Cameras To Catch Dallying Shoppers, £75 fine rising to £150 if you over-stay Options

[GG]

And to think that some retailers are struggling to get the punters in, and now we have one who will fine them for staying too long!

Big Brother CCTV cameras will be used to take up to 60 pictures of every car's number plate at an organic food store's car park.

The high-resolution monitors, which are claimed to be environmentally friendly, are in place at Whole Foods store in Giffnock.

And they record several images of each vehicle as it enters and leaves the car park.

Drivers who stay beyond two-and-a-half-hours will be fined £75, rising to £150 if it is not paid within 14 days. ...

Full story here:
http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/mobile/news/...lcome-1.1148820

GG.

[mlconnelly]

Read this tonight and dont think I'll be shopping there anytime soon as I like to take my time when I'm shopping somewhere new and usually end up spending a fair amount of money. I'm not a fan of these Big Brother attitudes. Mary

[wombat]

must be merr cameras ower there than peepul

[Rabbie]

Makes good business sence, if yer having a closing down sale.

[wombat]

make everywan in government werr a camera 24/7 wid'nt we all get a surprise at their antics?

[d.c.]

Drivers who stay beyond two-and-a-half-hours will be fined £75, rising to £150 if it is not paid within 14 days. ...

Who would need or want to stay more that two-and-a-half hours in an organic food store ?

Surely this must be to deter illegal parking by those who park at the store and then jump on a train or bus into Glasgow.

Illegal parking such as that is a problem for genuine Springfield Quay customers, due to those who park there for the whole day and just walk across the bridge to their city centre workplaces.

Harry Ramsdens has had similar problems, and has now introduced parking charges/fines for non customers.

[tombro]

For goodness sake, it's an organic food store, so the only people who shop there, out of respect to the environment, will either walk or ride bicycles.

As a result, the only people they are booking for overstaying the parking limit are interlopers who deserve to be fined appropriately for defacing the tarmac of their car parks and the air around them with the rubber from their tyres and the smoke from the exhausts of their fossil fuel burning cars !

These people have already refused to let smoke belching buses pass their shops so they have to rely on walkers or cyclists for their multi-millionaire profits !

Tombro

[Scotsman]

Read this in the paper also. My thoughts are that okay there might be people using the car park when they are maybe not supposed to but even then its good news for the company because I bet a lot of them will still do a bit of shopping there cause its right where there car is parked. BUT what I do resent is that once more we have a company going the high tec and big brother route as they are going to record and store loads of data about people just because they MIGHT be parking for longer than supposed to. Remember that genuine customers car data will also be recorded and stored in yet another invasion of our rights to go about our business without being watched constantly!!

[john.mcn]

They cant fine anyone, all they can do is issue a 'parking charge' for loss of revenue (for a free car park??) to the driver of the vehicle, and seeing they dont photograph that person how can they prove who the contract is with. They will send 'threatening' letters to the registered keeper 'inviting' them to reveal the driver at the time but you are under no obligation to reveal that. I have been receiving this crap from different debt collection agencies (apparently if you dont pay the 'debt' is sold/passed on) for an over stay at a 'free' car park a year ago. I have no intention of either paying or informing them of the driver . It wont go to court because they know they cant win. A Lawyer in the family is at times pretty good

[Jupiter]

Sky News reports that 4 people have been jailed in England;owners of Midland Parking Contracts for intimidating behaviour.

[fourbytwo]

Worry that owners of Silverburn may read these posts...
Regularily drop daughter off at Tesco early in morning, and see same 20/30 cars still parked at door when i go down some 7 hours later......
Mind you I was asked to move-on down at Asda, mid-afternoon on an Ibrox Home Match, as the wee guy stated I had been parked for over 2 hours...
Pulling on his sleeve, so he could see my Blue Badge, on the car,......I told him to F*** Off....
Several disabled bays were occupied by non-badge holders, but he did not seem interested in that...!

[GG]

The same scheme, run by the same London-based firm, was used for a short time in Newport until a decent local councillor stepped in to convince the car park owners that the scheme was not good for business. We will wait and see if the are is a decent local councillor serving Giffnock.

Controversial car parking restrictions, which have snared motorists in Newport, have been abolished.

Campaigner Cllr Jon Gilbey, who took up the cases of scores of motorists caught out in the car park, which serves Staples, Pizza Hut and other businesses, was this week celebrating victory.

Last time his 'victory’ was short-lived, when penalties for the 6pm to 6am period were brought back without warning.

It was after the operator, Civil Enforcement Ltd, changed its name to Creative Parking Solutions that motorists again received tickets from the end of June.

But this time, Cllr Gilbey has received an assurance from agents Nelson Bakewell, acting for Axa Insurance, the owner of the car park.

Nelson Bakewell director, David King, said: "Creative Parking Solutions enforcement contract has been terminated and their number plate recognition system disabled. Therefore there should be no further penalty notices for parking in the car park after 6pm, although the parking restrictions before 6pm will still apply."

Cllr Gilbey said: "I personally spoke to the managing director of Axa and I think he took on board the damage that was being done to his company’s reputation.

"It is great news this unjust system that caught out so many people has been lifted."

Motorists received £150 penalty notices for parking longer than 90 minutes, cut to £75 if paid within a fortnight.

Bills for some who have not paid have climbed to £286. But financial adviser Jon Platt, who has represented several clients threatened with enforcement, maintained that he knew of no cases that had tested the point of contract law in the Isle of Wight County Court.

GG.

[Rab-oldname]

Nothing much new here - stores have been enforcing parking at their own car-parks for donkeys. The cameras are just another aid to catching offenders - nothing 'Big Brother' about it. Who wants to overstay a 2.5 hour stay anyway?

[ashfield]

The same scheme, run by the same London-based firm, was used for a short time in Newport until a decent local councillor stepped in to convince the car park owners that the scheme was not good for business. We will wait and see if the are is a decent local councillor serving Giffnock.


GG.

GG, you don't have to go that far. Apart from major supermarkets and motorway service stops charging when you overstay, several shopping centre car parks are doing it. Kirkintilloch and Rutherglen operate similar systems.