A mother-of-two has expressed her outrage after being handed a £100 fine for parking her car just two inches over a white line.
Lisa Henderson, 56, lashed out at the ‘ridiculous’ parking charge notice (PCN) issued by National Car Parks (NCP) in Newark, Nottinghamshire, on August 9 this year.
The coffee shop worker, who drives a green Mini, paid £1.95 for an hour but left after just 30 minutes to drive home – she did not foresee the problems that followed.
She was slapped with a £100 fine in a NCP letter, which included photos of her car’s front tyre ever so slightly crossing a parking bay’s painted white line.
‘I work hard. I’m on minimum wage, and I just couldn’t bring myself to pay it,’ Lisa, who was left stunned by the decision, said. ‘When I first received the letter I thought it was a joke.
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‘I couldn’t believe it was genuine.’
Lisa subsequently lodged an appeal to NCP, the car park operator, which agreed to overturn it. The 56-year-old, however, expressed her frustration at being penalised in the first place.
‘I just can’t understand why I was fined,’ she said. ‘From the side, you can see very clearly that I’m barely on the line. I would say it’s no more than one or two inches over.’
Lisa was by no means the first Brit this year to fall foul of NCP’s parking regulations. Just over two weeks ago, Asda shoppers in Folkestone claimed that NCP had wrongly fined them despite having paid via its app, according to KentOnline.
Likewise, in Darlington, a grandad was slapped with a £100 fine for a fleeting 14-minute stay at a furniture store in the town – NCP was forced to apologise, the Darlington & Stockton Times reported in February.
The mother of two said she was ‘relieved’ at the cancellation of the fine but remained perturbed by the ordeal. ‘I feel relieved but a little bit annoyed at the same time, because it was just ridiculous.’
Five essential rules to avoid falling foul of NCP T&Cs
- Park fully within the limits of a marked bay – do not straddle bays or cause obstruction.
- Do not park in spaces for blue badge holders without a valid blue badge.
- Permit holders must display a valid permit at all times within the front windscreen.
- Do not park in any reserved or restricted area, including hatched zones.
- When parking a motorcycle, only park within designated areas and not in any other bays.
In the aftermath of Lisa’s frustration, NCP has apologised but maintained the fine was issued correctly due to the vehicle being in breach of its parking Terms and Conditions.
Michelle McCarthy, NCP spokesperson, said: ‘We do have to be careful with cars being parked over designated bay lines as this can really impact other customers parking in our car parks.
‘[H]aving looked at the image, we agree to cancel this parking charge with immediate effect and offer our sincere apologies,’ she added.
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