Family fined £100 for staying in car park they couldn’t leave
A FAMILY was fined £100 after getting stuck trying to leave a car park.
Donna and Darren Jacques were back at their car with time to spare after the Stockton Bonfire Night firework display.
But they couldn’t leave the car park in the town for another 34 minutes because of grid-locked traffic outside.
Independent ombudsman POPLA did not uphold their appeal against the fine, saying the couple were still using the car park despite trying to leave.
It said they should have bought a new ticket to cover the time they spent queuing. Car parks operator ParkingEye had fined the couple, producing CCTV photos of them leaving the car park late.
The couple, from Billingham, County Durham, had taken their two children to last November’s display. Mrs Jacques said: ‘We have never disputed we were half an hour late, but you don’t pay to sit in a car park. We couldn’t physically leave. There’s CCTV on the entrance, which is the same as the exit. I don’t know if they’ve seen us coming back to the car.
‘It feels like they’re pushing you as far as they can so you will just give up and pay.’
POPLA said they were still using the car park’s facilities ‘regardless of whether they considered themselves to be parked’.
ParkingEye has since cancelled the Jacques’ fine as a ‘goodwill gesture’ and says it adhered to the British Parking Association’s code.
Stockton North MP Alex Cunningham wants a standard code of practice on privately-owned car parks. He said: ‘Enough is enough. For too long private car parking companies have been allowed to get away with issuing fines and relentlessly pursuing payment, without any accountability.’