Town centre car park operator branded 'unreasonable' by MP

Andrew Court and his wife Liz have taken issue with the Percy Street car park operator

Liz Court (52), of Bridgewater Way, Ravenfield, paid £2 to park for up to four hours in the car park at Percy Street, Rotherham, on two occasions - but was hit with a £100 invoice from car park operators Smart Parking Ltd.

The operator monitors the car park using cameras and tracks payments by matching vehicle registrations with those entered into its ticket machine.

Liz said her husband, Andrew Court, had entered an incorrect registration number when they used the car park — but she paid in full on both occassions.

She appealed to Smart Parking and independent body POPLA (Parking on Private Land Appeals), but the notices were upheld — despite her sending evidence of payment to the company.

Liz now wants to warn others who might be caught out when using the car park.

She said: “I only ever go to Rotherham to watch the football and I have only ever parked in this car park twice.

“You pay your money and you don’t think any more about it.

“I contacted the council to say something’s going wrong here but they said it was a private car park and they have no jurisdiction over it.

“The only advice I got was to contact Trading Standards.”

Smart Parking issued Liz with her first parking charge notice on May 3, demanding £100, which would be discounted to £60 if paid within 14 days.

Liz said: “When I received this fine, I just thought: ‘Of course I have paid for the car park’.”

Unfortunately for Liz, she had already thrown her ticket away and was unable to send evidence of the first payment to Smart Parking.

She appealed against the notice but Smart Parking upheld it.

They wrote to Liz to say she had not bought a valid ticket matching the registration number of her vehicle.

She then received a second parking charge notice demanding another £100 for parking on May 5.

Liz said she had kept her ticket from May 5 and had sent a photo of it to Smart Parking in the hope her second appeal would be successful.

However, Liz’s husband had entered an incorrect registration number and the notice was upheld.

Liz said he only had time to enter part of the number plate into the ticket machine — but Smart Parking claimed in its response to her appeal that there were no “similar” registration numbers matching the number plate on its cameras.

Mr John Healey, MP for Wentworth and Dearne, who met with Liz to discuss her concerns, has criticised the company for its practises.

Mr Healey said: “Smart Parking’s stance is n number and the notice was upheld.

“The company are clear that a proper payment was made but a mistake was made in punching in the number plate details.

“The problem lies with Smart Parking’s internal system not with the failure to pay the full parking fee.”

No-one from Smart Parking Ltd had responded to the Advertiser’s request for a comment. and unfair.