Birmingham resident helps NHS staff with parking charges
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The frustrated motorist now has a fine of £270 to contend with after he left his car at a car park in Wales that has something of a notorious reputation after several complaints from drivers who have been fined after parking cars there.
The car park is on the seafront in the tiny village of Llangrannog and has a camera placed high above the entrance, automatically scanning the number plates of cars as they pull in.
The camera was installed in 2019 by One Parking Solution Ltd, a company based in West Sussex which manages the car park.
Almost three years ago the car park hit national news after the app needed for parking was unable to be downloaded by hundreds of drivers due to the remoteness of its location and lack of mobile signal.
That led to fines being issued of more than £100 and to local businesses putting signs up letting people know they had no affiliation with the car park.
And now the man in question, who does not want to be named due to the ongoing dispute, is just the latest to fall foul of the regulations.
One Parking Solution Ltd makes it clear that visitors have a 10-minute grace period upon entering the car park, during which time they must pay for parking, leave the site or automatically be hit with a fine thanks to the number plate recognition system in place.
However, it took the man 17 minutes to pay after queuing and helping out an elderly couple.
That sent him seven minutes over the allotted time and signalled the start of the problems.
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The man explained: “I went down there for a weekend with my partner. We drove into the car park and I got out and went straight to pay for parking, but there were a few people in a queue in front of me including an elderly couple and some were having difficulty using the machine.
“So there was a bit of a wait and I moved to the front to help people use the machine and to pay for parking.”
The man then paid for parking himself, more than covering his and his partner’s stay in the village, which was, he said, no more than an hour long.
However, some days later he received an initial fine in the post of £60, which he said he wasn’t too concerned about as he felt sure it would be rescinded.
He said: “I sent the fine back to them with proof that I had paid for my parking by card, but they sent it back saying I had to pay the fine.
“I then appealed to POPLA (an independent appeals service for parking charge notices).
“They got back to me and said I should have made other arrangements and made sure I paid within the 10 minutes.
“I was helping people in front of me, and I paid. There’s nothing I could have done to pay sooner apart from jumping the queue.”
The first fine would have been reduced to £30 had it been paid within 14 days.
However, due to the man’s appeal, that window closed and the fine increased to £180.
As the man refused to pay it then increased again to a whopping £270.
He added: “There’s no way I’m going to pay this. It was seven minutes and there was nothing else I could do.
“It’s a shame because Llangrannog is such a nice place and all the little businesses down there are great, but this issue will put people off going there. I would not be happy to go back there knowing what’s happened to me.”
Express.co.uk has reached out to One Parking Solution Ltd for comment.
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