British Parking Association Reviews 

In a presentation the BPA Chief Executive, Andrew Pester, did about 5 years ago the emphasis was on 'raising standards' within the industry and the mission claimed was all about :

1. 'driving standards forward' and
2. 'developing professionalism across the board'.

These are fine objectives. However, in my case I have found the BPA to be completely failing to meet these objectives. I have sent many emails to the BPA which have been completely ignored concerning a serious complaint I have with Civil Enforcement Ltd. This operator has:

1. Completely ignored the BPA Code of Practice
2. Completely and patently made a false statement claiming to fully observe the Code
3. Civil Enforcement Ltd has made a complete and utter mockery of their Code

The BPA under the leadership of Andrew Pester has so far shown a complete indifference to their own Codes of Practice. I have already given them ample evidence of the clear and obvious breaches of the Code, but they do absolutely nothing accept forward all my emails back to the operator for their information. It appears that their Code isn't even worth the paper it is printed on - this is certainly what Civil Enforcement Ltd thinks.

As they will note from my previous emails, I will be writing to my M.P and the Minister for Levelling Up about my concerns over their Code of Practice.

I regret to say at the moment, using my own experience as an example, that I believe their mission is is the total 'opposite' of what they say:

1. Are you in fact 'driving standards downward' ?
2. Are you in fact 'developing unprofessionalism across the board.'?
3. Is your Code of Practice something that can be freely ignored by any of your members without any consequences ( it certainly looks that way to me)?
4. Are you in fact, much like Civil Enforcement Ltd, making a complete and utter mockery of your own Code of Practice?
5. Civil Enforcement Ltd have patently made a completely false statement claiming to fully observe the Code. This is a serious matter. Is the BPA simply going to sit back and do nothing in this regard?

Park my electric car at holiday inn high Wycombe for charging as this was a BP recognised charging station on their website.
Parked the car for 50 min charged in an empty car park at midnight. Just received a ticket for £100. The car park was totally dark without any obvious signs stating that the parking fee is so expensive.
This company is everything that people have described. Bunch of thug scammers.

BPA are basically a protection racket for carpark scammers like so called smart parking. About time the government stepped in and abolished this corrupt system. The harassment/extortion they allow to take place under there noses, whilst portraying to be policing the system is a joke.

A typical pompous set of people employed on extortionate wages funded by the scamming parking companies that form there association. Complete leaches with no morals. They have no interest in the general public but only interested in selfishly lining there own pockets. They have no interest in replying to complaints and just state they are following process and are not interested in the facts that there members lie and cheat and harass and intimidate people.

Further to my complaint letter sent on the 22/11/23 to the BPA I sent a second letter on the 04//01/24 outlining my complaint details.
What a surprise no reply from them?
As suspected this association only exists to fool the general public into thinking that the parking companies they represent have some sort of respect or credibility.
My belief is that the BPA won’t reply to my complaint letter because you can’t defend the undefendable.
Your association is a sham and you obviously condone your members tactics of stealing by stealth?
Shame on you.
Further more I know you will reply to my comments because Trustpilot is media platform seen by many and you don’t want to be viewed has a faceless associate that only exists for profit.

No phone number! I wanted email them a list of reviews about a parking company described as extorting but can’t unless I write a letter. What century?

With threat of legal action this is a toothless association not fit for purpose.

You cannot communicate with them other than online contact forms.

The response is to regurgitate the codes of practise even when irrefutable evidence of breaching these codes is provided.

It is frightening how parking companies can effectively blackmail people with impunity, with a useless regulatory body

Update

Note that the standard response with a link on how to complain is the process I followed in the first place that prompted an inadequate reply and support. You go round in circles, useless

How do you give scammers, fe CUP enforcement, your approval to operate? Are your code of practices to cheat, to lie, to randomly give out parking tickets in areas where they have no authority to operate? BPA needs to be dismatled and no-one who works for you should be able to hold any posts of authority. One of these days, you will end up famous after some investigative journalism

Car Parking Partnership (CPP) issued me a parking charge notice (PCN) placing me at a vague location in a town that I have not set foot in. Upon further investigation of the evidence they provided of my vehicle allegedly breaking the terms and condition of the parking site, the road markings looked nothing like that of the alleged location (on googlemaps) but instead look suspiciously like that of my local gym - in which parking is free. I therefore believe the evidence was fabricated and tactics were used to entice me into paying a fine over an incident that never happened. When I raised this to BPA, they were very dismissive -they don’t get involved in individual disputes and missed the bigger picture that an operator (using the BPA name) is acting unprofessionally. There is even a section in the BPA Code of Practice called ‘Professionalism’ which they didn’t seem to make the connection with. It is clear their interests lie with the operators (who pay for BPA membership) and not with drivers

I had received a parking fine erroneously from Smart Parking. Because of their coercive tactics I made the cardinal sin and paid a reduced fine.
As i still felt aggrieved I appealed first to Smart Parking, whose only response was to say the fine has been paid so the matter is closed.
I appealed via BPA and sent several communication on their portal and posted them too.
I received a verbose reply which was confusing but the bottom line was 'Nothing to do with us'!
1. The BPA web site says is a not-for-profit membership association representing the UK’s parking and mobility sector. We provide a leading membership community to support parking and traffic management professionals to deliver the highest quality services that benefits society and the environment.. Yet you say 'we cannot become involved in the appeals process'. It begs the question, precisely what is your role?
2. Smart Parking refused to provide me with a 10 digit verification code to appeal this fine with POPLA, again nothing to do with you? If not can you advise how I can appeal to POPLA please?
3. I also note you have failed to comment on any issues raised on my letters of 21/09/23 or 11/10/23.
Smart Parking is a disgrace. It only takes a quick look on social media to realise this company is completely unprofessional and should not be allowed to get away with their attitude towards customers. Shame on you for being associated with such an outfit.
Having seen BPA’s
Response I’ve logged the issue again but having done this five times already do not expect anything to change.

