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Red Lion Pub Petersfield car park (Weatherspoons) - Boris (15th Mar 2013 - 18:08:57) Took a group of elderly ladies down to Red Lion Peterfield for lunch last week. Parked in the car park next to the pub, helped them all out of the car and escorted them into the pub and they all had a good lunch. When we left and I had got them all setled in the car, I discovered a Euro Car Parks parking charge notice on the windscreen. Penalty of £70 (or reduced to £40 for prompt payment) as the car park is a pay and display one. Something I was not aware of and falsly assumed the car park was freely for the use of Red Lion patrons. Legal action if you do not pay and passing your details etc to DVLA. I paid the £40 penalty via their automated payment system in order to avoid unnecesssary hassles in the future. And of course I was at fault. Yes there is a small notice on the door of the Red Lion, and a ticket machine against the far wall, but as one is concerned with getting elderly people out of a car and into the building you are more concerned with them than looking for unexpected notices. Spoke to "manager? " at Red Lion who said many customers complain but the car park is privately operated and nothing to do with Weatherspoons or the Red Lion. Just a warning to those who might not be aware. A very unpleasant ending to an otherwise happy afternoon out.

Re: Red Lion Pub Petersfield car park (Weatherspoons) - Derek Wright (7th Apr 2013 - 21:24:22) I had a very similar experience although only 2 disabled people in our group of 12. The pub staff are not interested and euro parks attendants are only interested in fulfilling their quotas. Its sounds as if some new signs have been erected since the original post but they are poorly placed for vehicles turning in off the road. I have taken legal advice and euro parks have no powers to fine people for overstaying or force the vehicle owner to reveal the name of the driver. Please check this for your own situation but it is not necessary to give in to their bullying. If Wetherspoons apply for a licence for a pub near you you should oppose it most strongly or your local will become unusable if you need a car to get there!

Re: Red Lion Pub Petersfield car park (Weatherspoons) - Jade (8th Apr 2013 - 16:59:30) Surely if you are going to park in any car park you would automatically check if you have to pay??

Re: Red Lion Pub Petersfield car park (Weatherspoons) - tony (8th Apr 2013 - 17:58:39) These sorts of parking companies are the old dodgy clampers who are no longer allowed to clamp due to it being outlawed. They have no legal right to enforce a parking fine in the way that the police or council do, but they argue that by placing a sign up, you enter into a civil contract with them. There are websites that say you shouldn't pay, shouldn't even acknowledge their letters and that they hardly ever do anything more as the cost of them taking you to a civil small claims court (where they cannot normally claim their legal fees back) far outweighs the alleged contracted claim(it is NOT a fine!) I speak from experience in having done this and heard nothing more about it. It depends on whether you have the nerve, I guess.

Re: Red Lion Pub Petersfield car park (Weatherspoons) - sue (8th Apr 2013 - 21:20:01) I ignored their letters after being told by a solicitor that they cant legally get the money. The letters finally stopped and i didnt pay.

Re: Red Lion Pub Petersfield car park (Weatherspoons) - Jonathan (10th Apr 2013 - 01:21:23) Jade , It is not normal for pubs to charge their customers for visiting. The car park in question requires visitors to pay in advance for a set number of hours. Do you know how long your visit will take in advance?, It depends on the service you receive at the bar and how long the food takes to emerge from the kitchen. You have to pay them for an extra hour to avoid risk because If the time they take delays you over the period you have paid for, these vultures stick a punitive note demanding money (I believe £70) on the vehicle. Its a bully boy scam pure and simple - I fail to understand how any customer service business thinks that this a good idea

Re: Red Lion Pub Petersfield car park (Weatherspoons) - bdavies (10th Apr 2013 - 12:04:33) Probably best not to go there at all.

Re: Red Lion Pub Petersfield car park (Weatherspoons) - jade (10th Apr 2013 - 12:23:58) How do you 'fail to understand how any customer service business thinks that this a good idea' So if the car park was free, shoppers using the high street will park there and use all of the spaces which leaves pub customers having to find other parking. Also if you take half of the ticket when you go into the park £1 will be refunded off your bill when you spend a certain amount so you do not lose a lot of money!!

Re: Red Lion Pub Petersfield car park (Weatherspoons) - Mike G (10th Apr 2013 - 13:37:50) Regarding advice to just ignore these excess charge notices, this was probably good until the law was changed last October. From then it became illegal for private operators to use wheel clamping as a means of enforcement but it did allow members of the BPA access to the keepers details held by the DVLA. It was probably safe to ignore these notices in the past as they would not have an address to follow it up with, unless you were foolish enough to write to them. Now that they do, and there is an independent appeals process that they have to abide by, they are much more likely to use the civil courts to recover unpaid charges that have not been successfully upheld on appeal. The AA advise you to pay the charge unless you think you have grounds for appeal, in which case gather evidence and follow the appeal process on the notice. For parking operators that are not members of the BPA, it is usually safe to ignore the notice as they do not have access to DVLA information or the appeals process. They often do have access to threatening looking "Attendants" who often, illegally, demand a cash payment on the spot.

Re: Red Lion Pub Petersfield car park (Weatherspoons) - Jonathan (11th Apr 2013 - 21:53:25) Wetherspoons are clearly not interested in establishing good relationships with their customers. If the intent is to prevent people other than customers using their car park, then all that is necessary would be to have a higher charge for a period of say up to 3 hours which would be fully reimbursable to customers ordering at the bar. There would be little risk to customers of incurring a disproportionate penalty and casual non customers would either be deterred from using spaces or at least contributing towards costs. I can only conclude that the way Wetherspoons have set up this entrapment with Euro Car parks is a deliberate ploy to raise extra profit.

