Parking tickets issued in the South car park.

[Ram@Lincoln]

On Saturday, despite having a car park season ticket for the new season, myself and many others had parking tickets issued by the council. On the club website here; https://www.dcfc.co.uk/news/2022/07/202223-season-ticket-information-confirmed it says that pre friendly matches are included.

However, I received a parking ticket from the council despite my proof of purchase of the car park season ticket and the information from the club above. Fortunately, following appeal the council have now cancelled the ticket. However, they are saying that friendlies aren't included in the car park season ticket and a separate parking ticket is needed, when the club say that the car park season tickets are included.

The council's logic here doesn't make sense, if the club has got their terms wrong with the council and friendlies aren't included, then fair enough the fine stands and it's to be taken up with the club for false information (and letting me into the car park with the car season ticket). On the other hand, if the club is correct and the friendlies are included then why is the council saying otherwise and only letting me off as a seeming favour due to the facts I have presented to them from the club website?

Following the game, I saw a number of cars with tickets on and the car park steward said he'd had many people complain to him. Hopefully everyone can get their ones cancelled.

[Gaspode]

The problem is that you're assuming the council are capable of logic....

They know they screwed up, but they're not going to publicly admit that as they'd have to cancel all the tickets/refund everyone - as it stands, they can sit back and wait for people to contact them for a refund.....and keep the money from those that pay up without making a fuss....

If I was you, I'd contact the DET - they'd love a story about the council that claims to supportt the club issuing fines to fans that have legitimately paid for their parking....

[Ram@Lincoln]

7 minutes ago, Gaspode said:

The problem is that you're assuming the council are capable of logic....

They know they screwed up, but they're not going to publicly admit that as they'd have to cancel all the tickets/refund everyone - as it stands, they can sit back and wait for people to contact them for a refund.....and keep the money from those that pay up without making a fuss....

If I was you, I'd contact the DET - they'd love a story about the council that claims to supportt the club issuing fines to fans that have legitimately paid for their parking....

I've written back to the council and to the club's supporter liaison officer to see if clarification can be gained. As you say, the council seemingly are trying to save face and know they screwed up. My concern now is when I return to the car following the Leicester game, am I going to get another ticket and have to go through this faff again? 

It seems like a utter waste of time to all involved as Derby provide the council car park stewards to vet each car going into the car park on a match day. If you don't have a valid car park ticket then you are simply turned away. The car park is now £180 so isn't exactly a cheap way of parking, but with the money (hopefully) going to the club and the guaranteed parking space it's worth it for my family.

[LazloW]

Could be a genuine misunderstanding or mistake by both the club and/or the Council (but everyone likes to give the Council a kicking!).  Might also be an over zealous warden who made an error (the Council probably aren’t going to push them under the bus).

The good thing is it got sorted, albeit it wasted your time and probably caused a degree of concern and frustration.  Things like this shouldn’t happen, but they do. 

The DET do love a story like this though - even though ‘Council mistakenly fine people parking at Pride Park but cancelled it so all’s well that ends well’ isn’t really much of a story.

Edited July 20, 2022 by LazloW

[Ram@Lincoln]

5 minutes ago, LazloW said:

Could be a genuine misunderstanding or mistake by both the club and/or the Council (but everyone likes to give the Council a kicking!).  Might also be a over zealous warden who made an error (the Council probably aren’t going to push them under the bus).

The good thing is it got sorted, albeit it wasted your time and probably caused a degree of concern and frustration.  Things like this shouldn’t happen, but they do. 

The DET do love a story like this though - even though ‘Council mistakenly fine people parking at Pride Park but cancelled it so alls we’ll that ends well’ isn’t really much of a story.

Agreed, it's not worth the DET getting involved. For me, the issue is sorted. For the others with tickets, I hope they manage to get theirs cancelled too. It does seem a confusion between the club and council, I just hope it's clarified for the weekend. As said, I've written to the council asking for clarification so fingers crossed get it in time. If I do, I'll post it here.

[Mucker1884]

@Ram@Lincoln,

You mention the barrier letting you in with your parking season ticket.

(I'm not familiar with these car parks).  Is it a pay & display, or grab a ticket on the way in, and pay on the way out?

Do you display any form of pass in the windscreen?  How does the entry work?

