Visitor anger over £100 parking fines at gardens
ONE of Birmingham’s top attractions is at the centre of a row with visitors over extortionate parking fines.
Birmingham Botanical Gardens, in Edgbaston, asks drivers staying longer than an hour to register for free parking using their car’s number plate at a machine in reception and to keep the confirmation ticket.
But several visitors have complained of receiving a £100 fine in the post, often weeks later when they have thrown away their receipt.
The gardens said it has to have a parking system to stop its 117 spaces being used by non-visitors and there are 19 notices around the grounds reminding people to register their cars.
A spokesman admitted they have been receiving “aggravation” over the situation but said: “We are a charity and receive no money from the fines.
“No parking system is perfect but the vast majority of people have no problem.”
Four recent reviews on TripAdvisor give the gardens one star and have titles like, “Do not visit, parking is a con” and “Parking nightmare”.
One said they registered their number but were still hit with a fine two weeks later.
Another said: “You park and register your car for free parking. After about a month, when you can’t prove you registered because by now you’ve not kept the parking slip, you get a hefty fine of £100.”
And a third visitor said: “We had an enjoyable day but I have just had a £100 parking fine through the door.
“Have spoken to staff and they have said that as we didn’t keep the confirmation of the parking then there is nothing they can do to help.
“I used to visit a couple of times a year but I won’t be coming back now.”
Another reviewer says: “Family outing ruined by poor parking” and “Sort it out Botanical Gardens”.
Robert Calvert, 69, from Tamworth, was hit with a £100 fine despite saying he registered his number plate.
He says: “I never kept the parking ticket issued by the machine but as a retired couple we can ill afford to comply with what I feel is an unfair demand.
“On checking the reviews I see many people had a similar experience. It creates a disturbing picture of what I feel may be a sham practice.”
The firm sending out the fine demands, Civil Enforcement based in Liverpool, did not reply to questions from the Birmingham Post. However, Botanical Gardens chief executive James Wheeler said: “People get very, very angry over parking charges and our receptionists have had a lot of aggravation over it.
“We had to bring in some sort of parking system to stop people using us as a park and ride to get into town, or students at the nearby university.
“There has to be a fair system to allow space for our 180,000 visitors a year and this is the best we could find.”