The body set up to protect private car park customers has said it will visit two controversial sites in Perth and Kinross.
The Kinnoull Street car park in Perth and the Greens of Kinross car park have both been at the centre of complaints recently.
Kinross locals say they are boycotting the town centre car park over wrongly-issued parking fines from its operator UKPC.
And Perth and Kinross Council recently agreed to bring the Kinnoull Street multi-storey car park under its control when the current lease ends.
It follows years of complaints from motorists about its operator Smart Parking.
Now the British Parking Association has told Pete Wishart MP it will send an area manager to both locations.
The watchdog says it wants to ensure both sites are complying with its newly-introduced code of practice.
Perth and Kinross-shire MP Mr Wishart welcomed the association’s pledge.
He said: “I have received a wave of complaints from constituents recently who have been hit with bogus parking fines, particularly at Kinnoull Street in Perth and Greens of Kinross.
“We simply cannot get back into the territory where these companies are able to exploit their customers with impunity.”
Perth visitors insist Kinnoull Street car park fine was unfair
Roy Robart used the Kinnoull Street car park when he visited Perth with his wife earlier this year.
They appealed against their £100 fine, but their case was rejected by Smart Parking.
Roy says they paid for three hours’ parking via the RingGo app.
And he claims they were out within the 10-minute grace period permitted in the new code of practice.
But Roy says the Lanarkshire couple fell foul of discrepancies in the Kinnoull Street car park camera system.
“SmartParking begin charging from when the car enters, despite it being impossible to back-time this for app users once they find a space,” he said.
“Add to this that the ANPR cameras showed a different time to the app and it threw up a five-minute overstay.”
Smart Parking insists its systems are working as they should at Kinnoull Street.
A spokesperson said: “In the case of Mr Robart, he used the RingGo app to pay for three hours of parking but stayed on site for three hours, 12 minutes and 38 seconds, so was correctly issued a charge.
“Mr. Robart did appeal to us. But we rejected his claim as he clearly stayed in the car park longer than he paid for.
“Mr. Robart subsequently appealed to the government’s independent appeals service POPLA who also rejected his appeal. So for us the matter is now closed.”
Kinross drivers give reasons for boycott
Drivers in Kinross have reported various issues with the Greens supermarket car park.
Some claim they have been fined by UKPC after they paid the right amount for parking
Others say they received tickets after they only stayed for a short time, which is free.
In some cases, motorists say they made brief visits to the car park hours apart. However, they later received parking fines suggesting they had been there all day.
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