 

Sorry, not even sure why I'm asking, as I'm not affected.  Just curious I guess.  Glad to see you're all sorted now though.  Hate these sort of c*** ups!

I got a parking charge through the post just before covid (Sept '19), from cameras (Parking Eye?) at the car park at the hotel down near Eurotunnel.  I was booked in to the hotel, staying the night, and it included free on site parking.
We arrived mid afternoon.  Registered the car reg at the hotel reception as we booked in.  Nipped out a couple of hours later, for a couple of hours in the evening, before returning to park up for the night.  Then left again at 7am to be on our way.
The Parking Charge guys did me for the first session of parking!
They wouldn't enter into any form of communication other than mentioning their official complaints procedure, and mumbling something about legal procedures and potential court costs!

One quick call to the hotel reception... forwarded to the hotel manager... and the whole thing was written off within 48 hours!  Apologies from the hotel, but none whatsoever from Parking Eye.  To55ers!  

[Grumpy Git]

During the first lock-down my Mrs popped-out to our local Boots for an emergence prescription. This is on an "out of town" retail park.

The car park must be 100+ acres, but at the time there wasn't more than 10 cars in the whole area and she had parked with one wheel over the bay white line. Next week a £100 parking fine arrives for "not parking within the confines of the bay" with a photograph (no other cars whatsoever in the image).

Took me a few emails to the retail park owner (not the rip-off parking wardens) before it was cancelled.

Total scumbags the lot of them, but it did teach my Mrs a lesson!

If EVERYONE parked properly for a month, these parking enforcement scumbags would all be out of business.

[EtoileSportiveDeDerby]

17 minutes ago, LazloW said:

Could be a genuine misunderstanding or mistake by both the club and/or the Council (but everyone likes to give the Council a kicking!).  Might also be an over zealous warden who made an error (the Council probably aren’t going to push them under the bus).

The good thing is it got sorted, albeit it wasted your time and probably caused a degree of concern and frustration.  Things like this shouldn’t happen, but they do. 

The DET do love a story like this though - even though ‘Council mistakenly fine people parking at Pride Park but cancelled it so all’s well that ends well’ isn’t really much of a story.

Or it could be that they are genuinely hopeless. We live in an area where parking permits are required to park in front of our own house so we pay for the privilege. They used to have permits to stick on windscreen now it is all online for efficiencies, the price didn't drop btw. Now if we park in front of our own house we get a ticket and then need to go the council to get it cancelled, every time. They are cr@p, I ll get off the fence now.

[Gaspode]

28 minutes ago, LazloW said:

Could be a genuine misunderstanding or mistake by both the club and/or the Council (but everyone likes to give the Council a kicking!).  Might also be an over zealous warden who made an error (the Council probably aren’t going to push them under the bus).

The good thing is it got sorted, albeit it wasted your time and probably caused a degree of concern and frustration.  Things like this shouldn’t happen, but they do. 

The DET do love a story like this though - even though ‘Council mistakenly fine people parking at Pride Park but cancelled it so all’s well that ends well’ isn’t really much of a story.

People would stop giving the 'council a kicking' if they didn't c***-up so often and if they occassionally held their hands up and admitted that they'd made a mistake. Implying to the OP that they're doing them a favour by cancelling an unwarranted fine only adds to the desire to kick them up the backside....

[BucksRam]

17 minutes ago, Grumpy Git said:

During the first lock-down my Mrs popped-out to our local Boots for an emergence prescription. This is on an "out of town" retail park.

The car park must be 100+ acres, but at the time there wasn't more than 10 cars in the whole area and she had parked with one wheel over the bay white line. Next week a £100 parking fine arrives for "not parking within the confines of the bay" with a photograph (no other cars whatsoever in the image).

Took me a few emails to the retail park owner (not the rip-off parking wardens) before it was cancelled.

Total scumbags the lot of them, but it did teach my Mrs a lesson!

If EVERYONE parked properly for a month, these parking enforcement scumbags would all be out of business.

Agree, car parks make a killing out of this sort of behaviour.  That said, I do hate it when people don't park in their lines.  In the case of your Mrs, it sounds like she was genuinely just off, and if the car park was near as empty, definitely over zealous wardens. 

