[Closed] Parking at Glentress

Wasn't the consensus that they couldn't legally enforce the fines though?*

* I could be talking mince; it has been known

Apparently they have sorted all the legals out and can enforce them now, and the bloody are.
My mate got a fine at the weekend, only because the machine would not take his card, he left a note on the windscreen and everything, but they still issued the fine. He is going to appeal though.

Im no expert but i dont think they can enforce this. from recollection of inspecting my mates ticket, i dont think it is a council operated car park. Therefore, whoever issued the fine can get the name and adress of the owner of the car which is has been ticketed. However the owner of the car is under no legal obligation to procide who the driver at the time of the allegation was. I think at worse all they can do is issue an invoice to the owner of the car.

Somebody please correct me if i am wrong.

They've farmed it out to parkingeye, who are of the old-school threats and demands and outright lies enforcement methods. It's not impossible that they'll pursue unpaid fines mind. It is a civil parking company though not a police or council job.

Why anyone wouldn't pay it is beyond me.

It's pennies.

Essentially, yes - if you park without paying somewhere with clear signs, such as Glentress, you are entering into a contract whereby you agree to pay the landowner's 'recoverable costs' - the amount which is suggested by the signs.

As a contract - it is legally enforcable - and they can pursue you for those costs. It is also appeal-able - as this form of parking enforcement should be covered by the [url= http://www.britishparking.co.uk/write/BPA_Code_of_Practice_2012_Version_1_October_2012.pdf ]BPA code of practice[/url], which is administered by [url= http://www.popla.org.uk/ ]POPLA[/url]. A carefully-worded appeal will probably get you off in most cases.

Why anyone wouldn't pay it is beyond me.

It's pennies.

the machine would not take his card

I hope this helps explain the situation.

Oh i see, that makes it fine then. Sorry. I didn't realise not having a method to pay meant you were exempt from paying.

I am off to john lewis after work. Need some new cutlery but I left my debit card at home. YAY! free forks!!!!

I'll just leave this here

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=46975

I am conflicted. On the one hand (valid exceptions aside) pay for your damn parking people. But on the other, Parkingeye are scumbags and £50 is absurd.

As an aside, can you still get a season parking pass?

honeybadgerx - not sure but, that would be a good idea, unless it was hundreds of pounds.

Ojom - he did have a method to pay.

I am off to john lewis after work. Need some new cutlery but I left my debit card at home. YAY! free forks!!!!

Excellent analogy. 😕

no_eyed_deer

As a contract - it is legally enforcable - and they can pursue you for those costs

The point i make is that they cant find out who to take to court as they have no way of determining who drove the car thus who contravined the rules. It is not necessarily the owner of the car.

PPS, currently you can get a year's pass for Glentress/Innerleithen by doing 6 volunteer trailbuilding sessions (or 3 full days) This also entitles you to a sense of smugness.

Not sure if this type of enforcement does anyone any good in the long term.

Presumably the Forestry Commission is paying Parkingeye to run it for them.

The previous enforcement method was a reminder to pay notice. I must admit on two occasions I did forget to pay and I had a reminder to pay notice on my windscreen. I went straight to the machine and paid before I left the carpark.

I would not have done that if I'd been issued a penalty "invoice" for £50.

edward2000 - Member

Im no expert but i dont think they can enforce this. from recollection of inspecting my mates ticket, i dont think it is a council operated car park. Therefore, whoever issued the fine can get the name and adress of the owner of the car which is has been ticketed. However the owner of the car is under no legal obligation to procide who the driver at the time of the allegation was. I think at worse all they can do is issue an invoice to the owner of the car.

Somebody please correct me if i am wrong.

Last I heard it could now be levied at the registered keeper, though this may just be in England. Perhaps somebody more in the know could confirm?

I was there last week and had to use the overflow carpark at the bottom as it was busy. Another guy drew alongside and parked next to me and said he had to go up to main carpark to get ticket from that machine as it takes card payment. His bike was on roof of his car and he asked me if I wouldn't mind keeping eye on it for 5mins. Soon after he left some smug git in a forestry commission branded outfit came along and stuck an invoice on his windscreen despite me saying he would be back in a moment with a ticket. On his return the other driver spent 10mins arguing with the parking guy to get it removed, thought he was going to lamp him one.

It's a wonder the FC allows the parking company to use FC branding, can't be doing their own reputation any good.

haven't been there in over a year even though it's only an hr and a quarter from home, however with the soggy local trails in the west have been thinking a trip through is on the cards. How much is parking now ? Lat time I was there it was £3.

Fiver now - check out the news article (which was obviously written by a 14 year old on work experience) on the 7 Stanes page http://www.7stanesmountainbiking.com/News-Events/Latest-News/Car-Parking-Increases for justification.

Seems that it's now £5 because the FCS have allowed loads of private companies to open businesses on the site, and therefore you should pay a premium for it.

EDIT - And £170k on trail maintenance, excluding staffing. I'd love to see a breakdown of those costs.

thanks for info kevin. parking plus diesel makes it a bit of a pricey day for me now I think, will need to go with a few mates !

. I'd love to see a breakdown of those costs.

Make an FOI request?

Tbh, If I'm paying £5 for parking its £5 less I'm going to spend in the cafe.

Might make folk more likely to lift share? I dunno. Bit steep imo, and I hate the aggressive enforcement, especially in the situation like the above.

thanks for info kevin. parking plus diesel makes it a bit of a pricey day for me now I think, will need to go with a few mates !

