Highview Parking

Highview Parking is a private parking contractor, along with their sister company Ranger Services. Highview Parking operate on privately-owned land, such as supermarket car parks (such as Tesco), retail parks, and hospital car parks. They generate income by issuing Parking Charge Notices which is the industry term for a parking ticket issued on private property. Parking Charge Notices (PCNs) are issued when they believe the terms and conditions of the car park have been breached. Examples could be overstaying the free parking limit, parking outside of a space, or not paying the correct fee. We explain PCNs in much more detail here.

Highview Parking use ANPR systems to enforce maximum stays in their car parks. ANPR -or Automatic Number Plate Recognition- detects cars passing by cameras situated at the entrace and exits of car parks. By determining the difference in time between entry and exit, the system can detect cars that have been in the car park longer than the maximum stated time. If this happens, Highview Parking request the keeper data from the DVLA and send demands via the post for up to £100.

Highview Parking claim that the motorist would have seen the signs, and as a consequence accepted the terms and conditions that staying too long (or breaching any other condition) would mean they agree to pay Highview Parking £100. There are a few flaws in this model, however. For example, being in the car park is not the same as being parked – it could take a motorist 10 minutes to find a space, or 20 minutes to exit the car park if there is traffic.

Another key issue with ANPR is that the cameras cannot be relied upon to capture every entry and exit – its not unknown for people to be issued tickets when they have visited the car park twice in one day, and the system assumes they have been there all day. We talk more about ANPR on this page.

Highview Parking are a member of the British Parking Association (BPA); an industry association that works in its members’ interests, such as the lobbying of Parliament. Membership of the BPA’s Approved Operator Scheme enables them to request keeper data from the DVLA. They need access to the DVLA’s data to lookup the keeper data to allow them to enforce payment of unpaid parking tickets.

Where do Highview Parking operate?

Highview Parking and Ranger Services are known to operate in the following places:

• Tesco supermarkets
• Hospital car parks, such as Warrington and Halton
• Retail Parks, such as Waterfields in Watford, Riverside in Norwich, and Fforestfach in Swansea
• Shopping centres
• McDonalds car parks

What do I do if I get a ticket from Highview Parking?

If you get a PCN from Highview Parking or Ranger Services you should do two things: 1) ask the landowner to cancel, and 2) consider appealing to the independent appeals service, POPLA. If the ticket was issued in a Tesco car park or a McDonalds, go and speak to the manager. They have the power to cancel tickets, and they have no interest in upsetting a valued customer. Be friendly, but firm and persistent. When appealing, don’t jsut jump in, read up about techniques for appealing. If you appeal using the right arguments, you have a very strong chance of getting it cancelled. Have a look at the following pages for information on how to appeal your Highview or Ranger ticket

• Appeals overview
• Should I appeal or ignore?
• How to win your POPLA appeal
• Countering the Beavis case arguments

We are partnered with an online solicitor firm called JustAnswer. For a £5 trial they will provide you details on how to appeal your ticket. Give them a try now.

If you have received a ticket from Highview, you may want to try our online legal advice partner, Just Answer. They will provide you details on how to deal with them. Click here to make a no-obligation enquiry.

Keeper liability

IMPORTANT – HIGHVIEW are known to issue Notices to Keeper (postal parking tickets) that are not POFA-compliant. POFA 2012 is the legislation that allows the keeper to be held liable if certain conditions are met. If the NTK isn’t POFA compliant the keeper cannot be held liable, and assuming they don’t know who the driver is, then they can’t enforce the ticket! This point should be included in any appeal made.

Does Highview Parking take people to court?

Highview Parking are not known to issue many court claims to enforce private parking tickets. In their letters they may threaten too – and this will make many people pay up. In fact, it would cost them much more than the value of the claim to enforce via the small claims court. However, other private parking companies do take tickets to court (e.g. ParkingEye). They know that by taking some motorists to court it will give them a reputation such that people will more likely pay. More information on legal enforcement of parking tickets can be found here.

If you have received a court claim from Highview Parking our recommendation is:

• Do not ignore it! If you don’t defend the claim, then it will default against you. If you don’t then pay it then you will have a County Court Judgement on your credit file
• Understand the legal aspects of private parking tickets
• Start a thread on Pepipoo forum

Highview Parking in the news

The following stories have been published relating to Highview Parking:

Hospital parking row: DVLA probe into ‘unfair’ fines claim

Motorists fined – despite paying correct parking fee at Bircherley Green

Highview Parking possibly suspended from DVLA access

Parking firm suspended by DVLA over Halton Hospital car park farce