Latest news with #CityAirport
Sunday World
4 days ago
- Business
- Sunday World
Private car parking firms are hitting drivers with illegal fines
June Bowers endured a near five-month battle over a fine imposed after an alleged infraction. Private car parking firms are intimidating unwitting car owners to part with illegal fines, it has been claimed. GB-based firms are operating contracts in Northern Ireland to redeem fines for traffic offences at places such as the George Best Belfast City Airport and other public amenities. Aggressive tactics include threats of legal action, court appearances and rising fines if the original demand is not met. It has now emerged in most cases they are not entitled to demand penalty payments which can escalate to hundreds of pounds. The firms, appointed by the likes of the City Airport, are applying laws that are enforceable only in England and Wales and do not apply to Northern Ireland. The disparity emerged after car owner June Bowers from Monkstown emerged victorious in a near five-month battle over a £100 fine imposed after an alleged infraction at the City Airport. ticket She was hit with a £100 fine and, having had two appeals rejected by Sheffield-based Vehicle Control Services, was then threatened with an additional £70 levy and possible legal action. Mrs Bowers, who is 81 and in poor health, was not behind the wheel on the evening of February 8 this year. The driver was at the airport to collect people travelling to Belfast to attend a funeral. Mrs Bowers' husband, veteran trade unionist Joe Bowers, said it was an 'outrage'' that his wife has been subjected to such intimidating behaviour. He said they were determined to resist increasingly aggressive demands. 'I think it's outrageous how these companies intimidate people into paying these fines, we have discovered that, certainly in our case there was no legal requirement to pay.' He said the Sheffield-based company sent them repeated demands for £170, threatening court action. It became clear in repeated correspondence that Vehicle Control Services were basing their demands on laws that don't apply here. The Bowers made repeated appeals, all of which were rejected with increasingly aggressive and threatening behaviour from the company. It a further twist the 'debt'' was sold to a debt recovering agency called Debt Recovery Plus. June Bowers pictured in her home. Photo: Arthur Allison/Pacemaker Press News in 90 Seconds - July 26th 'They have created an industry of their own,' said Joe, 'they are generating huge amounts of money – the debt recovery agency is on record as making millions. 'My issue is that people are being intimidated into paying fines that they should not be getting. We could have let this go for a quiet life, but it got under my skin that people are being put under this type of pressure.' Earlier this month the private company relented but 'warned' Mrs Bowers that any future transgression would result in firm action. The ticket was as a result of the driver of Mrs Bowers' car finding themselves in the wrong car park at the City. 'The driver found themselves in the wrong car park when they should have been in the short stay, so had to pay to get out, then repeated the mistake and had to pay again, that was their mistake we have no issue with that,' said Joe. 'But the new layout at Belfast City is confusing and there are lots of signs, which you can't read unless you slow down. 'I just think it's outrageous that this company can behave like this. 'These private companies seem to be completely unaccountable they are very aggressive in their approach, it's a form of intimidation.' The law in England and Wales requires those issued with a ticket to reveal the identity of the driver, that is not a requirement in Northern Ireland and unless the ticket company know the identity of the driver, a fixed penalty is not viable. But VCS were not interested in any mitigating circumstances and insisted they would try and enforce the fine. Joe Bowers said he suspects people finding themselves in a similar situation have been bullied into paying. He said: 'How can you understand what you're supposed to do if you don't pause to read the rules?' This week Foyle MLA Mark H Durkan called for greater regulation around the issue of private firms issuing fines. The SDLP MLA claimed that, after dealing with 'countless cases' of people contacted by private parking firms, the 'supposed violations' are 'often based on faulty camera evidence or registration systems'. He was speaking after writing to the Infrastructure Minister to ask if new legislation could be introduced to regulate private parking firms in Northern Ireland. The minister, Liz Kimmins, said in a written response that there was currently 'no legislation which specifically applies to privately owned car parks' and 'no plans' from her department to introduce any. Ms Kimmins said: 'Whilst my department is responsible for on-street parking enforcement across the North, it has no responsibility for the operation and management of private car parks nor the enforcement companies that operate within them. 'There is no legislation which specifically applies to privately-owned car parks and my department currently has no plans to introduce legislation in this area.' She added: 'However, any organisation that operates parking on private land and requests keeper details from the DVLA must be approved by an Accredited Trade Association such as the Approved Operator Scheme managed by the British Parking Association. 'Members of this scheme must adhere to the BPA AOS Code of Practice for the control and enforcement of parking on private land and unregulated public car parks.' Belfast City Airport has been contacted.