ZZPS govern there own appeals and are intimidating refusing appeals (they just put up my charge during appeal!). Great to see the BPA make the ZZPS owner the new vice chair. So, the vice chair for a business refusing clear and honest appeals and ripping the public off, now is on the BPA board. The BPA is a utter joke, its far from independent even though its tries to promote a business built around fairness.

Useless. Should be the governing agency for Private Parking operators but they provide no service to the public at all. Just looking to get paid memberships from Parking Operators.

Impossible to speak with anyone. Impossible submit a complaint. Even when complied with conditions of making complaint first to company and providing evidence they put you in circular route going nowhere.

25 7 23 :Almost certainly as a result of the TrustPilot review I actually got a response from BPA today. Advised me that because I had had threats of fines withdrawn they would not investigate the underlying concerns or seek compensation on my behalf. Nor did they address the faults in trying to make a complaint.

No it isn’t. That’s what I did and it just took me on a circular route. And the telephone number available only has announcements with no facility to either get a return call or speak with anyone. You are a major reason why this country is dysfunctional.

Joke of a company that just side with the scammer and con artists that disguise themselves as legitimate parking companies. As much use as a chocolate teapot!!!!!

BPA reference: BPA-043488
complete waste of time with this company. my complaint was about being given a PCN for overstaying, the problem was PCN evidence images were from two different carparks they had seemed to
have missed two of four visits conveniently.must be a one in billion chance, BPA supposed to stop these error's. If BPA
were interested /neutral about complaints about members, it would be in my opinion reasonable to give complainants some advice on pursuing issues correctly . when a clear breach of there guidelines as taken place
BPA guidelines
As with all new technology, there are issues associated with its use:

a) Repeat users of a car park inside a 24 hour period sometimes find that their first entry is paired with their last exit, resulting in an ‘overstay’. Operators are becoming aware of this and should now be checking all ANPR transactions to ensure that this does not occur. UPDATE to reply from bpa firstly pcn already appealed and won, secondly your members don't need to follow your guidelines lines.? The issue is how was it possible for me to have a been issued with a pcn from two separate carparks, entry and exit, clearly as I stated in review, what is your function as a standards supervisor for member's, money i guess as shown BPA abysmal feedbacks from trustpilot. also your response "As we were not provided with any further evidence of any potential breaches"
Normally when a complaint is made
about a company a reputable company's ask their members for all information regarding the case or ask complainants for any further information needed to rectify what is a in my opinion an attempt to extort money, as no excuse as to reason for
this serious error.

Just another company that is out to screw the motorist and promote out of city shopping

I am still attempting to work out what possible function this organisation serves. They are as powerless as they are inept, and utterly disappointing to deal with.

The imagined authority they proclaim on their company website simply doesn't exist in reality. Having contacted them with genuine concerns over the practices of a member of their supposed organisation (SABA Park UK Ltd), they informed me in writing that they have no actual power over this company and could not exert any influence or indeed be useful in any way.

This was my first time contacting BPA regarding one of their members. Needless to say, it is a total waste of time.

If ever you are in the unfortunate position of considering getting in touch with these people, looking at filling in their tedious web-forms and crossing your fingers that the wheels of justice might start turning... let me save you some time:

Don't bother.

Complete waste of time contacting BPA. As others have mentioned, and judging by the overwhelmingly negative reviews, it seems they exist only to serve their members, with no interest whatsoever in people who don’t line their pockets.

I got parking charge notice ticket from BPA LIDL edgware London , for parking 52 minutes for doing shopping in lidl spent £100 even return item lidl too , BPA robbing me , how can I file them ,as I have all the evidence? Please help ?

Totally useless lied all the way did everything they could to help Am parking. Both denied that I sent an appeal letter even though I sent proof to them and am parking. 4 months later I sent Am parking a letter giving them two weeks notice before I take them to small claim court that week I got a refund.so constant emails to aos and them constantly closing my case for 4 months. They are now claiming it was confusion and that the ticket was cancelled on 27.10.2022. But aos sent me all correspondence between me an Am parking and there is no cancellation of ticket. So I suggest to any one to take it to small claims court. As you imagine this is the short version of what happened lol.
Update the only reason I got a refund of my ticket is because I was going to take them to court in march 2023 there was no refund of ticket I contacted am parking twice by phone and letters. If they had cancelled my ticket they would have contacted me. They would of course told british parking association has well. The cancellation letter has magically just appied a few days ago when I would not stop complaining. I paid by pay pal so if the refund had as they say was accidentally cancelled it whould still shown up on pay pal Has cancelled. I could not even go to popla becouse i did not have a code becouse they denied i sent in a appeal letter .There was no mistake. So everyone out there knowing that they should not have got a ticket take them to small claims court. Becouse the brittish parking association will not help you and yes lie and call it a mistake