Car park fine

well how about this, i picked up  there ticket. put it on my dashboard and they STILL  "fined" me. how can we stop this evil company doing this?  there are many complaints with consumer affairs and councils but nothing seems to have been done, 

I also recently got a car parking ticket. In my case I forgot to get the
ticket from the machine, because i was shopping for a few supplies for
my daughter, who had been released from hospital earlier that day after
surgery to her knee as a result of a bicycle accident. I have shopped at
Barkley Square for over ten years and although I normally display the
required ticket, on this occasion I forgot because I was focussing on
shopping quickly so as to attend to my daughter's needs.

I protested the fine, explaining the situation to the ANCP, but they have
replied to my letter, asking me for receipts. I have paid the fine, because I
am not in the habit of keeping receipts for green groceries, a couple of
pieces of fish and some nuts.

My only option now it to boycott Barkley Square altogether even though it
is my closest shopping centre.

If I can legally protest and have my payment refunded I would be happy
to do so.

Hi Ian , have you had any luck with contesting your fine?  I got one the other day at Barkly Square, not realising I had to have a ticket.  I'd like to contest, but don't want to be hit with expensive legal costs down the track. 

 

 

I got a fine today at Barkly Square.  I did get a ticket, but it blew off the dashboard and was lying on the passenger seat.
I'll try contesting it, but I wonder if anyone knows if ancp has actually taken anyone to court.
It's not a fine, it's a claim for damages and as others have said, it's difficult to reconcile the amount they want wiith any actual damage sustained by ancp.
Further, the "contract" is with the driver of the car, not the owner. How can ancp prove who was driving?
Finally, can ancp get the owner's address from Vicroads?
I'm wondering if this is all based on bluff.  I'm sure they're happy to collect their $66 or $88, but I suspect they do nothing if the "fine" isn't paid.
If anyone knows of examples that prove otherwise, I'd be interested to hear.

Hi Chris,

I was fined at Campsie Woolworths parking lot by ANCP just last week. From what I gather from the net and this forum, it seems like the company cant take any action against you anyway if you do not pay the fine as they don't know your name, address or any other contact details. The RTA (NSW) wont and can't give them your car's owner details (assuming its registered in NSW) unless ordered by the courts. Its a slim chance that ANCP will bother with going to the courts for $88. So it might be wise not to give them your name and address yourself by writing the letter using the template!! And also I know for a fact that some staffs at Woolworths Campsie have many of those notices unpaided and no action has been taken against them. So I'm gona tear up my ticket and ANCP can kiss my A**.

RC

i just got fined from parking at campsie woolworths too. i was there for a mere 15 minutes to grab some groceries off woolworths, saw the free 2 hour parking sign and did not further notice that i have to get a ticket... i am angry of the unfairness of it because when i entered the car park, i saw that it said 'woolworths customer car park'..i shopped at woolworths, and left in 15 minutes! after reading your posts, i just wanna know how those appeals went about. can anyone update me about their appeals? thanks!

I was also fined at Woolworths Campsie and I only parked there for less than two hours. The staff there said "it should be okay" when I called them and asked me to write to them. However, when I wrote to them and showed the evidence that I didnt park for more than two hours, I was still replied with the same response.

Given I was a previous campsie resident for more than 3 years and now only came back for a visit (love the shopping at campsie), I am concerned that this unfair parking rule will only upset more people who come for shopping there.

Can anyone inform any results if you dont want to pay the fine? (Dont care much about the $66 but dont want to be ripped off!)

 

 

 

I received a fine back in Jan 2007 and totally ignored it. I've just received letter from a solicitor stating that they'll take action against me if I don't pay the "fine".

I'll be sending a return letter thanks to the template on this forum and we'll see what happens.

Hi all

I'm actually currently a shop owner who has a ANCP parking meter in our car park.

Now before i get flamed i would like to say i have regretted the decision to go with ANCP and would most likely change system after the contracted period.

First off i would like to say that i have seen two different systems implemented by ANCP:
* One is where the first hour is free (but you still need to get a ticket, who knows why!!) and each additional hour if you dont have a renewed ticket (i think) they will fine you. ie Cabramatta Woolies
* Two, its the system where you have to purchase a ticket and get a recepit (both from the machine) for a pretty steep price, eg $6 per hour. Once finish shopping give your receipt to the cahsier for a refund of $6. Therefore those who have not gone to your shop for stuff will not be eligable for a refund. The shop owners then collect these 'receipts' and present them to ANCP for a refund as well. As you can probably tell already, i use this system.

Why Shop Owners Choose To Use This Confusing System

I think people need to first understand the reason shop owners decide to be contracted with ANCP. My shop is currently located next to several public facilities, hence this means a s**t load of cars wanting to park. I believe that most business owners incoporate this ANCP system is because their car parks are being ' crowded out' by those who are not their customers. I mean let's think about it logically, if the shop owners paid $500 000+ for a car park, would they want others who are not going to go to their shop parking in it? Hell no!!


