A woman in her eighties has decided to take on a company notorious for giving out parking fines.
Linden Mair, 81, was sent a £100 PCN after she left her car for four minutes and nine seconds in a car park in Cornwall.
She needed to pick up a prescription from Day Lewis Pharmacy in Wadebridge on June 7, but all the shop’s spaces were full.
As she had a cracked rib and mobility problems because of it, she didn’t want to park further away.
So she opted to park in the adjacent car park, run by I Park Services, and then nipped into the chemist and picked up her prescription, which was already waiting for her on the counter.
She went straight back to her car and drove off, and didn’t buy a ticket as she thought the time she would be there was so minimal.
Although she spent four minutes and nine seconds in the car park, she believes she only left the car unattended for two minutes or less.
‘They really ought to have some sort of 20-minute latitude and they don’t and I think it’s time someone held them up for that,’ Linden told Cornwall Live after receiving the fine.
‘Imagine I had been a single mother on benefits trying to get medicine for my baby?’
She says the only way she will pay up is if she is made to do so in court.
‘I’m just so angry and I want to make things difficult for this company and I want people to know,’ she said.
Despite contesting the fine with the Cumbrian company, she has been told she must pay.
The car park in question is frequently a topic of conversation locally, with people warned to avoid it wherever possible.
Local cinema The Regal posted a warning this week saying: ‘We would advise customers collecting/dropping off groups of people to The Regal not to use this car park opposite the cinema.
‘Unfortunately the cinema staff have received numerous comments from customers after receiving charges from the car park operators, and we are unable to assist with this.’
Many living in the town have decided to boycott parking there and use the car park next to the Co-op supermarket instead, but tourists who visit the town will likely not be aware of its reputation.
The car park offers short stay parking for a low price but gives little leeway for anyone who runs over, with the cars monitored using cameras.
Its policies are not illegal, but very unpopular, with some complaining they had received fines for stays as short as merely turning around in the car park.
In car parks run by councils in England and in regulated street parking bays, a ten-minute ‘grace period’ applies when drivers will not be fined if they are only a few minutes late back to their vehicle.
However, this does not apply in privately owned car parks and it also only applies when someone has bought a ticket.
Somewhat confusingly, there are two nearby car parks in the town both called Jubilee Road, but one is privately run and the other, next to the Co-op, is operated by the council.
The car park where Linden parked asks for payment 24/7, whereas the council car park offers free parking in the evening and on Sundays aside from in the summer period.
Linden said: ‘I just thought, “I don’t think so” when I got the letter and I didn’t ignore the notice but did write back explaining the situation.
‘I cracked my rib recently so I couldn’t park as I usually do. It’s very unusual for the chemist parking slots to be full but I was just picking up pills that were ready in the chemist for me on the counter and I was gone.
‘In this particular car park there’s no car park attendant, it’s all automatic and photographic. There’s nobody there to actually deal with it. I was absolutely livid and if I end up paying, that’s the least of it.
‘I want to make a fuss and bring this company out into the public, particularly because the company is not Cornish.
‘Most people are so frightened at being caught by authority that they don’t act and they just pay up. But I won’t. I’ve done everything I possibly could and if I end up having to pay for it, it will be after explaining my side in court.’
I Park Services has been contacted for comment.
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