Just days after being fined almost £4000 for running an unlicensed car park for Airport Direct, Millie Stojanovic is back running another parking company from the same location.

ADP Parking, which according to 118.com is based at Little Orchard, Church Lane, Burstow – the same location as Airport Direct – has generated plenty of complaints to Tandridge Council and the Police over the Christmas period, including a complaint from one couple who waited 14½ hours for the return of their car just after Christmas 2011.



The couple, who were travelling with their two children, followed the instruction from ADP Parking and called the company when their plane landed at 9.30pm. They were told their car would be ready, however, when they exited the terminal their car was not at the pre-arranged collection point. After a 15-minute wait and another call, they were told the driver was at the compound. After another half an hour their car still hadn’t been returned.

1¼ hours after their first phone call, the representative of APD asked if they could take a taxi home – this was not an option, plus they still had to collect their car. After two hours, 11.30 at night, the car had still not been returned, and with two tired children, the couple’s only option was to book a family room in an airport hotel at a cost of £265.

At 12.30am, that same night, APD Parking called to inform them that their car was 10 minutes away. At 1.30am the car still hadn’t arrived. The couple continually tried to contact the company but their calls were not always answered, and when they were, the couple alleges they were subjected to verbal abuse. Tired, concerned for their young children and worried that their car may have been stolen, they asked ADP for the location of their car so they could collect it themselves – the company refused.

At 8am they managed to contact the company and were told to ‘just be patient, we’ve got your vehicle’ ‘we’ll call back in ½ an hour.’

Eventually, at midday, 14½ hours after their plane landed, the couple’s car was returned to Gatwick Airport.

As it stands today, 23 January 2012, the couple has only received a brief apology from ADP Parking. They have yet to receive any offer of compensation for the delay and any out-of-pocket expenses incurred during their overnight stay, neither have they received an explanation of why the car’s return took so long.

A Burstow resident has been ordered to pay more than £3000 in fines for operating an airport parking business on private land.

Millie Stojanovic, of Church Lane, Burstow, ran Airport Direct, a Gatwick parking company, on her land without planning permission.

Ms Stojanovic was issued an enforcement notice in 2004 by Tandridge District Council. The Council received a complaint in August 2010 and, in July 2011, after another complaint, council officers found approximately 50 cars parked on her land – the area covered by the enforcement notice.

In December Ms Stojanovic pleaded guilty to not complying with a planning enforcement notice by keeping cars parked at Old Orchard in Church Lane and fined £3,300, plus costs of £680 and £15 to the victim support fund.

Councillor Gill Black, chairman of Tandrige District Council’s planning committee, said, “This was an ongoing breach of planning regulations and Ms Stojanovic was fully aware of the enforcement notice and the restrictions this placed on using her land for off airport parking.”

Eco Parking has won the Essential Travel Car Park Attendant of the Month award from www.essentialtravel.co.uk in association with the British Parking Association.

The coveted award is voted for by thousands of Essential Travel customers who book their great value Gatwick Airport meet and greet parking on the price comparison website each month.

And for this month, December, the award was presented to Sean McCarthy of Eco Parking– who showed ‘exemplary performance, professional attitude and dedicated customer service’.

Eco Parking, a division of Help-Me-Park, pride themselves on their customer service and attention to detail. Details that include fully uniformed and insured drivers, a courtesy call whilst the customer is en route to the airport to reconfirm details and ETA, safe and secure parking facilities, as well as a 24 hour telephone contact number – something many car parking firms do not provide.

Meet and greet parking at Gatwick Airport’s South and North Terminals with Eco Parking and Help-Me-Park gives passengers total peace of mind that their vehicle will be parked safely and securely by driving professionals. The secure parking facility boasts double fencing around the entire perimeter, is floodlit, has CCTV and 24/7 alarm monitoring. The meet and greet service operates 24/7, 365 days a year. It is the ideal choice for families, time pressed business travellers, elderly and disabled passengers, negating the need for timely waits for courtesy buses to the airport from remote car parks. Prices are from just £53 per week.

Speaking about the award, which is through a mixture of outstanding customer service, time keeping, and service ethics, Sean says “It’s really great to get the award. I would like to say that this is an award for the whole team. We all work really hard and this could not have been achieved without the commitment of all the guys here.”

Sean wins a month’s supply of his favourite biscuits, which are … Jammy Dodgers! And finds his place on Essential Travel’s ‘Parking Attendant of the Month Hall of Fame’.

Essential Travel offers a whole host of reputable companies offering a complete range of holiday extras, including airport parking across the UK, travel insurance and airport lounges. The site offers guaranteed best price, with no hidden extras or charges.

Congratulations again Sean!

A plan to utilize staff from airport-based companies in the fight against terrorism has seen a group of Gatwick parking employees undertake police training.

