£2.50 per second to park in Margate

[TonyF12]

In May my wife and I drove to Margate, Kent to visit the Turner Contemporary art gallery. When we arrived we went straight to their Turner Contemporary designated car park. Their payment system was out of order and their ticket machine would not accept any of my three valid payment cards. So we drove off and abandoned our visit to the gallery. Two weeks later I received a demand for £100 because they had photo evidence that we had spent 40 seconds longer than the statutory initial ten minutes grace period in the car park. I contacted Turner Contemporary as soon as I received the charge demand, and they did not reply apart from an acknowledgement email to say that I would hear from them within 5 days which has never happened.

I sent an appeal to the parking company and the appeal was rejected because they said they had no evidence of any failure of their system. Not much of an argument really. If I made a claim against a restaurant for food poisoning if I became ill and all they could find to say was that others had eaten in their restaurant and not had food poisoning, that would not be sufficient to cancel my complaint.

What should I do next? I have not appealed to POPLA because their reputation by way of feedback on the internet is very discouraging. Should I just pay the £100 "under protest" and go straight to Small Claims Court to get my money back? I have read about the 2015 Barry Beavis case but this case seems rather different and £2.50 per second for a 40 second excess seems more vexatious than exemplary, especially in the overall context.

Thank you!

[echat11]

Hi TONYF12

Welcome to LB

Send the parking firm a Subject Access Request, they have 30 days to respond to your request. Make
sure you get Proof of Postage. Request CCTV footage of your visit to the car park. That will show your
attempts to make payment.

https://legalbeagles.info/library/gu...ccess-request/

See what they comeback with, update the thread.

[des8]

I would also complain to the Gallery, using their complaints policy and procedure (https://turnercontemporary.org/compl...and-procedure/).
Remind them they are a charity, but ignoring the public who come to visit is not a way to garner support.
I would go over the head of administration manager, directly to the Director,  Clarrie Wallis
Tell her you now expect to have a response confirming they are instructing the parking management company to cancel the charge,
Mention that you haven't yet left a review on Trust Pilot

[TonyF12]

Thank you very much. I'll draft letters and post them tomorrow.
Tony

[TonyF12]

I received a rather aggravated telephone call from the Director of Turner Contemporary Clarrie Wallis yesterday - the first contact I have received from the gallery since sending them six unanswered letters and one unanswered email. She is under a lot of pressure from pro Palestine protesters and understandably that is upsetting her.

When we got to talk about Smart Parking Ltd.'s demand for £100 for 40 seconds worth of "parking", she told me that the gallery was sympathetic and that the gallery's relationship with the operation of the car park was very much one of arm's length, and a relationship she did not enjoy. According to the Director, the relationship is entirely between Kent County Council and Smart Parking Ltd.. Clarrie gave me two names to contact at KCC and I emailed one of them yesterday afternoon. I sent a Subject Access Request to the Data Protection Officer at KCC, also a Freedom of Information request to KCC's FoI Office for details of all the CCTV on the site.

Looking at the 30 days notice for SAR and 20 days notice for FoI I reasoned that I would have to pay Smart Parking's demand "under protest", then go to Small Claims Court. Their preferred modus operandi is that of running deadlines to the wire, summarily dismissing appeals, and then engaging a Debt Collecting Agency. I cannot risk debt collection to damage me reputationally among clients.

When I told the Director that this dispute would probably end up in court sooner or later she was insistent that I could have no claim against Turner Contemporary. Smart Parking is irregular and obstructive to deal with and it might be (or might not be) easier to pursue KCC or the gallery.

[atticus]

It sounds like you want to get the gallery director on your side and not to aggravate her. Maybe she can help you by providing information about the number of complaints they receive.

[des8]

Also note that debt collection activities cannot harm your reputation.
As yet their is no debt, just a parking company trying to collect an unpaid disputed invoice.

Only if it goes to court and you lose and fail to pay the judgment award will your credit records be affected, and the chances are that not so Smart parking will discontinue before court

[TonyF12]

Thank you.

I have since heard from serior managers at Kent County Council. The Leader's Office wrote to me and say they have written to Smart Parking giving them seven days to reconsider. The office reckons closer inspection of Smart Parking's claim against me is for only 10 seconds overstay. That would be ridiculous on its own without the context of having been prevented from making a payment by their tech. being out of order.

I do not want any hint of involvement of debt collectors. I have a squeaky clean track record and intend to keep it that way.

What horrible people. In contrast, I had a minor incident three years ago with APCOA and they could not have been more grown up to deal with - everything resolved in a civil way in 24 hours, complete with cancelled ticket and apology.

[des8]

Good luck and please continue to keep us updated