I’m going to put this to you really strongly – if you’ve had too many beers one night around Brewer’s Quay and want to settle a score with someone then talk them into coming with you for a walk. You can rape or murder them in the Weymouth Old Town East car park. Why? The privately owned car park has no lighting at all, and you have a good 2 acres of total darkness in which to carry out your deeds unseen by anyone.
I write this for two reasons – public safety and people being caught out by unnecessary parking fines by the crooks who own the car park, Parking Eye. I have just appealed and won a case against them for deliberately poorly lighting the car park to catch people out when they park there at night.
On the evening of Tuesday 13 January I had to attend a meeting at a pub down that way. I’d driven two friends down that way with me and in pitch darkness we came to the understanding from the sign in the car park that I had to pay. The only light on the sign was from the ambient street lighting about 10 metres away, and the sign was facing away from it so was in shadow. I couldn’t tell how much and for how long so found a couple of quid and put it in the meter.
Parking Eye have installed low light Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras in the car park so though people who use the car park can’t see beyond their noses the company that owns it can see your number plates. As such I received a letter two weeks later that told me to pay them a ‘fine’ of £60 for overstaying the time I’d paid for. They provided photographic evidence.
I appealed to the jumped up car clamping company who naturally refused, and then to their industry body POPLA who took evidence from Parking Eye and I, and on Friday 8th April POPLA found in my favour. Parking Eye had sent in pictures of how easy it is to read the signage in bright sunlight but negated to send in photos of how hard it is to see them in the dark.
POPLA found: “Section 18 of the BPA Code of Practice explains that signs “must be conspicuous and legible and written in intelligible language, so that they are easy to see, read and understand”. As the operator is issuing a parking charge on the basis that the driver of the appellant’s vehicle did not comply with the terms and conditions of the car park, the burden of proof rests with the operator in showing that a contravention of the terms and conditions took place. The operator has failed to provide evidence of the signage present at the site in darkness…”
The car park is privately owned so the broke Weymouth and Portland Borough Council have washed their hands of lighting it. Parking Eye seem to think it is worth their while spending several thousand pounds on low light ANPR cameras (but no CCTV to catch any fee paying doggers, rapists or murderers) and no adequate lighting in the car park. Why? It is a good wheeze to catch people out and the company probably makes the bulk of its fines after dark.
That area of town is full of drunks at the weekends and during the holiday season. I don’t like parking in that car park even though I am 6ft, 15 stone and rather scary should someone jump me. I would not suggest any slight female go in there in her car after dark, unless of course she has a friend and has an idea of how much to pay from looking at the signage during the day.
I’m sure in the comments on Facebook around this article there will be people who say appeal every jumped up private car clamper’s decision anyway and go to Court as necessary as case law is firmly in your favour. That’s one of the reasons I appealed. The reason I am telling you this story is that Parking Eye’s wheeze to catch people out is also a public safety issue. That no serious incidents have taken place there (or at least any that I know of) is a surprise to say the least.
Rich Shrubb
