Saturday, January 12

More Rank Rage

A couple of comments made on Fridays post Rank Rage deserve to be answered as a post in their own right, Wil asks” How can a private company assess fines? They have no court authority and no way to collect if the violator refuses to pay.” Meanwhile the blonde bombshell Peggy comments “I don't get that one either. ASDA is not a sovereign country just yet, but some stores are large enough to declare independence.”

Well it seems that we already have the legislation in place over here, on any private land you can and often will be clamped and charged for release. But under new rules all it takes is video evidence of a so called parking offence, and the landowners or their agents are then able to access the government’s police national computer database. The first you will know is when the ticket arrives in the post, if this is not paid on time you will then receive a visit from bailiffs who will charge you several hundred pounds on top of the fine for the privilege. So it seems that all you need for a licence to print money is a vacant piece of land, a sign and a video camera. This point is proven by a case going through the courts at the moment involving just such a scenario. Car owners who had driven on to the land and stopped just long enough to read the sign have been sent parking fine demands. The giant junk food chain Mc Donald’s has also jumped on the bandwagon by introducing fines for motorists who take too long to eat their takeaway meals on their car park. In certain UK branch’s ¾ of an hour is the limit, any more and you get a ticket in the post, again solely using video evidence.

4 comments:

Paradise Driver said...

In the US, it is illegal for a non-gov't entity to access records without permission and the owner of the vehicle is to be notified by the gov't agency when someone attempts to do that.

Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

Peggy said...

Blonde bombshell? Ooh thanks!

bigbikerbob said...

Hi, On your parking thread, only this week I attempted to park in a Disabled bay at our local Tesco's unsuccesfully I might add,while waiting for a space to become free, we spied 2 sports cars, one builders van,one window cleaners van and ...wait for it ...an empty TAXI. A few minutes later a security man approached and during the conversation he said policy changes in the near future are to include Wheel clamps with a £30.00 fine.

bob mullen said...

wil: It's all about cash! I believe, they have to pay a fee for each search.

peggy:Your welcome.

bob:well I guess they will wait and see how Asda do with enforcement first and then the rest of the supermarkets will follow suit.