The British Parking Association (BPA ), is a UK-based trade association representing the views and interests of its membership drawn mainly from parking and traffic management. More details are described as The Limited UK Parking Association The association is a company limited by a guarantee and nonprofit organization established in 1968, although the limited company was not registered until 1970.
Video British Parking Association
Association
The stated purpose of BPA is to actively represent and promote the sector by advancing knowledge, improving standards and professionalism, and using its influence to best serve the interests of all, even though the BPA is fully funded by its members rather than an independent source. Association headquarters are in Haywards Heath, West Sussex and produce monthly magazine Parking News.
Although the association does not publish its membership list, it affirms that there are currently 720 members covering manufacturers and suppliers, private car parking operators, local authorities, health authorities, airports, private railway companies, shopping malls, court officials, debt collectors and consultant. Members, whether from the private or public sector, pay subscriptions based on their parking revenues. There are five individual membership levels that each pay a fixed fee.
Maps British Parking Association
Safer Parking Schemes
The Association manages the "Safe Parking Scheme" (formerly Guaranteed Park Park Award) on behalf of the Chief Police Association (ACPO). The purpose of this scheme is to improve the safety standards, security, design, and operation of British car parks. Park cars found to meet the criteria set by this scheme were awarded the Park Mark Safer Parking Award. This award is made after review by an accredited assessor and must undergo a reassessment every 2 years. Park Mark is considered a prestigious award and can be awarded to privately operated boards or parking lots. In 2014, the Scheme celebrates its 10th Anniversary since becoming a Safer Parking Scheme.
Enforcement of private parking
The Association established an Approved Operator Scheme (AOS) in 2007 in response to concerns about the management of car parking on private land, the area of ​​the parking profession in the UK which was not at that time. Members of the scheme must comply with the CPA Code of Practice (CoP).
In August 2010, the Coalition Government announced their intention to ban clamping on private land. The next two years saw the development and the next Kingdom of Protective Rights Act prohibiting all forms of immobilization without legitimate authority.
The CPA welcomes the change as a step to marginalize the naughty brace, but feels that the law takes a valuable form of enforcement for landowners to use in protecting their land. To ensure that private enforcement remains with a robust solution, the CPA discussions with the Government result in a form of guardian responsibility introduced by the Freedom Protection Act, which allows private operators in England and Wales to pursue registered car guards if named drivers are unreliable or deny obligations.
Private parking companies are allowed to issue notices as specified in the Freedom of Information Act Act 4. They do not have the legal authority to issue fines or penalties, except in rare cases such as railway or railway parking.
Only tickets issued by the police or the Council are legally enforceable (except as indicated previously, certain car parks or railway stations also have the legal authority to issue a penalty).
Responsible guard
Carers' obligations have been introduced by the Government on the provision that the parking profession provides motorists with Independent Comparative Services (IAS), and that these services will be funded by the industry. POPLA - Parking in Private Land of Appeal - launched on October 1 in UK & amp; Wales alone, Northern Ireland and Scotland have no guardian or Popla responsibilities.
Along with the launch of AOS in 2007, DVLA announced that any company/organization that accesses Vehicle Watch data through an electronic request process that is not a Local Authority or a Government Organization must be a member of the Accredited Trade Association (ATA).
The condition of ATA is that they have a Practice Code in place. BPA has worked with DVLA since their announcement, achieved ATA status and shared all plans for AOS with DVLA.
In compliance with the Code, operators who are members of AOS can demonstrate that their business operates with a set of standards and is recognized as an industry member who is ostensibly professional and responsible. However, if non-compliance with the Code is proven, it leads to temporary sanctions and may ultimately result in the member being suspended or excluded from the scheme.
There are principles in contract law when applied to private parking, that the driver of the vehicle is invited by the parking operator (and/or landowner) to park in the car park, and that the terms and conditions of the parking contract must be clearly defined and concise through the placement of the sign -signs as you enter and around the site. This is clearly specified in the BPA Practice Code for Parking in Private Land.
Operators do not have the legal power to issue fines or penalties as a result of people parking on private land, as this is classified as a misnomer of authority. They may issue Parking Notification Notice (PCN) as specified in Schedule 4 of the Freedom Protection Act.
In on-site parking, drivers may have accepted these terms and conditions, provided they are clearly displayed, and drivers have read and understood them as established in the case of Vine v London Borough of Waltham Forest EWCA Civ 106.
In his judgment, Lord Justice Roche states:
The act of clamping the wheels of another person's car, even when the car enters without permission, is an act of infringement of another's property unless it can be shown that the car owner has approved, or is willing to assume, the risk of his car being clamped. To indicate that the car owner agrees or is willing to assume the risk of his car being clamped, it must be ensured that the car owner is aware of the consequences of parking his car so that the car goes unlicensed to another person's land. It will be done by stipulating that the car owner sees and understands the importance of warning notices or notices that the car in that place without permission can be stapled. Usually the presence of a posted notice where they will be visible, for example at the entrance to the private car park, which is the type that would be readable by the driver of the car, will lead to the finding that the car driver has knowledge and appreciate the warning. In this case the Recorder may have reached such conclusions about the state of the applicant's knowledge, but he did not. The recorder makes a clear finding of the fact that the applicant does not see the sign. The findings are not surprising given the absence of notice on the wall opposite the south parking lot and the depressed state of the applicant, the reason why the applicant parked and left his car in a hurry. It was the applicant's proof that he did not see the sign. There was never any suggestion that the applicant was anything but an honest witness.
