Private parking firm accused of tormenting drivers with 10 minute pay period
They’re a shy bunch at One Parking Solution Limited.
I visited the office of this private parking firm in the hope of discussing its unenviable reputation but couldn’t find anyone prepared to talk to the media.
Director Val Capon wouldn’t say a word after I introduced myself as he arrived for work, instead filming me and the Mirror photographer with his mobile before disappearing inside.
I came across this firm after hearing from a motorist who used a One Parking Solution car park in Brighton and struggled to download the payment app.
You have a ten minute “grace period” to pay and if you go over that, One Parking Solution hits you with what it calls a parking charge notice or, in common parlance, a fine.
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The motorist, who only wants to be known as Russell, went over the allotted ten minutes because the app repeatedly failed to work before he succeeded in the £2.20 parking fee.
One Parking Solution sent a demand for £100, Russell replying with multiple screenshots showing the message “registration problem” as proof that the delay was not his fault.
He’s since been chased by a string of debt collection companies, beginning with ZZPS Limited.
“It is our understanding that our client has sufficient evidence to pursue this matter through the courts and will do so if necessary,” it threatened.
Russell refused to pay and then heard from “certified enforcement agents” GCTT Limited, who wrote: “One Parking Solution is fully intending on pursuing this matter through the courts.”
Most recently he was contacted by QDR Solicitors and the penalty had risen to £170. “The hounding of me because I was a few minutes late in paying, through no fault of my own, is disgraceful,” he told me.
The app used by One Parking Solution is provided by a company called Pop Pay Ltd. It so happens that 69-year-old Val Capon is also the director of this lot, something that has been noticed by some of the scathing Trustpilot reviewers.
Richard Hurn, who had used the Llangranog car park in West Wales, wrote: “This company, despite many years of complaints, still has not addressed the core issues of no WiFi or mobile phone signal, and why would they? This is their goose that lays the golden egg over and over.”
One Parking Solution's Val Capon is also a director of the app PopPay Ltd (Mirror)Peter Nicholson used a car park in Hornchurch, Essex, and wrote: “I parked at Elm Park Car Park and was issued a penalty charge notice for paying 13 minutes after entering the car park.
“Despite multiple efforts I could not get the Pop Pay app to connect but when I eventually did it was apparently three minutes after the 10 minute grace period.”
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Joanna Lovatt wrote: “Was livid when I received this unjust parking fine. All because it took 12 minutes to go from the car to the sign, discover I needed an app, go back to car and get phone, go back to sign, download app, fill in all details, discover couldn't use Paypal, go back to car, find debit card, put in details, and pay for five hours parking.”
One Parking Solution has a particularly grim reputation in Brighton, where the Labour MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle has called for it to be “chucked out” of the city.
“Predatory parking companies must be better regulated with fairer avenues for appeals,” he told the Mirror. “There are far too many cowboys who manipulate the rules to make money and all too often it’s the vulnerable who end up paying. I know I’m not the only MP with an inbox full of similar complaints so I expect the calls for reform to grow louder.”
I asked Brighton and Hove City Council if it still has contracts with One Parking Solution and, if so, why, but it has not answered.
So is it possible to download the Pop Pay app and pay within the permitted ten minutes? To find out, I drove to a One Parking Solution car park to put the app to the test.
Soon I found myself tapping repeatedly at an unresponsive “Get an account” button on the Pop Pay site and later got stalled by a blank screen. Then, after finally inputting my card details, I got a message saying my bank needed to carry out an identity check.
I only just paid in time - the clock was at nine minutes and four seconds. And that involved ticking a box to say that I agreed to their terms and conditions, all 2,500 words of them, which I’d had no chance to read.
The government has announced that it will introduce a single nationwide parking app. It can’t come too soon.
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