If it’s after, since the PPC’s got supreme court approval – then it has some relevance but you might have got lucky or in the case of binning letters, it might not have ‘gone away’ and you might be getting a CC summons next (or if you binned that too, a CCJ and a visit from the bailiffs)

I’ll say it again, regardless of any ruling in 2015 it’s just not financially viable for parking companies to take everyone who bins, ignores or appeals these invoices to court. It costs them more to take someone to court than they’ll ever gain in each individual case. Hence Parking companies are taking just a handful of people to court to prove a point and to get the news out there that ‘they’re playing hardball’ – so pay up or else!

Besides what’s the big deal if you get a court summons anyway? It’s very unlikely to happen but if it does come to this (I mean an actual court summons, not a letter threatening ‘next step, “last chance’ court or similar since many people confuse the two) just come to an out of court arrangement, normally 50% of what the original invoice was. Happy days!

My thoughts; parking eye- pay it.

Why? I’ve got away with 3 of their tickets by filing in the bin!

The fine is the fine, it’s on the sign.

Ooops beaten to it. It’s not a fine, it’s a speculative and exploitative invoice. Pay it if you feel it’s your civic and moral duty but you should ask yourself, did your parking actually inconvenience anyone? Did where you parked loose anyone some money? If so then find out who you’ve actually inconvenienced and perhaps apologize to them directly instead.

You will find that many of these car parking companies are run by nasty and cretinous individuals, the sort of individuals who used to go round clamping and who specialise in scaring the vulnerable. Do you really want to contribute towards supporting this sort of thing?

I would argue it’s in all our civic interests, whether we parked against the rules or not, never to pay these people. It’s the only way we’re ever going to get shot of such a bunch of bullies.

I don’t think I have the stomach to play hardball and risk CCJs

A CCJ can only go against your credit history if you fail to pay it within 30 days of the judgement. If you pay up no one will be any the wiser.

CCJ’s

Very, very unlikely to go that far though and if you get an actual court summons, just settle pre-court for a discounted fee.

Or follow the advice on Pepipoo and pay nothing

Yes true, but that involves work – and when I’m being billed to clients at an hourly rate then it’s just not worth it! Far easier to just ignore and 100% success rate with this route so far. No costs, no work, free fuel for the fire, it’s a win-win I’d say.

@agent pursuing the charge is worth it if they are confident they will win. Fact is they have people who chase people for a living, its their job. If they are not chasing people they have nothing to do

Nope not worth it at all, especially when you consider that the going rate for the sort of penalty/fees/costs the courts award seems to average in the region of £175. Costs to parking company of initially around £30 to register a case with the court, and around £300 if it actually goes to court. Then there’s the costs of employing someone at the company to manage these cases, paperwork, and also the cost for a solicitor should the case actually go to court.

Then there’s the out of court settlements – typically parking companies will settle for around 50% of the actual charge should they issue proceedings but the driver negotiates with them to pay a lower amount rather than go to court.

The only benefit to them is that by taking a tiny percentage of people to court (normally the soft targets), it perhaps puts the fear of god into the remaining 99.9% who would have otherwise just ignored the letters.

Think I’ll just keep on binning/burning letters – easiest way. In the unlikely event they actually take me to court (i.e. I’ve received official court notification and not just a threatening letter in red ink telling me of their intention to take me to court) then I’d just settle before for 50% off the bill at that stage. Simples!

All I’ll say is, if you’ve parked where I think you’ve parked, they will go all the way to small claims court. I speak from experience, twice

Really????? Hardly worth their while I’d have thought as pursuing any claim would cost them more in time/money than they’d gain from it? Not sustainable for them to take more than a few cases to court every now and then. Unless of course they’re using the odd court case here or there, and the publicity around it, to try and put the willies up people. Sounds like you’ve been incredibly unlucky!

I’ve had around 6 tickets over the last couple of years, think at least three of them were from Parking Eye who have a reputation for getting all legal. Never been taken to court yet. So at best guess have saved somewhere in the region of £600 – £1,000 and a whole load of hassle just by binning (or in the winter when the fire needs fuel, burning) the said letters. What would the court award if I got taken there, couple of hundred quid maximum? Still quids in and worth the risk I’d say.

Pepipoo seems to consist of people trying to wriggle out of charges through legal chicanery. Not interested in that – I can expense parking costs whilst at work

Don’t you mean full of people who are not prepared to pull their pants down, bend over and take a deep dicking from a group of Cowboys! Besides, you love a good argument – getting stuck into this sort of thing with a parking company would be perfect for you?