Drivers from Gatwick meet and greet parking company, Help Me Park, recently participated in anti-terrorism training with Gatwick police.

The training is just one part of an initiative between Gatwick Police and the Airport Valet Parking Company Association (AVPCA), which has been set up to crackdown on rogue meet and greet parking companies operating at Gatwick airport.

Help Me Park is the first one of AVPCA’s member companies to undertake the training. Drivers from other member companies are set to follow shortly.

AVPCA, the new valet parking association at Gatwick,  has agreed to send their staff on anti terrorism training with local police.

The aim of the training is to add awareness of terrorist threats and increase the numbers of eyes and ears assisting local Police in their duty, whilst also building bridges of trust and friendship between the valet parking teams and the local Police.

AVPCA members employ more than 200 staff at Gatwick, and as all member companies operate 24 hours per day the staff they employ will we believe add a significant number of trained and knowledgeable people to the efforts already being made to ensure that Gatwick is a safe place to travel through.

If you’re looking to book Gatwick meet and greet parking in the future, take a look at the Airport Valet Parking Contractors Association (AVPCA) website – www.avpca.co.uk.

The AVPCA was established in early 2011 to help promote safer meet and greet parking and to effectively ‘police’ the industry from the inside.

We’ve all heard of some horror stories surrounding the valet meet and greet parking industry, like the cases aired on Watchdog and the story of a kebab shop owner whose Gatwick parking company offered ‘Secure parking, six foot high fencing, and lockable gates’ when in fact the cars were being parked outside his kebab shop in Crawley (www.theargus.co.uk/archive/2009/11/24/News+%28news%29/4757202.Gatwick_parking_scam_exposed/).

These stories, while making great headlines, do nothing for the honest, long-established meet and greet parking companies that operate from Gatwick Airport, and tarnish the reputation of all off-airport parking companies.

The AVPCA was set to clean up the meet and greet parking industry and, working with airport operators, the police and trading standards, prevent rogue parking operators from setting up businesses in the Gatwick area.

Membership of the AVPCA is subject to strict guidelines and potential members have to demonstrate that they meet the following criteria:

• Members must have planning permission to operate a meet and greet parking company
• They must be VAT registered
• All companies must have a landline telephone number
• They must have registered offices
• Have up-to-date accounts
• Conduct CRB checks on their staff and drivers
• Hold full liability insurance, which must be proved
• All companies must have a minimum five-year trading history

The next meeting of GATCOM (Gatwick Airport Consultative Committee) takes place at 2pm tomorrow, 28 July 2011, in the Ascot Suite of the Gatwick Hilton Hotel.

Topics up for discussion include:

• Airport performance and development
• Passenger issues
• Environmental issues, including noise
• South East Airports Taskforce
• Surface access issues

There will also be a report from the Chief Executive of Gatwick Airport.

Not mentioned in the agenda, but a topic noted for discussion by the Redhill and Reigate Life is the issue of rogue valet parking operators who offer secure parking but actually park their customers’ cars on roads near the airport.

GATCOM has always had concerns about the impact of rogue parking companies and receives reports from local highway and planning authorities, trading standards and the airport operator on the issue.

Recently, a new association was formed – AVPCA (Airport Valet Parking Contractors Association) to self-regulate the meet and greet parking industry.

Rogue meet and greet parking companies not only tarnish the reputation of established companies, they put customers’ cars at risk by not parking them in secure car parks and annoy local residents by parking by the roadside and taking up residents’ parking places.

The GATCOM meeting is open to the public.

Gatwick airport parking capacity increased last week with the opening of a new, multi-storey car park close to the North Terminal.

The £17 million short-stay car park is situated just a short walk from the North Terminal and adds an extra 1,117 bays, bringing the number of parking spaces available at the airport to 32,600.

Construction work took just nine months and is just a small part of a £1billion investment programme by the airport’s new owners.

A new walkway is under construction that will link the car park’s fourth floor directly to the North Terminal check-in area – construction is expected to be completed by October.

More information:

Types of airport parking available at Gatwick airport include: long-stay, short-stay, off-airport and Gatwick meet and greet parking.

NCP Gatwick Airport parking now offers a private taxi transfer to and from the airport.

The airport park and taxi service launched last Monday, 24 January.

The NCP Gatwick airport park and taxi car park is situated less than a 10-minute taxi ride from Gatwick.

APCOA, Europe’s oldest parking contractor, has signed a five-year contract to provide London Gatwick Airport with a fully managed car parking pre-booking, yield management and call centre service.

The new booking engine offers a clear five-step process enabling customer to select and book their Gatwick airport parking parking space in less than two minutes and supports amendments and cancellations up to 24 hours in advance.

Chris Pullen, Managing Director of APCOA UK: “The APCOA solution can enable any airport in the world to pre-book their parking and associated commercial offerings in a cost-effective and profitable way.”