Council chief says: 'Don't pay your fines' (From Oxford Mail)

He's quite right - in many (but not all) cases, private firms don't have the right to enforce fines. The Consumer Action Group website has lots of information about this.

FUlly afree - don't pay these cowboys anything . Ignore it they have to try to recover the money from the indivdual who broke the contract , that is not the same as the registered owner of the vehicle. They have no way of making you tell them who was driving and they will not take it any further as they cannot prove who they had a contract with!

If you pay nothing, they will have to take you to court, which they won't, because they know it'll cost them a fortune, and they'll lose.
Good for Keith Mitchell, thinking outside the box for a change.

As usual, Keith Mitchell has got his facts wrong.

As I understand it, private firms currently have a right to charge for parking if the facts are clearly stated where the driver can see them. This year, the government is supposed to be taking action to regulate private parking firms, but don't hold your breath.

Meanwhile Keith omits to mention that private firms may clamp your car and charge you to have it unclamped. Whether this is illegal or not, it's an unpleasant situation to be in.

The bigger question is why you have to go so far to collect a parcel in Littlemore. That dire office serves the whole of Oxford and often has a queue. Parking seems minimal too. Not a first-class service from Royal Mail, I think.

Cllr Mitchell seems to think it's optional to pay for things depending on whether you agree with it or not, especially parking on private land.

I'll remember that next time I get a Council tax bill, and next time I fancy parking in the car park outside County Hall. Dead handy for the shops it is.

Milkbutnosugarplease wrote:
The bigger question is why you have to go so far to collect a parcel in Littlemore. That dire office serves the whole of Oxford and often has a queue. Parking seems minimal too. Not a first-class service from Royal Mail, I think.

There's also the Sorting Office in Oxpens, so it's not the only one, but I hear where you're coming from.

Oxonian wrote:
As usual, Keith Mitchell has got his facts wrong.

As I understand it, private firms currently have a right to charge for parking if the facts are clearly stated where the driver can see them. This year, the government is supposed to be taking action to regulate private parking firms, but don't hold your breath.

Meanwhile Keith omits to mention that private firms may clamp your car and charge you to have it unclamped. Whether this is illegal or not, it's an unpleasant situation to be in.

They clamp because that way you have to pay to be released. Otherwise they have to prove who entered the car park. Not who owns the vehicle. It is up to them to do all the running on this you do not have to tell them anything. They will not know who entered the car park so will not risk trying to go to court. Remember this NOT a fine, they make it look like a fine and use threatening language in their letters but just ignore it. They have to take you to court for breach of contract so chances of this happening are zero. By all means pay up if you want to but why bother if there is no need to?

Oxonian wrote:
As usual, Keith Mitchell has got his facts wrong.

As I understand it, private firms currently have a right to charge for parking if the facts are clearly stated where the driver can see them. This year, the government is supposed to be taking action to regulate private parking firms, but don't hold your breath.

Meanwhile Keith omits to mention that private firms may clamp your car and charge you to have it unclamped. Whether this is illegal or not, it's an unpleasant situation to be in.

Did you know that private firms, including some based near the Royal Mail collection point also hire Bolt Cutters by the hour?

Also, some private firms will "tow" away a clamped car (on your behalf) and deliver it to your private drive for considerably less than the firm that clamped it in the first place...

Milkbutnosugarplease wrote:
The bigger question is why you have to go so far to collect a parcel in Littlemore. That dire office serves the whole of Oxford and often has a queue. Parking seems minimal too. Not a first-class service from Royal Mail, I think.

It's called running down the service to prime it for privatisation.

MrsPloppy wrote:

Milkbutnosugarplease wrote:
The bigger question is why you have to go so far to collect a parcel in Littlemore. That dire office serves the whole of Oxford and often has a queue. Parking seems minimal too. Not a first-class service from Royal Mail, I think.

It's called running down the service to prime it for privatisation.

Move to N. Oxford Luv. We have a very nice man just down the road near the ice rink that does ours for us.

There seems to be some confusion here over what is a "parking charge". Nobody objects to paying a fee to park on private land. What private parking companies can't demand is a "penalty" if you break one of their "rules" such as staying too long or having a wheel touching a white line. Under civil law the parking company/landowner can only claim for the actual materiel loss suffered and not some arbitrary "penalty". A recent court case involving Parking Eye demonstrated this fact. The parking company demanded hundreds of pounds. They were only awarded £15 which was the cost of two pay and display tickets.