If you live in Northern Ireland and have parked in certain places, you have probably been hit with a parking charge from a company called Smart Parking. Some people are getting hit with fines of up to £160 in places. But what should you do about this?
I’m not a solicitor or anything close to being legally minded but I have put together the following information after I was hit with a charge. This following post should not be considered legal advice and if you are concerned then please consult an actual solicitor. This is an ongoing thing for me so I will update this post when I get more information to share. Because we live in a world where money is needed to survive, Latte Lindsay runs a number of affiliate programmes and offers contributed or partnered content. If you choose to click the links and read the posts, the site may earn a commission or receives a payment. All of the opinions are my own. Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of any partner brands/company(s), beauty & lifestyle brands, airlines or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities unless specified.
Here is the story, I went over to Bangor for the Vintage Fair in August 2018 and decided to park at the Flagship Centre. I knew they had started charging for parking, something that I was happy to pay. But when we arrived, the machine wasn’t accepting money, the app I downloaded didn’t work, so I jumped back in the car and moved it over to the car park behind Jenny Watts where it is pay and display. I paid and displayed, then went into town. I wasn’t even parked in the Flagship for 15 minutes (I’ve kids to get in and out of the car with a buggy, it can be time-consuming). So imagine my horror when I got hit with a parking charge for £60 and my details had been happily handed over by the DVLA.
Ok, I understand that people abuse car parking but this is ridiculous and I’m not the only one. On my local mum’s page, there are plenty of people who have been hit with these charges. But more importantly, people aren’t aware that when they drive into these car parks that they are giving their consent for the DVLA to hand information out like this.
Contact the place that you parked
I tried to contact the Flagship Centre but the phone just rings off and the website is just the logo. As for the Facebook page, it hasn’t had anything on it for over a year. Plenty of people have contacted local businesses in the hope that they can get their charge overturned, but even the staff at Abbey Centre are getting hit every week with charges despite “having permission” to park there.
Contact DVLA
At no point did I realise that by driving into the Flagship Centre that by entering the car park, I was giving my consent to this company to contact the DVLA for my details, and for the DVLA to pass my personal details on like this. If I had known, I sure as hell would not have set foot in there. I stood and read the big sign so I could attempt to pay for my parking and didn’t see anything there. If I had, I would have marched in and demanded my details removed from the system. This (in my opinion) is a breach of my confidential information.
Contact the Consumer Council
I’ve contacted them myself and I’m waiting on a reply. Plenty of people are contacting them to get these charges overturned and you can contact them yourself.
*Update* After contacting the Consumer Council, they got back to me pretty quickly. They agreed that what has happened here is unlawful and quickly had the charges overturned which were confirmed by Smart Parking themselves. After a month of the matter being closed, Smart Parking continued to send me letters about how I owed them money, and each time I referred them to the Consumer Council. After a few months of back and forth, the letters stopped and I’ve heard nothing since. Be warned, they WILL harass you, they want your money, and they will not stop unless they are made to stop.
Contact your MLA
I have had enough with seeing the complaints about these charges (which apparently can’t be enforced over in Northern Ireland, but don’t quote me on that) plus we don’t have an Ombudsman for parking like they do in England. That’s why the Consumer Council is taking on these complaints. I’ve contacted some local MLAs for a statement about these charges. People are getting put off going to certain businesses because of these shady practices. To date, none of the MLAs or MP’s has returned my emails.
Avoid, Avoid, Avoid!
I will be avoiding these car parks in the future, they are shady and there are too many questions about the legal standpoint. I’ve no problem paying for parking. Give me a ticket machine and a barrier (like in Castle Court or the Ulster Hospital), no problem. Below is a list of places that use this car parking system.
*this list will be updated daily so please check back and let me know in the comments section if you know of any car parks that use this type of system. If you want to use these car parks, that’s your decision, I just want to give you as much info as I can to make an informed decision*
- Flagship Centre, Bangor, County Down
- Abbey Centre, Newtownabbey
- Toscana Park, Bangor
- Ards Shopping Centre, Newtownards
- Marks and Spencer car park, Upper Newtownards Road, Belfast
- Bow Street, Lisburn
- Laharna Retail Park, Larne
- High Street Mall, Portadown
- Howard Street, Belfast
- B&M, Abbey Centre, Newtownabbey
- Bangor Marina
- Behind NCG (formally Restore) Francis Street, Newtownards (it used to be a free car park that you could access from East Street but it is now monitored by Smart Parking).
Another for your list is the Marks and Spencer car park on the Upper Newtownards Road, Belfast
Thanks for letting me know, I’ve added this to the list.
Hi Linsay,I got one in Newtownards…..ust be the restore one, I went in and parked , went to the closest machine which wasn’t working so walked to the other side of the car park and paid for an hour.i was 12 mins over after getting my disabled mother into the car and packing wheelchair away .
