Forum Topic

Parking Tickets - Ealing Broadway Tube

I recently got a parking ticket for parking in the private parking bays in front of Ealing Broadway Tube. I mean, I was picking up a mother with a small toddler and baby on a Sunday afternoon.  I had literally stopped there for a matter of two minutes.  I wrote to Steven Pound MP and about it and appealed to the parking ticket people but to no avail. Mr Pound knows about the problem but can do nothing about it.  Has anyone simply refused to pay the fine?  OK, I now know there are signs prohibiting parking there but, really, when you're trying to park safely with people crossing the road in front of the car - you just don't notice them!  Its just a trap!. I feel some clever bugger has bought this land for the sole purpose of issuing parking tickets.  What do you think? Should I pay the £60.00 fine?  Has anyone refused? Is there a petition I could join? I find it rediculous that a major station in a one way system has absolutely no provision for pick ups/drop offs.

Olivera Babic ● 6791d21 Comments

Olivera,Don’t pay. This is nothing to do with the council. It is a civil matter and effectively a try on. If they want to get money out of you they need to go to court and prove that they have a contract with you. Under the 1999 unfair contract terms regulations they haven’t a hope. It is OK to drop off on the double yellows inside the private station forecourt.  Also the Highway Code is clear that you can drop of on both single and double yellow lines.  There are double yellows opposite the station where you can drop off.  Your passenger can then cross on the pedestrian crossing. 

Phil Taylor ● 6791d

I sympathize with your problem Olivera - pickup and parking at Eal Bdwy station has been a nightmare for years. The whole area of Ealing Centre needs a radical re-design - haven't we all been crying out for this?! Ealing Bdwy station is a major transport hub so you'd think that those who plan and control things would have got it right by now - FGS, it's the 21 century - it's about time all those responsible pulled their fingers out - it's absolutely unacceptable!  :-(

Gerry Tan ● 6790d

JUST DON'T PAY IT - as Phil says they haven't a leg to stand on.But in future stay out of those parking bays, which are all allocated to specific users so it's not right formothers to use them. Just hang around on the (private and therefore legally unenforceable) double yellows (provided you're not causing obsruction to others) but keep an eye out for any clamping bandits in vans -  that's the only way they could get you if they managed to block you in to stop your getaway.That roadway has rightly been used as the dropoff/pickup zone for the station by longstanding custom and practice, and it's frankly crackpot to expect punters to find scarce lawful parking space on the wrong side of the nearby highway (havinng to perform often hazardous manoeuvres to do so) and have to cross a busy road to access the station.

Chris Veasey ● 6790d

Oh really ! Thank you so much !  Should I even bother to write to them to tell them so? Why would I need to have a contract with them....I don't quite understand that bit... it's probably a long legal explanation...?

Olivera Babic ● 6790d

I am not an expert on contract law but a contract is formed in English law when one party makes an offer that involves a consideration (price) and another party accepts it.  No written document is required.  This happens when you go to a supermarket.  It might happen when these shysters try to do you for nothing.  The contract here is a consumer contract and therefore covered by the Unfair Terms in Consumer ContractsRegulations 1999.  See here: http://www.oft.gov.uk/advice_and_resources/resource_base/legal/unfair-terms/guidanceThese are the same regs that are being used as a basis for people to challenge their bank charges.  One thing you cannot do in a consumer contract is make people pay penalties.  You can only charge them for actual services used.  You might reasonably send them a cheque for £1 to pay for the parking service you received.  They would then have no basis for pursuing you as you had made a reasonable offer of payment and they are not entitled to fine you.  Before any bright spark suggests that you can do this with the council you can't - sorry.  The council is allowed to fine you!

Phil Taylor ● 6790d

Write to them  -  ABSOLUTELY NOT!  -  just ignore anything from them short of a legal summons (a genuine one as opposed to a bluff). I would be very surprised if they take it that far.

Chris Veasey ● 6790d

This morning, Sunday, four of the bays were occupied by dark blue vans. In each of the van's windows was a sign - United Kingdom Immigration.

Alan Brainsby ● 6790d

Definately in favour of a redesign.  Ken Livingstone is, for once, right (see local papers).

Olivera Babic ● 6790d

This particular situation featured on Watchdog on BBC1 this eve. Ealing Trading Standards confirm these cowboys have no right to levy this charge, though they're said to be 'in discussion' with ETS as to an appropriate lawful basis for operating there.One other victim just stopped in the roadway briefly to drop his wife off, and his offside wheel inadvertently clipped one of the marked parking spaces. That being caught on their cameras was apparently enough in their eyes to justify sending hom the same £60 charge notice. No it isn't and hopefully he dodn't pay up.So don't reply to their letters and don't pay. If they go to the lengths of threatening to send bailiffs round to clamp your car, as at least one other firm elswehere has done, they've no legal right to do that so you should file a complaint with the Police for their demanding money with menaces.

Chris Veasey ● 6789d

I had to hunt - but I knew I had recently read an article in one of the local papers!http://www.ealingtimes.co.uk/search/display.var.2010234.0.drivers_advised_not_to_pay_parking_tickets.php

Philippa Bond ● 6789d

to see the BBC wathcdog report go to iplayerwww.bbc.co.uk/iplayer

David Archer ● 6789d

So who is employing this cowboy firm? Could pressure be brought to bear?

Graham Weeks ● 6788d

Probably another cowboy firm called Worst Great Western, or a cowboy quango called Notwork Rail.

Chris Veasey ● 6788d

Thanks for showing me how to see programmes I've missed like Watchdog!  The other programme there with Dom about the bus-stops which were moved without any consultation and at great expense into a position without a lay-by where they now stop all the traffic was interesting too.  Who on earth hates cars so very very much?

Philippa Bond ● 6788d

Olivera, You may like to browse an earlier thread "station dropoffs", although you have received good advice on this one, to assess local opinion.

Robert Darke ● 6785d

I was wondering how Olivera had got on with this parking fine. I have just recieve one myself, I had only pulled into the parking bay and instantly reversed out as shown on the photo brakes on in one shot and reverse lights in second. the time lapse shows 1 minute but could be a matter of seconds. Should I pay the £60 or write them a letter or just ignore the notice.

Tony Maxey ● 6639d

For crying out loud ignore it man!!!  -  responding, let alone paying up, just encourages the predatory bar-stewards.

Chris Veasey ● 6639d

It was a dreadful decision for legal control of the station forecourt to pass out of the hands of British Rail or Ealing Council to the Villiers House owners (now believed to be Glenkerrin) - presumably at the time of the blocks construction.

Robert Darke ● 6639d

I got one too - in March I think it was - I did not pay. I got a reminder after a month or so and still did not pay. I have heard nothing since. It is a scam. Ealing council/trading standards should be doing something about it as both are aware of the situation but they won't.

Trizia Fiorellino ● 6638d

What you will find is that this "parking company" also occupy one of the bays - which they are not legally allowed to do. They have one van with the livery but their other vans are plain. They usually have two people in them - usually a "heavy" and a young girl who jumps out and takes the pictures of the cars. PS they seem to get very agitated when you stand infront of the number plates they are trying to take a picture of

Trizia Fiorellino ● 6638d

bump

Nick Jenkins ● 5766d