No notice of car park rules
Tuesday 7th April 2009, 10:00AM BST.
LETTER: On March 30 we visited the Telford Forge Retail Park.
After shopping at Sainsbury’s (till receipt timed at 11.45am) we returned to our car which was parked in the vicinity of the TK Maxx store.
We needed to visit Halfords, so we walked the short distance to Halfords returning within ten minutes to shop at the TK Maxx store.
We returned to the car to discover a parking charge notice for £70 from Euro Car Parks. The notice was timed at 11.53am.
The details on the ticket stated “left car park on foot. Customer car park only”.
The time on the T K Maxx till receipt was 12.16pm. From leaving Sainsbury’s to leaving T K Maxx the total time was 31 minutes. Nowhere could we find a notice that you could not leave the car park on foot.
We will appeal.
Mr and Mrs Gamble
Newport
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I’d be asking them to provide video proof that you actually left the retail park, no proof…they can’t touch you! Appeal it, I would.
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That’s a new one on me. If they can tell you where the notices are, please could you let us all know? I truly hope that you win your appeal.
I also hope they remove the pedestrian crossing between the retail parks as I’m sure that only encourages foot traffic to flow between the two. It also slows down the traffic, which now appears to be the only legitimate way of moving between the sites.
While they’re at it, they should embed spikes in the pavements and remove the decorative steps and exits from the car parks. You wouldn’t want to be fooled into thinking you’re allowed to use them, would you?
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Nonsense pay the 70pound fine and be done with it. Car Parks are for the use of people who visit the shops connected to that carpark hence your fine. I know plenty of people who seek to avoid paying at Telford Town centre car park and park on the retail car parks 10 min away this is annoying when you spend ages trying to park on a weekend at Forge retail car park so good on them for cracking down on this behaviour
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That is disgusting!
If you want to drive to Halfords it is now a total mess! The whole area up there is a nightmare to get into and out of since it was so thoughtfully redesigned! Much better to leave the car and walk. It probably took less time to get there and back AND shop than it would just to get there by car.
This is madness.
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I have every sympathy with Mr. & Mrs. Gamble. It’s not like they parked and the Forge and legged it off across the road – they had spent some time and made some purchases there. I think the local councillor should be taking this up with EuroCarparks as an environmental issue at least. Incidentally I never have trouble finding a parking space on the Forge on a retail therapy trip most likely because I do not insist on parking right outside the store I’m visiting as other’s I’ve observed do. If you’re not doing a weekly shop at Sainsbury’s it does you no harm (able body permitting) to walk across the car park to the shopping establishment of your choice!
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Y Mab Darogan
What a wally you are with that comment.
If you read the previous posts you will see that this is just another of those car parking scams that are designed to trick people.
And I assume Telford car park charges are such that you can’t blame people parking elswhere.
We haven’t all got ‘£70 to pay the fine and have done with it’
I’ll bet if get slapped by one of these rogue companies you’ll be the first to whine like a little girl.
By the way, as a fellow Welshman, give the Welsh lingo bit a miss, it’s very juvenile on an English speaking site.
It’s nutters like you who make us English only speakers resent the ‘Welsh speaking mafia’
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I’m sure this is to stop people parking by TK Maxx then going to Halfords and the rest of the centre on foot. They clearly didn’t realise that the shopping had been done on their actual retail park as well. Or are they trying to say ‘park free’ by TK Maxx and if you then need to go into the centre you need to go back and move your car onto a pay car park – if that’s the case then why are their footpaths between, plus tkmaxx, sainsburies, next et al really need to consider this because a lot of people go there for the free parking and walk into the centre, but do stop in tkmaxx etc. They will lose those impulse purchasers.
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Ian W – I cannot believe that you are a Welshman who cannot speak Welsh – I’m multilingal and proud of it and my country.
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I am just a simple bloke so can someone please explain this regulation to me!
When my wife goes shopping in Sainsburys and Tescos does this mean that I am forbidden to stroll across to B&Q etc by myself whilst she is spending money?
Give me strength–Jobsworths rule, OK.
BTW,
“Y Mab Darogan said: Apr 7th, 2009 at 12:47
Nonsense pay the 70pound fine and be done with it. Car Parks are for the use of people who visit the shops connected to that carpark hence your fine.”
You may be multi-lingual but you seem unable to understand the facts in this case. Mr & Mrs Gamble DID use the shops connected to the car park. Leaving the car in the car-park and going to the town centre is an entirely different matter.
