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Parking ticket woes at Pearcefield Av (Sainsbury's) car park....
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gbrownings


Posts: 96
Joined: Aug 2012
Post: #1
04-03-2013 05:26 PM

Anyone here been stung by the Free parking scam being operated by Lewisham Council in Pearcefield Avenue (Sainsbury's) car park?

It is quite clever and nets the authority thousands of pounds a year from people who see the signs stating that parking is free for the first two hours but don't realise they still have to display a ticket.

Each year hundreds of Fixed Penalty Notices are pinned to windscreens as visitors fail to read the small print and are collared by the officious men on their little scooters doubtless enjoying nice little bonuses for bagging so many offenders.

And Lewisham don't even bother to run this cash cow themselves - it is outsourced to NSL Services.

I use the car park regularly and have lost count of the number of times I have seen these criminals (you know the sort; mums with children, elderly folk etc) return to their cars laden with shopping and are visibly shocked and in some cases physically upset to find they have a ticket. These are not small fines either.

So what is going on?

Parking is free for two hours so, anyone using the car park for less than this would obviously get a ticket if they realised they needed one - they obviously do not. Why would you not display a ticket if it was free?

So one can only conclude that the signage is inadequate. Cynics might go further and suggest that Lewisham is happy to have ambiguous signage in the car park so they can continue to enjoy an annual income (from parking tickets alone) of more than £60,000. Why would they change them?

The terms of use for the car park are on the left as you drive in - and easily missed. Once inside, there are signs asking if you have paid and displayed - fair enough. But if you then see that it is free for two hours people are presuming they don't need to display a ticket because they are not required to pay.

Some may say: "tough - read the signs." I think the council is, at best, being disingenuous. It saddens me to see people being penalised so harshly for such an innocent error/oversight with levels of fines so massively out of proportion to the offence (of not realising you needed a ticket to park for free).

It seems to me that Lewisham should look at the signage again and accept that something is not right.

Out of interest here are some statistics (thanks to the Freedom of Information Act) which I believe support my view that the people being penalised are those who do not realise they needed to display a ticket for their free period as opposed to people overstaying their time (and deserve less of our sympathy)

The total number of tickets issued for unlawful parking in the car park in Pearcefield Road, Forest Hill for the previous 5 years

2008/2009 - 1544
2009/2010 - 943
2010 2011 - 1060
2011/2012 - 1584

Figures for the number of tickets issued to motorists for failing to display a ticket.

2008/2009 - 1041
2009 /2010 - 686
2010/2011 - 884
2011 /2012 - 1219

The above were provided to me by Lewisham Council (so they could deduce themselves there was a problem if they so wished) and show what is surely a massively disproportionately high percentage of penalty notices being issued for not displaying a ticket (not overstaying) in a car park where it is free for two hours.

I plan to write to the head of Lewisham parking enforcement shortly, but would appreciate any thoughts, views, support, evidence, solutions from forum readers.

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Parking ticket woes at Pearcefield Av (Sainsbury's) car park.... - gbrownings - 04-03-2013 05:26 PM

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