Re: Red Lion Pub Petersfield car park (Weatherspoons) - Gary gill (18th Jan 2020 - 07:41:21) Well i attended the petersfield remembrance service with my family. Arrived and parked in the red lion at the far back as it was empty ish, bought a ticket. Then before leaving moved car to the front so i could later on get out easier as i have a long car and its a bit tight. Put ticket on car. after the service we as a family of parents and kids came to be about 10 people. All went to WSpoon for drinks and lunch. Ticket covered tjis duration and nothing more to worry. At this stage my car was due for new car to be changed in dec. I swapped car over and nothing more, just before Christmas i get a notice of a fine for the full time of my stay even though i bought a ticket. so what do i do now !!!! What do u do when you get a new car.......you turf the crap out and drive you less junked car around. Well my ticket bought with cash is no longer! I have no bloody proof now....paid cash as clearly recall raiding the glove box and peoples bags to but that old fashioned coins in. Not sure what to do as its ramped up to £75 notes......ffs

Re: Red Lion Pub Petersfield car park (Weatherspoons) - Graham Melrose (18th Jan 2020 - 22:23:30) Similar thing happened to me because I was busy helping my elderly father into the pub and didn't notice that you were supposed to pay. Usually when I go to a pub I assume that I don''t have to pay to park in their car park. Wetherspoons staff act as if the car park is nothing to do with them and are probably sick of people complaining about it. The pub should make it crystal clear to every customer that they need to pay by putting clearer notices up and putting some info on the menus. I won't be going there again.

Re: Red Lion Pub Petersfield car park (Weatherspoons) - John (19th Jan 2020 - 02:22:05) Yes, it happened to me too. The annoying thing was that I was waiting too long to be served and the bill to be paid, so my 2h was over by just 6min...so £40 charged ..and paid . Nevermind ,learning from experience. I hope, that info will save someone ,who is more in need to avoid those charges.

Re: Red Lion Pub Petersfield car park (Weatherspoons) - er (19th Jan 2020 - 13:02:29) Gary, assuming the car park is not camera controlled, as you say 'pay and display' then a warden must have come up to your car and put a ticket on the window, they should have looked inside for a ticket on display, I would suggest they ought to have taken a picture or 2 to show whether you were displaying a ticket (normally be on dashboard or stuck to a front window), if they did this they would have a pretty tight case against you, if not you may have a good case yourself to appeal to whoever it is that you appeal to on these private ticketing firms, otherwise it becomes a small claims court matter, like a breach of contract in civil law, this is what I think anyway, but I'm not a lawyer, GOOD LUCK.

Re: Red Lion Pub Petersfield car park (Weatherspoons) - Gary gill (19th Jan 2020 - 15:20:56) Thing is went and checked it out and there is about 6 huge sign that u cant miss. But i dont see how ive paid and got charged / fined ???

Re: Red Lion Pub Petersfield car park (Weatherspoons) - Gary gill (22nd Jan 2020 - 21:42:35) They use number plate recognition.

Re: Red Lion Pub Petersfield car park (Weatherspoons) - Tina (11th Jun 2021 - 00:43:14) I thought if you use this car park and have a blue badge it’s free to park. Is that not the case? Also the disabled bays were fenced off and being used as a seating area-so I parked in a normal bay and put the badge up clearly visible. Please enlighten me please. Thank you.

Re: Red Lion Pub Petersfield car park (Weatherspoons) - Rachel Rabbit (12th Jun 2021 - 14:29:09) Interesting that Wetherspoons claim to have nothing to do with the car park, yet recently, they were using nearly all of it to provide seating for anyone wanting to eat and drink at the pub! Very odd.

Re: Red Lion Pub Petersfield car park (Weatherspoons) - H (12th Jun 2021 - 18:52:02) A blue badge doesn't entitle you to free parking. A lot of places charge you the same as everyone else.

Re: Red Lion Pub Petersfield car park (Weatherspoons) - Amy (16th Mar 2022 - 09:39:17) Today I received a parking charge notice. I paid and displayed my ticket what’s the best way to appeal this please?

Re: Red Lion Pub Petersfield car park (Weatherspoons) - Jen (16th Mar 2022 - 11:51:49) @Amy - send them a photo of your ticket. At least that proves you had paid. They might argue that the ticket was not on display, but they can't then claim that you hadn't paid, so their argument is weaker. Don't pay. Let them take you to court if need be - which they won't do because they know they would lose.

Re: Red Lion Pub Petersfield car park (Weatherspoons) - Guest (16th Mar 2022 - 20:48:44) I can confirm a couple of points. Weatherspoons do have a contract with Euro Car Parks. Euro Car Parks can only void a ticket if they are told to by their client, in this case Weatherspoons or if a mistake was made. I don't know what the exact agreement is that these 2 companies have with each other, but often the car parking management company will not receive much at all (if anything) from the actual sale of a ticket. That will probably go to Weatherspoons. The car park company tend to make most of ther money on the actual fines. This form of revenue generation may sound a little harsh, but obviously the company has to make money to pay their own costs. In 2024, the fine for PCNs is due to be halved, a lot of people will be very happy, I am sure. But I would guess that the costs of the tickets themselves will likely go up to offset the drop in revenue with new agreements being made with clients like Weatherspoon.

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