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Disgraceful. The till receipts confirm they didn’t park for long and continued to shop in the area, so go ahead appeal – for what its worth. Good luck, you will need it.
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Harry Pope – I did not say they had done but that is why parking is being cracked down on in this area. Whate benefit would Tesco and Sainsbury receieve from people parking for free and going shopping to the town centre?
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Thanks for giving me another reason never to visit Telfords shopping areas. If a town does not give me free parking with no risk of “fines” by a parking company I do not visit it. My spending money goes elsewhere. Use the internet and save money, cheaper prices and delivered to your door. The traders need to get a grip on councils and site owners if they are not to lose much of their trade through parking costs.
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What a terrible state our country has become when you can’t even walk away from a car park (for WHATEVER REASON) and have that fact monitored in such a way that you can be fined.
Are we saying that “you” CAN’T leave the carpark AT ALL? (with your car still parked there) – that you MUST shop ONLY within those shops directly bordering the carpark?
This really needs investigation surely ?
I CANNOT believe all this – it seems TOTALLY outrageous to me that someone parking in this car park, who actually can PROVE they’ve spent money in the shops adjoining it, can then be identified as actually leaving the car park on foot (And THAT really beggars belief) and then subsequently fined.
Really – just what is this country coming to?
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this is a stealth tax by labour and the eu
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another way for the council to earn more moeny from our hard working tax payers
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Don’t worry until they write to your address (don’t give them yours or any other contact details!). As I understand, they can’t get your details from DVLA so can not issue a summons in any case. I read something about this in the Shropshire Star Column written by Jonathan Mason of Clarkes Solicitors.
As for when are you a customer and when are you not – well that’s very interesting. Surley you remain a customer if you walked to the other retail area to check the sofa in one retail park would match the curtains in the other one?
Surley you cease to be a customer when you have made a decision to no-longer shop at that park, that day? Mereley leaving on foot to make a comparison at a near by park means you are still a customer as you intend to return and shop? Your abscence is still in fact a part of the shopping process at the original park. Or will they slap tickets on cars when they see shoppers chatting and not shopping?
Anyway, even if you left on foot, what’s to say that someone else in the car hadn’t remained in the park to continue shopping and therefore the car was for the remaining ‘shopper’?
Can the attendant proove that your ‘friend’ also left on foot? Did they wait to see all of you get back in and leave?
Or had you met a neighbour there who had gone on the bus, but you offered a lift back in your car and when over to Halfords while they were finishing their shopping, therefore the car remained whilst your neighbour remained shopping.
I would never encourage anyone to pervert the course of justice, but these are questions that need answers to in my unprofessional opinion.
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Y Mab Darogan said: “I’m multilingal and proud of it and my country”
I was wondering Y Mab, does your country have these petty rules and fines?
I alway park by Maplin and walk across – thats the only way I will go in the Town Centre. Looks like I won’t be going anymore. Thank heavens for out-of-town retail parks!
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And another thing: Even if Euro Parks can get your address from DVLA, it will be the registered keepers – not necessarily the driver.
These ‘fines’ are under contract law, i.e. by entering the car park and observing the signs, the driver enters a contract which is enforceable in law.
However, unlike a Speed Camera ticket where the Registered Keeper is obliged by criminal law to reveal the driver, under civil contract law, the Registered Keeper doesn’t.
Just say yes my car but I wasn’t driving it (even if you were a passenger it is the driver that makes the contract) and I’m not tell you who was.
Absolutely nothing you they can do and I would be surprised if a judge would make a CCJ against you for the debt if Euro Parks didn’t have good evidence to show that the Registered Keeper was the driver.
Of course I could be wrong.
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When you park your car in a car park you pay for the space by the hour. So what’s it matter where you go from there, they’re still charging swingeing prices.
I parked in the Asda car park and my wife and I spent 3 hours and 3 minutes in the Shopping centre. I was shocked to find that 3 hours and 1 minute is equivalent to 1 whole day and was forced to pay six pounds to get out of the car park. No wonder people shoot through the barrier close behind the car in front.
I will never again shop in the town centre, I can get all I need in several other localities such as Wellington market, Morrisons, Asda Donnington, etc without paying a penny to park.
So stuff the town centre.
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I wish that they would fine the inconsiderate drivers that park in the parent and child spaces without even having children in the car!
That would be better than fining someone for walking over to the other retail park, which I always assumed were operated by the same people?
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