Fine system questioned

Last month we received a parking fine of up to £70 from a parking instance at the Eye Hospital.

The letter showed a picture of my wife’s car timed entering and leaving the car park on October 5 suggesting no hesitation and I was resigned to paying the fine, as demanded. My wife, however, was adamant that she had bought a ticket and I was tasked (naturally) with checking our waste for the discarded ticket which I luckily retrieved. Since writing a letter of appeal enclosing a photocopy of the ticket, timed and showing the printed license plate, I have recently received a letter cancelling the fine.

I am concerned that for many people this size of fine would represent a large part of their weekly income and many would just accept the fine without having retained the ticket or knowing how to appeal, trusting the company system to be 100% efficient. Clearly it isn’t completely foolproof and it would appear the I.T. system linking issue of tickets to time and car is more than capable of making a mistaken judgement. It may have been malfunctioning on the day or for several days, how would we know? Does the Health Trust managing car parking receive notification of system malfunctions to monitor its efficiency and does it receive a portion of the fines paid or is this sum all to the erroneous benefit of the parking company?

There appears to be several areas that merit investigation and comment from the Trust managing car parking if this example is more than an isolated incident and why aren’t the public advised how frequently this occurs?

I would advise anyone to retain tickets for at least a two week period in case they are hit by a similar demand, and do not be afraid to appeal in writing to the address shown on the demand letter with a copy of your ticket. Keep the original in case you have to take it higher.

Kevin Leary,

Sunderland