I took my kids to the local trampoline park recently. Pulled into the very full car park and saw a brand new Merc parked right in the middle of two spaces, clearly to stop his car getting doored.  Selfish bar steward. 

[Keepyuppy]

I have purchased a West Car Park Disabled Pass and I too assumed ‘friendlies’ were included too, as that was included in the pre purchase Derby County info. 
As I had  not received a pass I went to the Ticket Office to check what I needed show at the Hertha Berlin match (was my name on a list) - I was told then that Car park passes were not included for friendlies. I queried this but it was it wasn’t, so I asked to purchase a pass for   £10 for my disabled bay and was told it had already been sold and there were none left. I said I’d have to return my match ticket then, as I can’t walk very far - I was told although they weren’t supposed to say this, but if I went on the Derby City Council Mi Parking portal, I might be able to buy a parking bay behind the South Stand - I went on the portal and was able to buy a parking pass for 5hrs (standard period) 2pm-7pm for,,,,,, wait for it £3.10p !!!! You don’t get a ticket or a Pass, as a Parking attendant scans your Car Reg if a ticket hasn’t been bought at the machine and is on display. 
On Sat thIs South Car Park was only 1/4 full and I thought, I’ve missed a trick here, because if I plan ahead, I could book a Car Park Ticket for every home game through out the season for under £80 instead of the £162.00 Derby County charge for a Car Park Pass. 

I think I’ve worked out why this is kept quiet by DCFC !!!! - it’s a bit naughty to be honest, as it’s not the Councils doing and clearly they didn’t know what DCFC were doing ?
 
 

Edited July 20, 2022 by Keepyuppy

[Ram@Lincoln]

14 minutes ago, Keepyuppy said:

I have purchased a West Car Park Disabled Pass and I too assumed ‘friendlies’ were included too, as that was included in the pre purchase Derby County info. 
As I had  not received a pass I went to the Ticket Office to check what I needed show at the Hertha Berlin match (was my name on a list) - I was told then that Car park passes were not included for friendlies. I queried this but it was it wasn’t, so I asked to purchase a pass for   £10 for my disabled bay and was told it had already been sold and there were none left. I said I’d have to return my match ticket then, as I can’t walk very far - I was told although they weren’t supposed to say this, but if I went on the Derby City Council Mi Parking portal, I might be able to buy a parking bay behind the South Stand - I went on the portal and was able to buy a parking pass for 5hrs (standard period) 2pm-7pm for,,,,,, wait for it £3.10p !!!! You don’t get a ticket or a Pass, as a Parking attendant scans your Car Reg if a ticket hasn’t been bought at the machine and is on display. 
On Sat thIs South Car Park was only 1/4 full and I thought, I’ve missed a trick here, because if I plan ahead, I could book a Car Park Ticket for every home game through out the season for under £80 instead of the £162.00 Derby County charge for a Car Park Pass. 

I think I’ve worked out why this is kept quiet by DCFC !!!! - it’s a bit naughty to be honest, as it’s not the Councils doing and clearly they didn’t know what DCFC were doing ?
 
 

I'm sorry to read of your troubles here with the club and car park, definitely not how things should be. Big thanks for the heads up on the parking tip, annoyingly I've already renewed at the £180 fee for the south car park A. Just looking at the portal they have DCFC parking at £!0 per matchday or £3.10 in the park and ride car park.

Does anyone know which car park is which? I always thought the park and ride section was behind the arena, but my parking ticket said I was parked in the park and ride car park despite parking in what the club call south car park A. 

[Ram@Lincoln]

1 hour ago, Mucker1884 said:

@Ram@Lincoln,

You mention the barrier letting you in with your parking season ticket.

(I'm not familiar with these car parks).  Is it a pay & display, or grab a ticket on the way in, and pay on the way out?

Do you display any form of pass in the windscreen?  How does the entry work?

You have a ticket card with a hanger on that goes on your rear view mirror. On arrival to the car park there are stewards at the entrance that check you are displaying the correct car park ticket and then wave you in. Occasionally depending on how busy it is, they'll direct you to a certain section to park up. As @Keepyuppyhas found, it seems to be significantly cheaper to pay to park on the councils system not by buying a season ticket from the club.

[B4ev6is]

Well me and my dad season car park season pass thing I went halfs with him my dad asked if included lecester city game ticket office person said no so he brought one for that game only no borther at all.