Wheelchairs in private lands are prohibited on October 1, 2012 when Protection of Freedom Bill is passed into law.
Suggestions and guides for motorized parking on private land can be found on various websites including CPA, Know Your Parking Rights and POPLA. Forum websites such as Pepipoo and moneysavingexpert also debate this issue.
On July 10, 2012, Martin Cutts of the Ordinary Language Commission made a speech at an event delivered by Landor Publishing "The Enforcement Summit '12" attended by several members of the BPA executive.
I try to be fair but I reluctantly form an opinion that the CPA does not have the usual integrity standards required of a government-recognized trade association. My main proof for this is what the CPA says to the Government because the campaign succeeded in changing the law on registered guard duty. The BPA says 2-5% of the ticketing of its members ends in court, a large sum that in real numbers is 36,000 to 90,000 per year, and this will greatly decrease, freeing the time of trial, if the obligations of the registered guard enter. The government scored these figures twice as part of the evidence base in an official impact assessment of the new law, devouring the entire CPA argument. MPs are convinced, and the law is changing. But the CPA numbers are wrong, and it's hard to imagine that the CPA - which claims to be a "recognized authority" in the parking lot (BPA Masterplan 2012-13) - did not know they were wrong. Answers to Freedom of Information requests have shown that in 2011 only 845 cases of private BPA members were registered in the court system, and only 49 of them went before the judge for the final hearing. Not 90,000, not 36,000, but 49. A BPA spokesman has been trying to justify the false numbers, saying: "I think the CPA data is based on anecdotal conversations with industry and it is true that this is, the best estimate based on what the operator tells us. "It's all the same as the fact that the BPA has deceived the Government and has deceived members of parliament to change the law.
In a speech made at Parkex, the largest parking event in Europe on 10 June 2014, the Parliamentary Foreign Minister for Transport Robert Goodwill praised the private parking sector by saying that industry self-regulation can succeed and that the establishment of POPLA, providing independent riders and free appeals is a high standard of evidence that is often promoted by parking professionals, who provide well-designed, fair and proportioned parking services.
Parking in Private Land of Appeal (POPLA)
This is the name of the independent appeals service established by BPA and was initially operated by the London Board from October 2012 to September 2015 - Ombudsman Service took over as a service provider for POPLA on October 1, 2015. The POPLA government to handle appeals by drivers and others who want to challenge the issue a parking fee notice issued by members of the Approved CPA Scheme on private land in England and Wales. POPLA only handles appeals after the recipient of the parking fee notification has been through an internal complaint procedure from the operator issuing the notice.
Adoption across the UK & amp; Wales provides it for all riders, who park on private parking lots invited including, retail parks, railway stations, etc. And the location of the parking lot is not invited. POPLA is not currently available In Scotland or Ireland.
POPLA is legally independent when it comes to deciding the outcome of an appeal and their decisions are binding on the carrier only. Free POPLA service for motorists with parking carriers charged for each appeal under consideration.
At the official launch of POPLA, then Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Transport for Norman Baker welcomed the Report and the success of POPLA stating "This report shows that motorists use this new free service in significant amounts and, in more than half of cases, after their application is enforced. It shows the new system works for the driver and for the parking industry. "
Media interests
The media interest in the association has changed over time. Although previous CPA members have performed their actions displayed in the BBC Consumer Affairs Program Supervisor , the media interest in the private parking profession has declined since the introduction of the Approved CPA Scheme and the launch of POPLA. BPA regularly contributes to TV and radio broadcasts when private parking is debated. Consumer aid websites including the MoneySavingExpert.com forum, Pepipoo, Consumer Action Group also give their own opinions on the profession.
Combined Parking Solution
On August 30, 2012 the Combined Parking Solution (CPS) was suspended from accessing the DVLA database for three months. Suspension enacted as a result of CPS violating DVLA rules on the nameplate for privately issued parking tickets. The rules state that parking companies should not refer to responsibility by anyone other than the driver. On June 14 of this year, DVLA sent a memo to the BPA on this issue and ordered them to issue a warning to its members, download it here. However, the CPS was later found to violate these instructions at least on three separate occasions, and this resulted in their suspension. Being suspended from accessing a registered DVLA attendant database will have a major effect on how CPS operates. Private parking companies use this database to find out who the registered guard is from the vehicle they want to issue a ticket so they can submit a request for payment. Without this data, they have no way to try to pursue a payment in which the driver does not identify themselves (eg via appeal). Furthermore, the DVLA has confirmed that CPS will not be able to retrospectively collect this data after the suspension ends or through another parking company. Furthermore, shortly before the CPS was suspended, the UK Parking Association had just appointed a Joint Parking Solution representative for the Approved Operator Scheme Board. They continue to be represented in the AOS Board and no further issues have been reported. The Joint Parking Solution is no longer a member of the CPA by November 2014. As part of the new CPA Governance, the AOS Council no longer exists in 2014. Approved Operator Scheme Members are now represented in the BPA Board of Representatives.
References
External links
- CPA website
- The Website Know Your Parking Rights
- Popla Website
- The Money Saving Experts Forum
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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