Despite the advice on the Pepipoo forum, if it’s too much hassle to appeal just do what I and lots of others do and just marvel at the increasing amount at red ink on each letter before binning said letters. Do this all the time and they always give up eventually.

If there was no parking at the office then why didn’t you just ask them when you got there, or phone when you arrived to see if they could sort a space for you? If you didn’t make any effort to do this then why should your work accept responsibiliy for your bad parking?

I think that it’s found its three presenters in Harrismonkey, Rory Reid and Matt LeBlanc. They can move forward and keep on doing what they’re doing, additional roles for Sabine, Jordan and anyone else for that matter (incuding Evans).

Too many presenters and as a result not enough time to bond with them properly.

So Evans has now gone and was 50/50 on him to be honest. Agree with the above Harris, Rory and Matt should be the chosen three – all are good and all add something. Eddie Jordan adds absolutely nothing to the show. Sabine I’m 50/50 on.

Star in a car is becoming increasingly tedious, the guests are dull (or downright obnoxious in the case of Gordon Ramsey) and I’m now find myself turning over the channel whilst this is on until the next feature starts. Where’s the ‘news’ section gone? – this was always one of the funniest bits with a nice few minutes of banter.

So how many people reading this the thread think the poor (working and not) will benefit from Brexit

Yes it’s like they’ve shot themselves in the foot isn’t it. Complain about the Polish taking their jobs but at least there were jobs to be taken. Not so sure any more.

is unelectable!

Banks in Singapore announce this morning that they are suspending loans on UK property – too risky at current prices apparently.

It’s up to you but remember a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush!

What an absolute bellend! Despite Brexit we’re supposed to work with the EU to get the best possible outcome, not take the piss out of them. Lets get shot of Farage before he embarrasses us all any further.

Nearly 1,000 flights to my name and never been charged for excess baggage despite I’d say approx 50% of those flights turning up overweight. Never Air China though.

First point of call is just arrive 2-3kg overweight. Be nice to the check in girl/guy, ask them about their day, smile, act like you’re a little unsure of things. 95% of the time they’ll turn a blind eye – have even got away in the past with being 5kg over with Ryanair check in using this approach.

On the rare occasion this doesn’t work, you’ll be made to add a couple of kilos – normally a token amount to your hand luggage. Have some spare room in this just in case.

If it’s a large bike bag and you thing you can get away with it then have the very end of it overhang the conveyor, with your hand luggage, or a foot placed directly underneath supporting the end of the bag – this will remove a few kilos from the weight shown on the scales. If it’s one of those new self weigh in type check in’s then Bingo, this approach is perfect. Alternatively a strand of thin, clear, almost invisible fishing wire attached to the end of your bag and held in your hand to apply 2-3kg of upward pressure should do the trick if you think the foot thing is too obvious.

Another option is to carry all your heavy items in your hand luggage and pad the bike big out with light bulky stuff. If it’s a rucksack sling it easily across one shoulder to make it look like it’s really light. I have never ever been asked to weigh hand luggage and have sometimes traveled with 15-20kg this way.

Final option if you’re not confident with the above is just add the 2-3kg extra en-route between the check in desk and the oversize baggage. The oversize baggage guy isn’t bothered how much the bag weighs (so long as it’s not over 32kg). Having said that, I’ve got away with 37kg once, the guy raised an eyebrow but it went through none the less.

Good luck.

Apart from:
1) The unelected Head of State
2) The unelected Upper House
3) The FPTP voting system that gave outright majority in the Lower House to a party obtaining only 33% of the vote
4) The tolerance of absolute lies from our elected representatives on the topic of said referendum

I didn’t say it was perfect but we’ve got it pretty damn good compared to most countries and you’re not going to fix anything by running away!

The irony of offering a lift to the airport to the sort of people who could help the UK is good, the **** off you lost mentality is exactly why people are thinking of leaving, exactly why people are angry. Remember all those amazing things you were promised? What are you doing to deliver them?

Hang on have a bit of patience, the dust hasn’t even settled yet – what were you expecting, for things all to be wrapped up in time for tea on Friday?

After much thought I voted remain in the end but the irony of people on here wanting to leave perhaps one of the most democratic countries in the world because they don’t like the fact it’s democratic enough to ask for its people’s opinion is quite ironic. I don’t like the result either but I think we’ll get a much better result long term, much like a marriage, if we work together constructively on this rather than just throwing our toys out of the pram at the first sign of adversity.