Another is Howard Street Belfast (just opposite the fire station) I got a £60 fine from Smart parking and I wasn’t even outside my parking time. I tried to phone them but they no longer take phone calls. I found a mobile number but surprise surprise it went t voicemail. I then attempted to email them but this came up several times as an invalid email address so I think there is a scam going on.I stopped the payment with my bank who have passed the matter to their fraud Department. I will keep you posted.
Annoyingly I had my Public Charge Notice and appealed it before finding and reading your interesting piece on the subject. Alexander Street car park, Ballymena. In and out photos taken 1hr 59 minutes apart after wife paid for 2 hours.Having read the guidance for private car parks and found that minor and major keying errors are a valid reason for appeal, I have based my appeal on these facts. Still awaiting the outcome.
Laganbank. Retail Park Lisburn. I have received a demand for payment of 60 quid to go up to 100.I have been advises by friends to bin it and by contacting them you will be entering a contract. 60 quid is ridiculous.
Another place where Smart park operate are Bow Lane Lisburn. I got a ticket here and wrote to the consumer council. The ticket was overturned very quickly. Here is a reply to Smart parking from the consumer council ” As you may be aware, The Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 is not applicable in Northern Ireland meaning that the driver of the vehicle is liable for any parking charges not the registered keeper. As the burden of proof is on the claimant, we would ask you to provide evidence that Mr/Mrs ??????? was the driver of this vehicle at the time this alleged contravention occurred.
Thanks for letting me know. I’ve added this to the list. Smart Parking will try anything to get their money out of you, they continued to send me letters for 18 months after it had been overturned. We will just have to make our voices heard and let these businesses know that they will lose our business if they keep using this company to enforce car parking charges.
Another one for your list Laharna retail park larne.
Thanks for letting me know, I’ve added that to the list now.
High Street MallPortadown
Thanks for letting me know, I’ve updated the list. This just keeps getting longer!
B@m abbey centre newtownabbey to add to your list
It looks like all of Abbey Centre is a mess with this car parking. I can see them losing a lot of business over this as more people get fined.
The side of sports direct abbey Centre got a ticket £60 in the post and I had a blue badge on my car. Went to see the manager of sports direct and she said that they had nothing to do with the parking at the side. Won’t be paying the £60 and won’t be back in Sports Direct again.
All of Abbey Centre is covered by them. I haven’t been to the Abbey Centre in years, I won’t be visiting anytime soon if this is the carparking.
Hi Mark I just got a smart parking fine fir this same spot it was over Christmas 2022, I had no idea this was a permit holder only parking area. I’m just wondering what happened with your case and do you advise to pay or ignore,,cheers gkenn
Hi Glenn just received fine for same spot had no idea it was permit parking don’t know weather to pay or ignore just wondering what happened with yours.
Its time someone took these crooks to court. I got a pcn for my car being in a private parking zone. The laugh is that their sign on site states a maximum of three hours. The photos they attached to their so called fine only show the car entering and leaving, not parked and, are you ready for the best bit? Car was there for 23 minutes. Needless to say I have appealed it on their website so looking forward to the waffle I will get as a answer. Good mind to put this in the hands of a Barrister for stress and inconvenience.
As far as I have heard, if you try to appeal directly to Smart Parking, they will just ignore your request. Your best bet is to go to Consumer Council because they have been dealing with them for years! As for going to court for stress, let us all know if you do, I think you would have a lot of supporters cheering you on.
Since my post on 22/1/22 I have contacted Consumer Rights through a website called Resolve. I see a mention of Martin Lewis’s money saver web page on theirs so hopefully they are ok. Will keep you appraised of any outcome
It’s also braidwaterwater retail park, ballymena. I worked there and my boss didn’t put me on the system. I’m now getting bombarded with courts letters. Tried to get my boss to sort it he said “it’s northern ireland the tickets dont stand”. Don’t know what else to do. I’ve left my old job in June last year.
Another place where these people are demanding money for parking is duncrue centre, I broke down there some months ago and took 4 hours to have someone come out and get me going again, smart parking just had not got a care in the world, they wanted their money irrelevant of the situation, gangsters hiding behind the law.
I am the owner of NCG in Ards, we were so annoyed by the installation of the smart parking system by the landlord. We had no say in it unfortunately. For those who do get tickets we do ask they contact us so we can email and try get it cancelled and them added to the whitelist system. There is also a white ipad in the shop for people to enter their registrations, this ensures parking is free 🙂
Further to my previous message, as the message box wasn’t big enough to add this..The Alexander Street car park is run by Smart Parking Ltd in Birmingham.My appeal was acknowledged by an email from an email address with a dot io (.io) domain name. Dot IO domain names are from British Indian Ocean Territory or the Chaos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean. All that’s there is a joint British/American military base
Another scam parking space by Smart Parking is Helens Bay car park – the one near Helens Bay beach