Parking firm slammed by Telford man charged £100 for three-minute overstay
A Telford man has been battling a parking company for the last six months after he was charged £100 for overstaying in a parking bay for just three minutes.
John Bell-Ward says he was picking up his 17-year-old daughter from Primark, where she worked, in December 2022 and parked on the bay behind the town centre fashion store.
The drop-off/pick-up bay offers a free ten-minute stay that is monitored through ANPR (automatic number plate recognition) cameras.
Mr Bell-Ward said: "It was a cold, dark night and due to the influx of Christmas shoppers, she was a few minutes later than usual coming out. I was waiting in the drop-off zone, collected her and left.
"Unbeknown to me, I had overstayed the allotted time by three minutes. The signage available at the area is unlit and so went unseen."
He added that for the last six months he has been "battling" Smart Parking Ltd, which issued the charge, over their no grace policy.
Mr Bell-Ward, who says he has now paid the £100 charge after threat of court action said: "I have since been battling with Smart Parking Ltd which has been a process fraught with non-compliance with statute and unethical reasoning.
"I hope that in the wake of sharing this experience, others may benefit from a much needed review of appeals that take in to account ethical and moral responsibility that should already be in place and much more so in a cost of living crisis.
"Smart Parking Ltd should be shamed and be respondent by way of acknowledging that shame."
A spokesperson for Smart Parking Ltd said: "The area in question is a drop-off zone and is not meant for parking. We allow 10 minutes for people to drop off and collect, but in this particular instance the driver was parked for 14 minutes."
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