[RadioactiveWaste]

Part of the problem is wardens are incentivised to issue fines.

On private car parks, it's a money making enterprise.

On auto systems, they default to issuing fines if possible.

Ker-ducking-ching .

Also, if it's private land, they can't issue a fine, they don't have any authority to do so. They try to make it look like one, but it's effectively saying your parking was a breach of contract and the charge for that is £x.

Once had one for overstaying in a motorway services. I had the receipt from the hotel for the stay, so ignored it and it went away, but I was hoping they'd take it further so I could start sending them invoices for my time in responding to them.

"Please find attached evidence that my stay was in fact in compliance with the stated terms of staying in the car park. As by contacting me in this manner you have implicitly accepted that I will respond to your letter, you have also implicitly accepted that a reasonable administration charge will be made for my response. As such, I enclose an invoice for £100 to be paid within 30 days. If payment is not received within 30 days, a 100% uplift in the administration fee will be made to cover additional costs incurred by myself in recovering this money.

Kind regards etc. "

[Keepyuppy]

1 hour ago, Ram@Lincoln said:

I'm sorry to read of your troubles here with the club and car park, definitely not how things should be. Big thanks for the heads up on the parking tip, annoyingly I've already renewed at the £180 fee for the south car park A. Just looking at the portal they have DCFC parking at £!0 per matchday or £3.10 in the park and ride car park.

Does anyone know which car park is which? I always thought the park and ride section was behind the arena, but my parking ticket said I was parked in the park and ride car park despite parking in what the club call south car park A. 

The Park and Ride Bus transfer component of the deal does not operate when there is a batch on for obvious reasons m, but the ‘parking’ component of the deal still operates. The DCFC operatives on the entrance to the South Car Park will tell you that if you have a Mi Park on line booking, you should park on the Upper Car Park behind the Arena, but that’s cobblers, if you have a Mi Parking on line booking, you can park on either upper or lower car park - your parking contract is with Derby City Council and not DCFC. I can’t verify or proof it , but might it be a case whereby DCFC might have block booked a load of spaces with Derby City Council at £3.10 a space or lower and might be selling them through the club at £10 a space ?. 

Edited July 20, 2022 by Keepyuppy

[Ram@Lincoln]

4 hours ago, Ram@Lincoln said:

Agreed, it's not worth the DET getting involved. For me, the issue is sorted. For the others with tickets, I hope they manage to get theirs cancelled too. It does seem a confusion between the club and council, I just hope it's clarified for the weekend. As said, I've written to the council asking for clarification so fingers crossed get it in time. If I do, I'll post it here.

I've now had a reply from DCFC - pre season friendlies are not included in the car park season ticket and are purchased separately. The website hasn't now been updated. Therefore, the council was correct - however, I parked in good faith from the club's original information that friendlies were included. Thankfully the parking ticket issued to me was cancelled by the council.

[PistoldPete]

1 hour ago, Ram@Lincoln said:

I've now had a reply from DCFC - pre season friendlies are not included in the car park season ticket and are purchased separately. The website hasn't now been updated. Therefore, the council was correct - however, I parked in good faith from the club's original information that friendlies were included. Thankfully the parking ticket issued to me was cancelled by the council.

Good on them. 

[angieram]

I paid the full £10 as I followed the link supplied by the club the day before. I only parked there because of the heat, I usually park in town and walk.

I wish I'd known about the £3.10!

To answer @Mucker1884 I  didn't receive any email acknowledgement  and wasn't given anything to display. The steward I spoke to said to "park at my own risk" as it was nothing to do with them. Scary!

Luckily I had ticked the box for a VAT receipt, which arrived about 3 am on Sunday morning, so I have proof of payment IF I get a ticket.

All a bit unsatisfactory really and the only bright spark was exchanging a few words with Harrison Solomon as we were both waiting to be let out of the car park after the game. 

[Mucker1884]

17 minutes ago, angieram said:

...The steward I spoke to said to "park at my own risk" as it was nothing to do with them. Scary!

 

Charming!  ??

 

It seems there's room for improvement, when it comes to matchday parking... and maybe a little staff training/refresher course. 

?

Edited July 20, 2022 by Mucker1884