BPA RESPONDS TO WATCHDOG FEATURE

Dear Sir

Watchdog, May 6, 2010: The management of private parking areas

I am writing to express my concern about the way this feature was presented in your programme.

The BPA fully understands why Watchdog seeks to address the issue of managing parking by unscrupulous operators on private land; we too are very concerned about this activity and in 2007 launched the Approved Operator Scheme (AOS), with its Code of Practice, to raise standards and to bring self-regulation where none exists at present. We are working tirelessly with the Department for Transport and its agency the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) and the Home Office and its agency the Security Industry Authority (SIA) to this end and through our intervention, lobbying and close working relationship with government, the recent Crime and Security Act now includes, for example, provisions for better regulation and the introduction of an appeals service. We would have preferred the new law to go further and include "ticketing" operations and we continue to lobby to this effect.

The BPA Council fully endorses this work and also accepts that land owners must have the right to manage who accesses their land and for what purpose. Where parking is managed on private land we want to see it done legitimately, with transparency and, above all, fairness.

In your feature, which included references to a member of our Approved Operator Scheme, the advice given by the programme, through your invited solicitor, and endorsed by your presenters as "perfect" and “brilliant legal advice” was to ignore ‘parking tickets’ issued by private operators and indeed suggesting that they made paper darts from them to see how far they would fly!

We believe this to be biased and irresponsible journalism. Biased because in response to a request from your researchers we provided you with a statement about the featured case and the situation in general and you chose not to use it. In doing this you have not provided a balanced view and, as a public service broadcaster, you have a duty to do this. It is irresponsible because the feature set out to ridicule a legitimate parking control operation and, whilst the solicitor was speaking truthfully with regards pursuing drivers rather than owners or keepers, his advice regarding what to do with a ‘parking ticket’ was nothing short of derisory.

You seem to be implying that it is perfectly acceptable for somebody to stay as long as they like in a private car park provided by a retailer for its customers and that these drivers can ignore any action taken by the retailer. Is this what you meant to say? If so it is wrong.

It is lawful for a landowner to manage his land and to seek compensation for breach of contract (and it is acknowledged that breach of contract is the essence of the arrangement for the parking act) and it is unprofessional for you or your advisors to suggest that people should ignore correspondence seeking such compensation. Our AOS has over 100 members who provide parking management services to landlords and the BPA is aware of many cases where our members have successfully pursued these claims through the courts and judgements made in favour of the operator. How will the BBC deal with motorists who take your advice and are subsequently taken to court and found to be in breach of contract and liable to make payment to the operator/landowner?

The other risk from this particular piece of journalism is that to deride legitimate ’ticketing’ operations who manage private parking simply encourages operators towards an increase in the use of wheel-clamping which is much easier to enforce but more aggressive. It is also counter intuitive if you consider that the point of effective parking management is to ensure that businesses can function effectively and that car parks are used in the way intended by their provider.

At the very least you should acknowledge the rights of landowners to manage their land and to employ parking management companies who do have the right to seek payment for breach of contract when parking rules are broken. You should also recognise the work being done by the legitimate parking industry to expose rogue operators and to have their practices outlawed.

Yours
Kelvin Reynolds
Director of Operations and Technical Services