NAAS: 4 June 2001: by Brian Byrne & Trish Whelan. Tesco in Naas moved swiftly last Saturday to deal with an apparent inequality in the treatment of customers who park incorrectly on the store's property. The shop management's action was taken after KNN made inquiries when a customer received a parking 'ticket' because her car straddled the white line on a parking bay.
Fiona Carroll had just spent some £60 in the store when she found the £25 'Parking Charge' ticket which had been placed on her windscreen by an employee of Euro Car Parks (Ireland) Ltd, who manage the car parking on behalf of Tesco. The ticket said Euro would accept a reduced payment of £15 if it was paid within 14 days. Failing payment after 25 days, Ms Carroll's car would be subject to clamping with a further £50 unlocking fee.
"I had no choice but to park the way I did, because the car beside me had also parked incorrectly," she told KNN. "This is completely unfair and no way to treat paying customers."
When KNN arrived at the Tesco car park a little time afterwards we found a number of cars parked in clear breach of the regulations posted on the walls of the store, in particular the one which requires customers to park 'only within marked bays'. None had tickets.
"I allowed them to park there because we're busy," the Euro employee said as he moved among the cars noting registration numbers into his handheld computer to make sure customers didn't park any longer than two hours.
When asked if this didn't amount to unfair treatment and selective imposition of penalties, he replied: "I have to use some discretion. I decide on who is violating a rule." He declined to say how many 'tickets' he issued per day.
When KNN brought the situation to the notice of Tesco management, they declined to comment and said the customer 'should have come to us instead of going to the press'. Subsequently a representative phoned KNN and said if the customer contacted them, 'it would be sorted'.
Ms Carroll later called the store and was told her ticket was 'null and void', she afterwards told KNN.
A number of signs on the outside walls of the store clearly outline the rules for parking, including the two-hour limit and a prohibition on returning to the car park within two hours of leaving it. The sign closest to where Ms Carroll parked is obscured by a 'trolley lobby'. There are no such signs at the entrance to the store car park.
Tesco recently applied for planning permission to extend their car park into property in the Ard na Greine area, to facilitate staff car parking.
Elsewhere in Naas, Super Valu reserves the right to clamp cars which stay over a certain time.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Euro Car Parks (Ireland) Ltd is a subsidiary of ECP (Holdings) plc, based in London. It provides services in 'parking enforcement' and security to business clients in the public and private sector and has been in business for nearly 30 years. The company manages over 500 car parks across the UK and Ireland, dealing with more than 120,000 motorists on a daily basis. It has 1,100 emoloyees and offers 'professional treatment and a tailor-made service' for its customers which it says 'will not fail to impress'.
The incident last Saturday highlights the extent of the parking problem which exists in Naas, one which will be exacerbated when the current UDC car parks are taken over by private interests. Although multi-storey car parks are to be built on both sites, it is arguable - as previously reported on KNN - whether any extra public spaces will have been provided, as parallel developments on the sites will be allocated a major proportion of the spaces.
The Tesco incident also raises the issue of the use of computerised systems of logging car registration numbers in private car parks. It is presumable that this is what also allows the car park management company to threaten 'clamping' if the penalty charge is unpaid after 25 days - such a customer who returns after that time could 'red flag' on the computer when the number is keyed in. But would Euro not first have to go through a civil debt collection court process before clamping could happen?
These are matters for which we will try get answers in the coming week.
©2001brianbyrnetrishwhelan/knn