Also for those determined to move to Australia, lovely country yes but having worked there for a year, once you’re outside the major cosmopolitan cities I found it way, way more racist, homophobic, intolerant and inward looking than the UK. Australia isn’t in the EU, in fact it’s a big island a very long way from anywhere else and I found it quite insular compared to the UK. Apart from the severely downtrodden indigenous population there’s very little history or culture compared to Europe and I did start to miss that after a while.

Such a shame that people would just rather bail at the first signs of any trouble rather than offer something constructive to help smooth things over. The grass is not always greener people.

Trucks have about 14 gears each coveting a very small range. They need to keep at a constant speed or end up going up and down the gears which is a real pain. Cut them some slack

So what’s more of a pain, asking a single truck to travel at 0.5mph off it’s maximum limited speed by simply sitting behind another truck, or having two trucks, one slowly grinding its way past the other over several miles and holding up 20-30 cars in the process?

2) fitting of a black box accelerator thingy like some insurers supposedly offer to teenagers. Too much sharp acceleration/deceleration/swerving = loss of license for a period.

Absolute bull, a black box can’t tell whether you’re texting, whether or not you’ve had a drink, whether or not you’re in the appropriate lane, whether you cut someone up or not, whether you tailgate, whether your observation skills are up to scratch. Safe driving is so much more than the actual dynamics of the vehicle in question. Sometimes its prudent to use the full performance of your vehicle (in a planned way, not a reactionary way) to prevent a potentially dangerous situation developing into a close call or accident.

Furthermore I had to have a word with my young nephew after he tried to join the motorway at 40mph at the end of the sliproad the other week. His reasoning, well as a new driver the slower he accelerated then the cheaper his insurance!

Further compulsory training for all drivers every few years and more police on the roads monitoring driving standards are the only ways to significantly improve safety.

My record is 2 miles on a motorway (at night!) but you hear and see ones going on for a good 5 or 6 minutes, especially lorry vs lorry

Yes what the hell is the point of this – truck overtaking truck overtakes on dual carriageway? Goes on for miles sometimes and royally pisses off and delays everyone else behind in the process – all to acheive an extra 0.5mph!!!

Even got punishment passed by a truck in the car last week for doing 50 on a dual carriageway.

That’s harsh in your case but to be fair the majority of time the people who do 50 on a dual carriageway and get passed by trucks genuinely don’t seem to have a clue what they’re doing and probably shouldn’t be on the road any more. VW polo on the A14 doing approx 55mph last week with a truck doing 56mph trying to get past it in the right hand lane. Took about 3 miles to complete the overtake. Not sure who’s more selfish or ignorant in that case, the car or the truck driver. Both idiots IMO.

They are bloody useless – you’d think that when you’re considering spending £250k on a property (a flat in our case) that the agent would at least arrive for the appointment knowing the basics about the property, e.g. what council tax band, how much is the ground rent and service charge, how long left on the lease, which car parking space comes with it? – all that sort of thing. But no, they don’t even have this sort of information to hand. Basic stuff guys!

To put into perspective, I’ve had better and more knowledgeable service down at the local outdoor store spending £100 on a pair of walking boots than we did when buying our £250k property!

Agree, because of the focus on speed, half the population seem to now think as long as they stick to the speed limit then that makes them a good, safe law abiding motorist. Nothing further from the truth of course.

Some people are safer driving at 80 than other folk driving at 40 on the same stretch of NSL road. I’d far rather get into a car driven sometimes over the speed limit by a well trained, skilled, observant and courteous driver than I would get into a car with someone driving well under the speed limit who seems seems to possess none of the above.

Have a friend high up in the car industry working on this stuff – autonomous cars still at least 15-20 years away. Problem is not the cars, they could be autonomous now if the system was built from scratch, it’s the existing infrastructure, legal and liability aspects plus other traffic on the road that’s the challenge.

The reason driving is getting worse is because of the police/government/safety brigade etc being completely obsessed about speeding rather than ‘safe driving’. Since the roads are now mostly policed by cameras, so long as people don’t speed then they can get away with drink driving, tailgating, middle lane hogging, aggressive maneuvers, texting, you name it.

To make matters worse, because of the above a huge percentage of the driving population now seem to drive well below the speed limit, just to be sure it would seem. Lost track of the amount of times I’ve followed someone in a perfectly good car holding everyone else up at 40mph on a clear, safe NSL road. It’s no wonder people behind get frustrated and might be tempted to take a risk.

What would make driving safer is more police on the road rather than cameras, having to attend attending compulsory further driver training say every 5-10 years, and a focus on ‘bad driving’ and courtesy on the road rather than speeding.

