UKH

Has anybody received a Parking Charge Notice from parking at Morrisons in Fort William? What did you do?
Pay?
Appeal?
Ignore?

In reply to stucknortherner:

No, but it's a bloody good supermarket. I thought this might be a thread in praise of the mighty FW "M"

In reply to BnB:
Not sure about it as a supermarket, but I do like the caff, particularly that you can have whatever you want on the breakfast in whatever quantities you want, they just charge you per item.

Re PCN, did you park too long? If so cough up. If you didn't, or something else was wrong like no signage, appeal. I believe ignoring it is no longer advisable as they have more legal protection than they used to in return for banning clamping, but a post on pepipoo might be worth a go to make sure.

In reply to stucknortherner:

not had a ticket, but it's definitely time restricted at Morrisons FW. This will be to stop people parking there for a week while they take the train down south. As it's in Scotland, the rules are slightly different. My friend had a similar episode with Lidl in Glasgow.

When a ticket is issued by a private land owner, it is a civil, rather than criminal matter. There are a few things you can check -
1. was it appropriately signposted that there are restrictions? could a person reasonably claim they were not aware?
2. Is the charge they are trying to Levy too high? (remember they can easily justify this with overheads - private security employed to police - cost of signs, CCTV cameras and reg plate recog systems etc). They would easily be able to come up with a justifiable bill for £100 for example).

What they are doing, in essence, is proposing that they take you to court to make a civil claim for compensation. They will say "pay the (fake) overheads and we'll drop the case".

If you ignore it, they probably wont want to pay to go to court, even if they can recover the legal costs from you if you don't win, but do you really want to risk that? It could also have an impact on your credit rating if they pass the bill on to a debt recovery company. There are companies that specialise in recovery of parking fines.

They're all a shower of Sh@*ts, but I know if I got a private carpark fine I'd definitely suck it up and pay it ASAP, hoping to get an early payment discount.

In reply to stucknortherner:

I recently found this, and it may be of help. It is at least this side of the border.

http://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/parking-charge-notice-or-penalty-charge-not...

TWS

In reply to Chive Talkin\':
That is a very good article thanks. In terms of Penalty Charge Notices - many authorities in Scotland have now decriminalised parking which transfers the enforcement to local Council Officers instead of Parking Wardens (Which Police Scotland have done away with). Stirling, where I stay, is just about to begin the new arrangement. As far as I can make out it doesn't change the legality simply who is enforcing it.
http://www.stirling.gov.uk/__documents/transport/disabled-parking/decrimina...

In reply to ogreville:

That they are, but some people have brought it on themselves by taking the mick, e.g. parking in a supermarket car park while they walk up the Ben and back, taking spaces needed for shoppers, when there are other car parks dedicated to that purpose.

It all started in the South East where commuters parked in supermarkets to avoid paying for the station car park, and has spread.

The one that winds me up, though, is motorway services, where the charge for parking for more than 2hrs is quite high, encouraging tired driving. It's long been my view that parking for at least 12 hours should be allowed for free to avoid that. Yes, it means some people kip in their cars but so what? They'll flog them fryups the next day.

In reply to stucknortherner:

I got a parking charge notice, ignored it, ignored the bullying letters, ignored the threats...... got taken to court!!!
It seems a lot of these companies are digging their heels in so as to protect their revenue from what really must be a shit way to earn a living. The silver lining is... i won due to inadequate signage, however to save yourself the hassle my first port of call would be an email to the store explaing the situation, if there is an explanation, and asking them to call off the hounds! This seems to be the most likely way to get a positive outcome from trawling the internet looking for my defence. failing that you can and should appeal via the channels they suggest.
I understand why businesses have to police their car parks but the firms they use are utter cowboys just cashing in on fear, 2 hours is a pretty poor business angle for Morrisons as you could easily spend 2 hours shopping then using the cafe on a wet Fort bill afternoon, However given my time again if you get no joy from the supermarket pay the cowboy his £60 and put it down to experience!!

In reply to stucknortherner:

I try and avoid getting parking tickets of either type, but I did manage to fall foul of one at my local ASDA a few years ago. I wrote to the parking company (parking eye I think) saying that I was parked in the car park, but I was unsure if I had contravened their published rules, and asked them to provide evidence of my breach and evidence of their adherence to their various obligations, cut and pasted from the legislation. They wrote back after a couple of weeks saying they would not take the matter any further.

In reply to stucknortherner:
Plenty of good advice here....

http://www.pepipoo.com/

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=163

In reply to stucknortherner:
I was at a presentation regarding a new supermarket , present were the local police, local councilors and the bloke from the supermarket who mentioned they were providing lots of new parking spaces, time limited. When he was asked how the time limit was to be enforced he said a parking company would enforce it, with a Parking Charge, when asked where that company was registered, we were told in England, at which point the comment ' good luck with that' was heard ( accompanied with some sniggering )

I could not say whether it was the police, or the councilors that made the comment, but, for sure, they knew our locals attitude to parking laws/ Rules.
We have Parking on double yellow lines , parking on the pavement, parking in bus stops, in mother and baby spaces ,in loading bays, and disabled spaces, all are commonplace.

I don't believe this supermarket's Parking Company will be able to enforce their rules, not in this town anyway.

In reply to stucknortherner:
Can't remember who owns, enforces parking regulations at Morrison's. If it's a local authority/police fixed penalty notice you've no choice just pay it. If it's an excess penalty charge from parking eye out some such, it's up to your conscience. South of the border they can hold the registered keeper responsible no matter who parked the car, in Scotland they have to prove who is responsible. You can not be compelled to give evidence which may implicate yourself. You will get lots of threatening letters, some from their own debt collecting agency. They can't collect anything till they can establish who they should be collecting from. Read the back of the threatening letters, which clarify that the bluster only applies in England and Wales.

In reply to stucknortherner:

I have had them twice at the Morrison's in Penrith, but providing proof that you shopped there i.e. a receipt and covering letter has succeeded in cancelling the charge. Good luck!