Councillor’s legal advice in row over app

A Dundee councillor has said he is getting legal advice in his battle with a private parking company in Perth.

City development convener Will Dawson was hit with a demand for a £100 fine for parking in Smart Parking’s Kinnoull Street car park.

Mr Dawson had paid for his spot using an app on his phone, which he had used without any problems for several years, but it swapped the letter O in his registration plate for a number zero.

So although Smart Parking received his payment, it claimed he had not paid for his car.

Smart Parking then hit Mr Dawson with two demands for £100 because of non-payment.

The company has refused to cancel the penalties despite Mr Dawson being able to provide receipts from his app.

In a statement, Smart Parking said: “Mr Dawson clearly admits that the parking app he used was at fault and thus he broke the terms and conditions of use at our car park.”

Mr Dawson said: “For a company called Smart, their procedures are pretty stupid as anyone with an ounce of common sense can clearly see that the payment is for the same vehicle – app fault or not.

“I will be taking legal advice.”

If you’ve ever been involved in an argument on the internet you are probably familiar with something known as the backfire effect.

In essence, this means that if someone reads something that disproves their entire argument, they will zero in on a tiny error to convince themselves the entire piece is bogus.

So for people like Carly Mackie, hit with an astronomical £24,500 parking bill, she will continue to believe those charges have been imposed unfairly and illegally – even when the law says otherwise.

Unfortunately no matter how unfair they may believe them to be, it appears the law is definitely not on their side.

It means that drivers who have ignored large numbers of penalties could soon find themselves pursued by the court for non-payment.

In Scotland the parking company must be able to prove it knows who the driver was who racked up the tickets.

But the simplest advice is if the signs say you should pay for parking then do it – or find somewhere else.