Do Shop Keepers Get Any Income From The Machines

Shop keepers get barely if any income from the parking meters and the fines ANCP issue out. Im actually one of those who gets jack all. At first it was simply based on a 'trust' agreement where we say its okay you can keep the monies from fines imposment and the machine but they would have to excuse the fine that they gave to my customers who simply did not know/understand the system (I beleive most of you who are reading this is in this category). They did this for the first few weeks than it was like they said "f*** it, we will do what we want" as it was not actually written in the contract. Now some of you might be thinking well why dont you just ask for your share of the income from the ticket machine (owners are not actually eligible for a share in the fine imposement income) if they are going to fine your customers and in turn use that income to payoff the custoemrs fines? This is because its actually not enough to cover the amount of your customers that they have fined and quite simply your own customers would get lazy and just ignore the system and ask for a refund of the $66 or $88 (I actually have quite a few customers who know how the system works and yet still doesn't pay the ticket).

Can ANCP actually legally fine people

From what i have read around and on the previous posts it seems not. I actually asked one of the ANCP workers who gives out the fines, for you guys aka the devil , whether or not they were legally allowed to fine people. He said that at first they were not allowed but then they had this huge case with the supreme courts on this and actually won and now they are allowed. The only evidence i have found in somewhat support of this is here:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/car-parks-can-get-you-at -home/2007/06/29/1182624165388.html
But that too only goes as far as RTA giving addresses.

Other methods apart from ANCP for shop keepers

As some of you by now have probably thought why the shop keepers dont choose an alternate system. Well guess what? this is one of the reasons i'm making a big ass post reply. Here a example of the one of the  methods we used was having a person monitoring the car park and telling those who are not shopping to get out (obviously if they were pregnant or disabled, etc we excluded them the best we could). One of the not-going-to-shop people tried to run over my kid who was doing the monitoring.

Now the best system i can come up with is as follows:

My car park is pretty small with one (1) entrace and one (1) exit. Have one boom gate at the entrance where if you want it to open you have to take ticket (like Westfield). For anyone who goes in they would have to pay at the exit boom gate. Make it a really steep price (ie $10 an hour)  so that it will discourage non customers to not use the car park (obviously big and clear sign will need to be impmented so that people don't only realise the prices one they drive into the car park). For customers we give them the $10 so they can pay the machine (we can then collect the money at night). This way no huge fines will be imposed and quite simply it keeps the non shop goers outside of the car park. One of the major problems I thought of is if someone just parks their car at the exit and doesn't move because they dont wanna pay. But after many trial thinking, i think this one ahs the biggest potential to succeed.

Glad to have any comments in support OR against

Regards

Shopkeeper

 Hi to all those affected by the rip-off Campsie Woolies carpark.

I myself was fined just the other day for parking there for no less than 10mins. I came in from the side entrance & parked in the first spot that I saw. I didn't see any visible signage & the fact that it was pouring rain didn't help much either.

I honestly feel that the officer waited for me to leave my vechile & then progressed to fine me. Being a p-plater, I think I was immediately targeted & with my lack of road & car park experience, I wasn't aware at all of any ticketing system in place at Campsie Woolies.

So this got me thinking. If me, an anglo-saxon, was not aware of the car park system, how would the predomonantly Asian and Lebanese communities of this area, who may not speak or read English, be able to understand this car park system or its few signs?

I am a journalism student at UTS and have been set a task to break a news story in my local area. This parking ticket has actually come as a blessing as it has led me to see how disgraceful this scheme actually is.

I am aware that Wollworths leases the car park to ANCP, no doubt making some kind of considerable profit.

What I wish to know is where the $66 or $88 fine actually goes towards? Campsie Woolworths car park is quite dilapadated & im sure the profits are not going to bettering this car park. It should be going towards more signage & perhaps a boom gate system that would ensure customers were aware that this was a 'pay if you stay' car park, so to speak.

I have set up an email account coop_cakes@hotmail.com that does not include my name so that ANCP can't track me down :)

It would be greatly appreciated if anyone affected by the Campsie Woolworths car park could conatct me via this email and assist me with information for my article that will hopefully feature in the local paper or higher. You can remain anonymous if you like, all we need is some community action to stop this unfairness and lobby for our privacy rights, which are not delivered if ANCP can obtain our details from the RTA. We should also be seeking a more multiculturally friendly car park system.

Our area is a low socio-economic area afterall & many people would not be aware of the legal processes & who they should contact if they could afford to actaully take legal action or seek advice.

Please contact me via email and thankyou in advance.

Edited by here2help