I think a word of caution should be inserted in capital letters before your articles on Motorway Service Station rides.

I have just spent five months being repeatedly threatened by a couple of firms acting for MOTO because I over stayed my free 2 hours parking by 1 hour and 3 minutes back in January and failed to pay the £10 MOTO want. They threaten to take you to court and ruin your credit rating unless you pay them sums starting at £50 and escalating to £140. I didn’t pay the £10 because I had no idea you were required to, and their signage at this particular Service Area is piss poor. In my case I was there because I had broken down and the RAC put considerable effort into getting me going again rather than towing me away.

The initial legal advice I got recommended I do nothing until I got the summons to
the small claims court, but I lost my rag with the repeated threats and fired off a polite both-barrels letter at my tormentors. They’ve just written back to say they are not pursuing it further.

Reading around the issue it seems that this is a new legal scam and 1 in every 15 motorists is going to be pursued in this way by these firms. It’s supposed to be worth £50million to them so they are unlikely to give it up easily.

I didn’t enjoy the experience. While I am pleased I don’t have to do the court appearance I do feel slightly cheated because I’d taken time out to form what I thought was a good case.

My thought would be that you should insert a warning at the beginning of your article rather than bury it in one of the last paragraphs. I have to confess to not reading the whole of one of these articles until after my problem reared it’s ugly head. So rather being forewarned, my partial reading, combined with the “Tiredness can kill- take a break ” campaign had left me with the firm idea these were free public car parks

‘Private’ car park firms are one of the biggest scams going.

Straight in the bin, no reason at all to let them get to you.

Its an unenforceable invoice, not a fine.

Fairly well known problem, been on here quite a few times.

Breaking down is a different matter, but in this day and age, I expect to pay to park anywhere that has tarmac and marked out spaces, and I look damn hard till I find something telling me that I don’t.

All motorway service stations are required to give 2hrs free parking. Most “charge” for >2hs. Not sure how anyone could have visited service stations without being aware of this general issue even if the signage in this particular one was poor.

You’ve then ignored the “legal advice” you got – yet you are moaning because an article makes a point in the body of the text (which presumably anyone actually going on a ride based on its advice would read) rather than in the heading.

I think you might want to pay more attention to detail in future.

Ohh the rage I felt as I walked across the Services car park to see the £14 overnight parking fee enforced by ANPR cameras. Absolutely seething I was. Could you see the signs in the dark? No.
I’d just park outside on a lane next time now that I know.

As for riding, Tebay all the way and last time I looked it wasn’t owned by a big corporation that charges for stopping more than 2 hours.

Poly

I’m sure there are folk who thoroughly acquaint themselves with individual car park etiquettes for every car park in and around the UK.

I wasn’t one of them.