Metro
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Metro
I tried out every Londoner's worst nightmare and spoke to other commuters
Trapped in a cable car with strangers. Nope, this isn't a new horror film. But that is what came to my mind when I heard about the TfL's chatty cabin initiative in North Greenwich. Running for the second time, the chatty cabins initiative on the IFS Cloud Cable Car allows people to talk to each other while taking in the unobstructed view of London. It's been set up to help tackle loneliness in London, which, according to the campaign to end loneliness, which estimates 8% of Londoners experience severe loneliness. Interested in the real-life psychological experiment, I wanted to try every Londoner's worst nightmare – eye contact and conversation in public transport – while dangling 295ft over the River Thames with nowhere to escape. But I discovered that curiosity is not dead – and Londoners are a warm bunch when one person dares to break the ice. While the Tube air hangs heavy with stressed commuters trying to avoid eye contact, the cable car I jumped into with five other passengers invited conversation. Facing each other on the ski lift-style cabin, conversation began to flow as we took in the sights and introduced ourselves. Any shred of anxiety was gone as the cable car whizzed on, making the journey ahead with strangers feel more like an opportunity to be present rather than a torture chamber (although the mostly see-through cabin was very warm). With only a 20-minute ride ahead of us, it was clear we all wanted to make it count and use the rare opportunity where talking to strangers is not considered too nosy. William Bolding was the first to admit that 'I'm afraid of heights' as he clutched the handrail and braced for the journey ahead. As the wind picked up, he asked whether it was normal for the cable car to swing so much. He had booked a slot on the chatty cabin – which sold out last time the initiative ran – to challenge his fear, he admitted. Jackie Hufford had ridden the cable car with her children years ago when it launched for the 2012 London Olympics, and she wanted to relive the memory after reading about the chatty cabins in Metro. 'I love talking to new people and travelling,' the south east Londoner said. Caroline McLeary joked that 'everyone thinks we know each other already, but Jackie and I have just met,' and the pair, both from the Lewisham area, shared numbers at the end of the ride. Caroline said she wanted to come try the chatty cabin to 'do something for myself' although she had to catch two buses to get there. 'Everyone experiences loneliness,' she said. Naturally, the conversation turned to travel as the City Airport loomed in the background. While we couldn't agree on which London airport is the handiest to get to, one thing we agreed on was how expensive travel in the capital is. Despite the heavy and personal theme of loneliness, which brought us for the ride in the first place, my face hurt from smiling by the time we touched back down on the Greenwich Peninsula terminal. I could have easily gone for a pint with our chatty cabin gang. Despite the sold-out success of the first chatty cabin, there are no plans to bring it on the Tube. 'It would be difficult on the Tube,' Josh Crompton, the head of IFS Cloud Cable Car for TfL, said. More Trending 'The Cable Car is different because it's a closed environment. But we certainly encourage people to have conversations.' Josh said the range of people who have tried the chatty cabins includes people 'who struggle with bereavement to tourists coming to London on their own and wanting to engage with people, single parents who are in with their children all day and are looking to get out.' 'I'm one of those people who struggles opening conversations as much as people do, and that's why we create that environment. It's quite refreshing to have a conversation with people, and I don't generally do that, and I find it quite hard, and this was easy and quite refreshing,' he said. The chatty cabins initiative runs this week until Friday and aims to help tackle loneliness in London as part of the Loneliness Awareness Week. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: Cap on bus fares to stay in place until 2027, Rachel Reeves announces MORE: Beyoncé giving away free concert tickets to London shows after 'poor sales' MORE: Map reveals the most up-and-coming sex positions in major UK cities
BBC News
17-04-2025
- BBC News
Belfast City Airport: Technical issues causing 'large' queues
Technical issues at Belfast City Airport are causing large queues, passengers have McQuillan is travelling for work but says the airport is very busy with holidaymakers."It took me 30 minutes to get my bag dropped off and it doesn't look like this will be resolved any time soon," he airport has said: "There is a technical issue that we are aware of and are working to resolve as soon as possible. We apologise for any inconvenience this causes". Former journalist Mervyn Jess is travelling to London for the Easter said "the main belt drive is not working" and described the queue as "large"."All the flights are going into one queue," he Jess said passengers are "concerned" they will miss their City Airport has been approached for comment.
BBC News
09-04-2025
- Automotive
- BBC News
Sydenham Bypass: Belfast roadworks completed
Long-running resurfacing work on one of the busiest roads in Belfast has been began on the Sydenham Bypass six months ago and the regular closure of lanes led to complaints from motorists, especially at City Airport is beside the A2 bypass, which connects Belfast to heavily-populated areas in Bangor and shutdown of city-bound lanes on some Saturdays caused major traffic congestion on alternative routes in east Belfast. In a post on social media, the Department for Infrastructure announced that the £3.8m resurfacing work had been stated: "Thank you for your patience as we carried out this improvement work which has significantly enhanced one of our busiest and most strategic routes." The department said that than 13,000 tonnes of bituminous material was used to provide a smoother began in October but was paused over the Christmas period.
BBC News
21-03-2025
- BBC News
Belfast: NI airport tells Heathrow-bound passengers not to travel
A fire close to Heathrow Airport as thrown flights to and from the London airport into chaos with Belfast City Airport warning passengers not to travel to the airport "until further notice".Heathrow Airport will be closed all day Friday after a fire at a nearby electrical substation that supplies it with least 1,351 flights to and from UK's busiest airport could be cancelled on Friday, according to flight tracking website City Airport advised passengers due to fly to Heathrow to contact their airlines. A number of flights to and from Heathrow are showing as cancelled on Belfast City Airport's website.A Heathrow spokesperson said its terminals had to be shut as they "do not have clarity on when power may be reliably restored".All flights scheduled between Dublin Airport and London Heathrow up until at least mid-afternoon Friday have also been cancelled.A spokesperson for Dublin Airport said further disruption to flights between Dublin and Heathrow scheduled for later on Friday "are likely".A total of 34 flights were scheduled between Dublin Airport and Heathrow on Airport advised affected passengers to contact their Airport in County Clare has said it has facilitated several diverted flights originally scheduled to land at Heathrow on Friday morning, including flights from Toronto, Atlanta, Bridgetown Barbados, Boston, Orlando and Newark.