Just go to Inners instead, its still three quid

Actually, I think I will do an FOI! 🙂

Yes, if the story above is typical, it won't be long before it gets ugly.

I am off to john lewis after work. Need some new cutlery but I left my debit card at home. YAY! free forks!!!!

Dude, John Lewis have better stuff than forks.

Of course, you could just park in Peebles and ride along if you want to save a fiver......or not drive and save petrol money too! 😀

Genuinely interested to know the extent to which the private company will go to enforce the charge through a civil action. I suspect that they will be relying on a ticket made out to like a fine issued by the police or local authority parking wardens to intimidate folk into paying. If it is an English company, I wouldn't be surprised to see threats of clamping though if memory serves, this was ruled illegal many years ago under Scots Law. In addition, I don't believe that the operator has a right or removal of the vehicle as they are not VOSA, the DVLA, police or a local authority.

So I guess if you don't want to pay, don't pay. 😆

Think us mountain bikers only have ourselves to blame for the increased enforcement of parking charges at Glentress. If more than 10%* of visitors had paid for their parking then maybe it wouldn't have been deemed necessary to start enforcing it.

* this is the figure I heard on the rumour mill so may or may not be correct

If FC have contracted out the parking enforcement to a 3rd party it would be interesting to know how much they (the 3rd party) are charging and what proportion of the ticket increase this amounts to.

rene59 - Member

It's a wonder the FC allows the parking company to use FC branding, can't be doing their own reputation any good.

Hmm, usually the FC are very protective of their branding, wonder if it's being dealt with by staff? There's only 2 bike rangers left now and from the description there's no way in hell it was either of them

I got a charge notification a couple of weeks ago even though i had bought a ticket which was on the dashboard. Have sent off my appeal but had no response as yet.

You can get a part day ticket which was 4 hours i think for £3.50 or full day for £5

While writing my appeal letter (which has to be in writing) i found the ParkingEyes website made interesting reading their main selling points appear to be

“10% reduction in average stay” and “40% increase in space availability”

Does that mean less people will go and those that do will stay less time? Surely FCS are wanting more people to go and stay longer and use more of the facilities?

EDIT: Personally i think they should have stuck an automated barrier on the way in/out that way folk have to pay if they want to park on site. I thought £3 a day was perfectly reasonable, £5 feels a bit steep but then maybe that is because it is such a big rise. Not even the utility compaines have stuck prices up 66%

Last I heard it could now be levied at the registered keeper, though this may just be in England. Perhaps somebody more in the know could confirm?

Yes... this is certainly the case in E&W, AFAIK. You don't have to disclose who was driving the vehicle at the time, but - as the registered keeper - you are liable for the parking contract if no other person's details are supplied. Like I said - it is easy to make an effective appeal against this 'parking charge', just a fair bit of faff to deal with. For instance, I suspect the landowner would find it difficult to make a clear case for why £50 was the appropriate amount recoverable in lieu of their costs incurred from a single vehicle parking on the site.

Hmm, usually the FC are very protective of their branding, wonder if it's being dealt with by staff? There's only 2 bike rangers left now and from the description there's no way in hell it was either of them

Was a middle aged shortish man in a green FC jumper, maybe he is FC, I wouldn't really know any of them. I just presumed he was from the parking company because listening to his exchange with the driver he said all parking money as well as fines go back into trail building and maintenance. I know full well this is not the case.

Whats the story at Innerliethen.

Parking guy was on the ball today, thought he was going to ticket me whilst I walked to the ticket machine, not sure if he is FC or parking company, he isn't Andy anyway and doesn't look like a biker. It is indeed £5 a day, £3.50 for 3 hours and something less for 1 hour. Inners is cheaper as you would hope given the "extent of the facilities offered", ie car park and portaloo of doom.

I almost took a picture of the gt car park today as there were so many audis it made me chuckle and think of you lot.

reckon they issue fines at night? I've never bought a ticket on a night ride there...

A bit of googling suggests that you can't get a season pass any more which is a bit of a bummer.

I was there today and as my ticket was upside down I received a 25 pound fine! Not happy.

You can get a season ticket although they don't make it easy for you to find out. Go to the FC cube at the top of the hill and bang on the window 😀 Think it's £60 for the year or £35 for 6 months. Only issued twice a year though so might be best waiting until the new year HTH

does the season ticket cover inners too?

joeelston I hope and pray that you fight that fine right until the bitter end, I know I would

rene59 - Member

shortish man

Can't be Andy Wardman then, unless he was wearing stilts.

£5 for all day isn't bad really. I'm sure all day at Whinlatter is £9 or so.

I was down a GT for the first time in ages yesterday, only did half a day as I didn't have change and didn't notice the machine takes cards.

The new car park layout down there is crap though, why design it so you're unable to drive around looking for a space, if you don't find a space in the new bit you have to reverse back out. Just join it up at the end FFS. 👿

joeelston I hope and pray that you fight that fine right until the bitter end, I know I would

+ lots

Sounds like they're in danger of royally pissing people off with their approach. I agree that there is no excuse not to pay, but these parasitical parking companies are determined to chance their arm at every opportunity, rather than target folks that are actively avoiding paying, as the cases highlighted above show. I assume they are on commission

I remember they issued me with a fine when I visited the doctor. I'd accidently put one digit wrong in the machine in reception when entering my reg, and despite I was the only car in there (so it was an obvious mistake) they still issued me a fine. I sent them an e.mail telling them where to go and threw the fine in the bin. I'll be taking a similar approach if the parking nazis try it on at GT.

I hope everyone else does the same.