeal is pointless because the people operating the car park (which is unlikely to be Xercise4Less) make their money as a percentage of fines collected.
Thanks for that Graham. I have submitted my appeal with photographs. The main basis of my appeal is inadaequate signage. I am prepared for this to go to the small claims court if that is what they want to do. For them this is all about money not justice.
DeleteAbsolutely. Good luck.
DeleteYou are completely right, there is inadequate signage and the ticket should be forgiven. They need to have a metal sign on a post right hear the entrance. Good for you to appeal.
ReplyDeleteHa ha, that is right NEAR the entrance, not hear the entrance.
DeleteThe Dunelm Mill near me has tiny business card sized signs on the back of their tills warning you will be fined if in there car park for more than 2 hours. Bearing in mind that they have a café upstairs that serves meals, and that there are 4 other shops next to them, they must be raking it in. We don't go there anymore...
ReplyDelete