Hi all,
Have read a lot of posts on this site so just a quick one. The car of which i am registered keeper was parked in a Vinci car park and driver forgot to display their disabled badge when in designated bay. A Parking Charge Notice for £100 for not displaying the badge has been issued. But the only sign that was up was a laminated piece of A4 paper that said simply "Please display a valid disabled badge when parking in a disabled bay".
There is no mention anywhere in the car park of a fine or an amount in pounds that can be levied for failing to display a badge. Surely this can be legal as they could make up any figure and no warning of financial penalty.
Checked small print on board by ticket machine which has all the terms and conditions and says "a charge may be applied for failing to display a disabled badge"
Have I got grounds for an appeal? Don't want to go down the ignore route.
thanks

Not sufficient signage = no contract.

The signage needs to meet the code of practice - here.

Appeal to them first on this point. They'll probably reject but they must issue a POPLA code. Then come back...

I presume the ticket was stuck to the car? So if you are or know the registered keeper then wait for them to send the Notice to Keeper. Get pictures of the (lack of) signage.

Was the PCN stuck on the windscreen or did it come in the mail afterwards? As it's 'not displaying a blue badge' I'm going to assume it was stuck to your windscreen.

The Registered Keeper (assuming it's not a lease or hire car) should wait for the Notice to Keeper to be sent in the post (within 28 - 56 days) and then appeal as the registered keeper. It doesn't really matter what's in this first appeal, they will reject it anyway.

You could even go as far as to enclose a copy of the blue badge, and state that (a) the driver is in possession of one but forgot to display it, (b) the Blue Badge scheme doesn't apply on private land, (c ) the driver meets the criteria of being disabled and hence under the Equality Act 2010 is perfectly entitled to having a suitable adjustment being made by the landowner, including use of the bay, (d) the loss to the landowner as a result of this is zero, so the sum they are seeking equates to a penalty. EDIT: Oh yeah, and as Jlc correctly points out, the signs are not sufficient to form a contract with the driver so they haven't breached anything.


They can choose to cancel the ticket or issue a POPLA code, however any continued harassment of you in respect of this may be deemed as harassment and you may take action against the parking company, AND the landowner in respect of the Equality Act and/or The Protection From Harassment Act 1997.

Come back here if you get a POPLA code from them.

I take it you are disabled and therefore had a right to park there? If so do as advised and WAIT for the postal Notice to Keeper if you've only had a windscreen fake PCN so far (never respond to one of those unless you have a company or hire car where you know the Notice to Keeper would not be sent to you direct).

Without saying who was driving at the time but yes they do have a disabled badge and were entitled to park there. I would not consider fighting this ticket otherwise

Thanks for the quick advice. Ticket was stuck to the car so should I wait for notice through post before appealing to Vinci?

I had a look at the code of practice you kindly sent a link to. Under the signage section it says:

18.4 If you intend to use the keeper liability provisions in
Schedule 4 of POFA 2012, your signs must give ’adequate
notice’.
This includes:
• specifying the sum payable for unauthorised parking
• adequately bringing the charges to the attention of
drivers, and
• following any applicable government signage
regulation

I assume they have broken their first bullet point there?

Thanks again, was thinking of paying up but thinking of fighting it now.

Yep. The registered keeper should appeal, only when their Notice arrives in the post. Just keep the PCN ticket for evidence for POPLA if needed.



Really, that's a shame, plenty of other disabled people are allowed to park in disabled bays without a Blue Badge so there is no reason to think this ticket could ever be legit. And whilst we never condone disabled bay abuse by non-disabled drivers, we would NEVER advise someone to pay one of these, no matter whether they are 'bang to rights' or not. This isn't a real fine, is not from any 'authority' and not to be paid whatever the circumstances (in the absence of a court order if someone actually got taken to court and lost) .

Don't THINK of fighting it, fight it.

They haven't got a hope in Hell with this.

POPLA, with the right appeal from here, will chuck this out in a heartbeat.

You could also make a complaint to the BPA Ltd and the DVLA that this company are in breach of their own code of practice and try and land them in trouble. In reality they'll get a slapped wrist, but the more complaints the merrier, and people on here complain about these companies regularly.

Not to mention that if you point out the Equality Act stuff I and SRM mentioned above, you are effectively putting them on notice that you could actually sue them if they continue to harass you for money over this.

No way you're paying this!!

It is a breach of the BPA Ltd code of practice to ticket without signs being there.

http://www.britishparking.co.uk/AOS-Sanctions

Look down the list. It is 10 points to issue tickets on a site with no signage in place.

Complain to the BPA who will be happy to get rid of these rogue operators and will thank you for helping drive up standards within the parking industry.

Get photos of the full site now before they retrospectively add signs, then email Steve.C@britishparking.co.uk to register your complaint.

SRM, a ticket is correctly given, perhaps albeit a load of old bollox, when a disabled bay is used by a car which may be thought to not have a disabled driver. Appealed against should get the ticket cancelled though.
I can't think of any reason to remind you of this, but I want to point out the anomaly of the whole BB situation in ANPR car parks.

Even if a driver displays a Blue Badge there's no way a camera would know about it if the driver overstayed the normal free parking period.
That's a mass discrimination.

I've applied for one of those online petition thingy's to see if we can get the liberal use of ANPR's banned.

The councils are getting stick right now for the camera vans but at last there's some personal input with those. With ANPR they only consider time in against time out and hit any overstay with a ticket.

ANPR is set up which takes details of thousands of cars a day coming and going in a car park in the off-chance that maybe one in a couple of thousand will pick up a ticket. That's a gross invasion of our rights.

When I get the nod on the petition I'll let you know and we can all add our votes.

Yep I agree with all that you say. And the petition would tally very nicely with the current strength of feeling against Council ANPR tickets too.