TONY HETHERINGTON: Which? boss staying quiet on parking fiasco

Tony Hetherington is Financial Mail’s chief investigator on Sunday, battling the reader’s corners, revealing the truth behind closed doors and achieving victories for those who haven’t made money. Read below how to contact him.

CO writes: I was fined for exceeding the parking time in Greenwich Royal Park.

I thought it was unfair as the payment and display ticket is printed in a very confusing way.

I also consider it blackmail to tell me that by paying the £40 fine I could no longer appeal, whereas if I took the time to appeal the fine would become £80.

Tony Hetherington replies: Let’s start with the basic problem, salary layout and display ticket. And I have to admit that when you sent me a copy, I fell into exactly the same trap as you.

The ticket has two rows of details, with the top row in large letters. The first piece of information is the date, below which is the word “DATE” in capital letters. The eye reads from left to right, and the next bit of information says 12:34, with the word “FEE” below it, also in capital letters. But this is not the fee. It’s the expiration time. The real fare is lower on the ticket, diagonally across from the date and without a caption.

Once this is explained everything will fall into place and you will be able to see what should be on the ticket. But I’ll bet you’re not the first to glance at the ticket, be seriously misled, and then be fined.

And the misleading information doesn’t stop there. Tickets and requirements are decorated with a large crown, representing the Royal Parks Organization. But the address, phone number and email address all go to a private company, NSL Limited. Unsurprisingly, then, I was told, “The Royal Parks has had no previous complaints about this matter.” Of course not, if everything goes to NSL.

NSL itself told me: ‘We will of course take customer feedback into account and try to improve the layout when the next batch of tickets is produced.’ But it rejected the idea that the penalty doubles if you appeal. On the contrary, the fine is halved if you pay and do not appeal.

And this is big business for NSL, so I took a closer look. NSL is owned by yet another company, Marston (Holdings) Limited which in turn is owned by another company and so on and so forth through an amazing ten layers of companies until you get to the top of the tree which is free Flow Topco Limited.

It has contracts with local councils and government agencies that include enforcing warrants, issuing warnings, detaining, seizing and disposing of vehicles. And last year the turnover was £255 million. It claims its Marston offshoot operates within an “ethical framework” led by an advisory group led by Sam Younger CBE. Who is he? Amazingly, he is chairman of consumer organization Which?

No, you didn’t misread this. Which? — the organization that provides page after page of website advice on how to fight parking fines — is led by a man who works for a company that makes millions from issuing parking tickets. So I contacted Which one? and invited a comment from Sam Younger. Did he believe the confusing layout of Marston’s payment and display tickets met ethical standards? And does he believe it’s fair that the time it takes to consider an appeal would mean doubling the penalty?

Well, the consumer champion refused to answer. His spokesperson said I should ask Marston, the company that issued the ticket in the first place, for comment. She added: ‘Any other positions Sam Younger holds outside of Which? are independent of and not linked to his position at the Consumers’ Association.’

Frustration: the reader got a ticket after visiting Greenwich Royal Park

This is close to outright hypocrisy. Sam Younger is with Marston, so Marston’s owners can boast that they must be ethically led because they have a top consumer champion on board. If Younger doesn’t agree, why did he refuse to say so?

Last February, the government unveiled a code of practice for private parking, announcing: “Private companies issue approximately 22,000 parking tickets every day, often employing a labyrinthine system of misleading and confusing signage, opaque appeals processes, aggressive debt collection and unreasonable fees designed for money from motorists. Apart from their inherent dishonesty, these practices damage our high streets, our cities and our city centers. We are determined to put an end to it.’

Fine words, which lasted until June, when the entire scheme was withdrawn, exposing motorists to exactly the same abuses that the government listed in February. Maybe Which? campaign to revive the code of practice. Or is it too close for comfort?

If you believe you have been the victim of financial misconduct, please write to Tony Hetherington at Financial Mail, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TS or email tony.hetherington@mailonsunday.co.uk. Due to the large number of questions, no personal answers can be given. Only send copies of original documents, which unfortunately cannot be returned.