Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Councillor’s battle with parking firm
A DUNDEE councillor has called for tighter controls over private parking firms — after revealing he’s locked in a battle over hundreds of pounds’ worth of fines.
Will Dawson, Dundee City Council’s development convener, claims he was fined £200 by Smart Parking, the operator of Kinnoull Street car park in Perth, due to an error when he used an app to pay to use the facility. He has since appealed against the fine.
His call comes just a day after it emerged that Dundee woman Carly Mackie had been ordered by a court to pay more than £24,000 in unpaid fines to Vehicle Control Services after ignoring more than 200 notices on her car at City Quay. It is believed to be Britain’s biggest parking fine.
Mr Dawson told the Tele: “I am a frequent user of the Perth car park and visit it when undertaking my duties as the chairman of transport partnership Tactran.
“However, due to an error with the RingGo app I use, a digit on my car registration number was changed from ‘O’ to a number zero, and the firm has sent two demands to pay £100 i n fines for non-payment.
“Despite providing evidence that I paid for parking, Smart are refusing to uphold the appeals as they claim they cannot attribute the payment to my vehicle.”
He accused parking companies of capitalising on people’s mistakes, adding: “Stricter rules need to be put in force to ensure that these types of companies do not profit through easily-fixed issues.”
Perth and North Perthshire MP Pete Wishart has previously been critical of Smart Parking.
He said today: “I have had more complaints against them than any other private sector enterprise in my constituency.
“I have tried to meet them to discuss their operation but they are unaccountable to any political or democratic control.”
He added that he had written to the British Parking Association over the matter.
Smart Parking has been asked to comment but had not responded at the time of going to press.
Ms Mackie’s case was pursued through the civil court in Dundee and she was ordered to pay VCS £24,500.
The court heard that Ms Mackie, 28, had ignored the previous fines issued to her because she didn’t believe they were enforceable in Scotland.