Tricky tickets Trying out the system which visitors to park find frustrating
janet.hughes@reachplc.com
ABEAUTY spot could be in for more poor reviews on Tripadvisor if our visit was anything to go by.
After people complained about being slapped with hundreds of pounds worth of fines at Crickley Hill Country Park, I went to see what the problem was.
And it was visible as soon as I arrived in the bottom car park.
Several people were wandering around with their phones glued to their ears and signalling to those arriving that the payment machine was out of order.
While I was there it didn’t work at all and paying remotely wasn’t always that easy either.
The woman in front of me in the queue is shaking her head in frustration after failing to get through on the telephone payment system several times.
When I try, miffed because I can’t use cash, I’m told to call back in several minutes.
I sit in the car in the stifling heat until I get through, give all the details of make, registration, card numbers etc and, mindful of people’s complaints, opt for a reminder text which I then find out costs 30p.
Jo Freeman was there walking her dogs and says it was more luck than judgement that she managed to use the machine because she ignored an error message and carried on punching in her registration number regardless.
By the time the friend she was meeting arrived it wasn’t working at all and I get the same message every time I try to insert cash.
John and Margaret Wyatt from Cheltenham had finished their walk and said it had been “hit and miss” when they arrived and tried to pay earlier.
“The guy in front of me didn’t get anywhere,” explained John.
“When I put in the car registration an error message came up saying it wasn’t recognised. I checked and it was right so I just carried on and blow me down, I put the money in and it was working.”
Rebecca Lyon from Sheffield is totally unfazed when she is first confronted with the broken machine but was confused because she couldn’t find the scannable QR code to download the Ringo app.
Then she discovered there wasn’t enough Wifi to download the app manually and she had to battle with one bar to pay by phone.
“When you come out for a little walk in the country you don’t expect all this faff,” explained Rebecca after finally paying by phone and making her feelings clear by driving off without stepping foot outside the car park.
The beauty spot is jointly managed by Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust and the National Trust who say the money goes towards the costs of maintenance and conservation at Crickley Hill which had seen a large increase in visitor numbers since lockdown
Last time there was a complaint Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust’s Visitor Operations Manager, Poppy Hobbs, said despite complaints the percentage of visitors receiving a penalty charge notice after visiting Crickley Hill is several times lower than the national average.
“While all ‘on-the-day’ parking payments go directly towards the costs of maintenance and conservation at Crickley Hill (a cost of circa. £5,000 per week), we do not directly benefit from PCN payments at all,” she said.
“In the last year ‘on-the-day’ payments have allowed us to create a protected adder breeding area as well as maintaining the Site of Special Scientific Interest status and site of archaeological significance.
“PCNS are only issued for vehicles that either have not had a payment processed for the time spent in the car parks or have overstayed thetime originally paid for.
The car park works on an Automatic Number Plate Recognition system. This means that visitors must input their correct vehicle registration details in order to ensure a payment has been made, and visitors should ensure that their payment covers the time taken in the car parkas well as the time they intend to spend enjoying the hill, visitor hub and cafe.
“We have put in place plenty of payment options to cover all bases. Being a remote spot, we know that phone signal can be poor at Crickley Hill, and payment machines may occasionally appear out of service as they reconnect to the external servers.
“We are also aware that in the current climate, people may wish to avoid queuing and contact at the payment machines.”
We have contacted the Wildlife Trust for comment.
When you come out for a little walk in the country you don’t expect all this faff
Rebecca Lyon