ON reading the letter from J Cooke in last week's paper, I feel I must write about a friend of mine who had the same problem at the Spar car park in Tavistock. He was actually shopping for someone else and couldn't find the item wanted, so drove to the Co-op; again he was unlucky, but returned to the Spar where he had seen an alternative. What he didn't see in the dark was the sign saying you can't return to the car park under so many minutes. The letter he received plus photos was so intimidating that he paid the £60 fine because it was the lesser of two evils — £100 plus bailiffs! P Richards Tavistock J COOKE'S letter (Times, March 19) illustrates an issue that has become widely contentious. Private individuals or companies have no authority in law to levy parking fines, so demands for payments such as described by Mr Cooke are rarely enforceable. Parking companies therefore dress up their demands with pseudo-legal jargon with a view to intimidating recipients into stumping up. Many do, alas. I commend the following internet sites to anyone threatened by such activities: l http://www.parking-prankster.com/private-parking-appeals.html">www.parking-prankster.com/private-parking-appeals.html l http://www.parking-prankster.com/court-claim.html">www.parking-prankster.com/court-claim.html l https://twitter.com/ParkingPranks">https://twitter.com/ParkingPranks l http://parking-prankster.blogspot.co.uk/">http://parking-prankster.blogspot.co.uk/ l http://notomob.co.uk/discussions/">http://notomob.co.uk/discussions/ l http://forums.pepipoo.com/">http://forums.pepipoo.com/ (follow link 'Private Parking')

Roger W Mathew Tavistock