No one’s saying that shops shouldn’t offer P&C spaces if they so wish, or that they’re not a good idea. Some of us are just saying that if you arrive at the supermarket and someone you deem less worthy than you is parked in one of them them then ‘so what’, drive on find another space. No need to throw your toys out of the pram.

Jeeees, if you get stressed about stuff like this then perhaps deciding to have kids was a PLC (poor life choice).

So people on here have kids, buy a big SUV to protect said kids (sorry – squash the other vehicle in an accident), and then expect everyone else to ‘make way’ for them. Hey we’re far more important than you because we have kids don’t you know :D

Were things really much better in 1979 when over five times as many child pedestrians were killed on the roads?

The main reason that so many child pedestrians don’t get killed/hurt on the road anymore is because most kids aren’t allowed to play outdoors these days, don’t go anywhere unless they’re driven and remain mostly indoors, wrapped in cotton wool surfing YouTube on their iPads.

Sure, less deaths on the road but equally THIS or perhaps THIS

People used to get on perfectly fine without P&T spaces. But we’re an advanced and progressive society and in progressive societies we think and consider things like this. Unfortunately not every member of the public are advanced or progressive.

If advanced and progressive means that people now expect everything given to them on a plate or think that just because something’s been provided then it’s their god given right (like a stroppy teenager) to kick up a fuss if someone else they deem less worthy than themselves happens to be using it then that’s a real shame.

Yes, when I was a kid asbestos was all the rage, as was lead paint. Handguns were legal. No one had to wear seatbelts. There were no car seats for kids. No air bags either.

All these safety interventions were pointless, because I managed perfectly fine and didn’t die.

Don’t be a Dick :roll:

Cars are getting bigger.

Haha, well if mums these days insist on driving round in SUV’s then what do you expect?

And what happens when he simply parks in another normal space and later returns, with a load of shopping and a baby in a carry cot, to find that someone has parked next to him and he now can’t get the door open wide enough to get the baby in?

Used to manage perfectly fine with our two in the days before P&T spaces? Never even gave it a second thought.

I tap on the window. “Hi mate, you’re in a child space and I could really do with it. Could you move please?” Him: “**** off”. Me: “OK well thanks anyway. Enjoy your pie.”

Short of actually having a fight in a car park whilst your children watch, there’s nothing you can do.

So let me get this – so rather than simply going to find another space (or double space if you must open your door fully), you’d rather get out of the car to go and knock on a strangers window whilst leaving your car as an obstruction in the middle of the access roadway (presumably with said child also in the unattended car)!

The mind boggles!!! Really wonder how on earth people used to cope 10 years ago before parent and child spaces started becoming common?

Surely it would make sense in these modern days of childhood obesity to put the parent and child spaces right at the back of the carpark? Let the little cherubs get used to some excersize?

I’d say older cars are often better to drive. Better visibility, more steering feel, lighter, more character, simpler to fix when they go wrong. New cars are pretty bland and ‘samey’ really.

Just call his bluff, tell him that’s fine to go through insurance and that your dash cam footage will prove whose right. Ask for his full insurance details if you don’t already have them. Old car or not how does he know you wont have one? Then just leave it with him and tell him that if you’ve not heard from him within a specific time frame, you’ll move things forward with the insurance. He did have insurance didn’t he? If he doesn’t then a threat to call police is all you need.

Do NOT ignore parking eye stuff..

I’ve had five or six tickets from Parking Eye over the last few years. All of them including subsequent correspondence have gone into the wood burner. They’ve not taken me to court yet :)

To be honest the new format is just confusing. Too many presenters doing too many things! Why not have a core team of 3-4 who do everything so we’d stand a chance to get to know them? Not watched the aftershow but does TG really need an aftershow? Shouldn’t the most exciting content be in the main show anyway?

I am alone in thinking that Damian Lewis is a bit of a smug ****?

Nope we all thought the same, totally up himself, but then again went to tidy the kitchen after a couple of minutes of SIARPC. Came back to watch afterwards.

If they insist on keeping SIARPC going then they really need some more interesting and worthy guests than this dull bloke, and Gordon Ramsey who came across as not a very nice man.

There are sports that are WAY more dangerous than competing in the TT yet no one wants to ban them or remove most of the risk. High altitude mountaineering, technical diving (mixed gas, rebreather stuff), BASE jumping etc. The TT is pretty safe in comparison!

Personally I doubt your tenants will thank you for popping over every week to mow the lawn, they need to have the right to enjoy the property in privacy without undue interference from the landlord. If you’re that worried about the garden, get a gardener to give it a once over every month and include this as part of the rent.