PARKING METERS at a Shropshire supermarket car park have been out of order for three months – and shoppers are now set to enjoy even more free parking.

A new supply of tickets for the pay and display machines at the Tesco car park in Ludlow have still not arrived.

James Wiggam, a spokesman for the supermarket giant, said although the tickets for the meters were expected to arrive “shortly”, he couldn’t give a date for when the machines would be operational again.

People have been able to park their cars at the site in Station Road for free for up to two hours since March.

Shoppers had previously had to pay 50p to park for a maximum two hour stay, which they could redeem at the till if they spent more than £5 in the store.

Patrolling

Brian Willis, a warden for UK Parking Control Ltd, said the meters had been out of action for three months but added his firm was still patrolling the car park to ensure people didn’t overstep the two-hour limit.

Mr Willis said: “We are still waiting for tickets for the machines and it’s been three months now.

“We had heard Tesco wanted to remove the machines and put a registration recognition camera in, which would have meant they would not have needed wardens.”

But Mr Wiggam said: “We are waiting for tickets to come through for the parking machines. We are expecting tickets to arrive shortly but we do not have a specific date.

“We are not introducing cameras and have no plans to do so. We will continue with the current process of meters and wardens.

“While most people do redeem their vouchers in-store, we have missed out on some money through the meters but we couldn’t put a figure on that.”

Michael McAvoy, who runs Corve Street Antiques, said he hadn’t noticed any difference in trade as a result of the meters being out of use, and said traders were still feeling the effect of on-street parking charges.

By Peter Kitchen