A woman was hit with a £100 penalty by a private car parking enforcement company in the centre of Dundee for taking no more than 12 minutes to drop off her granddaughter on a Sunday afternoon.
The fine imposed on Alison Cosgrove for parking in a private bay without a permit will be waived after she appealed to the letting agents for the Trades Lane flats where her daughter and granddaughter live.
Mrs Cosgrove (47), of Coupar Angus, is angry with the tactics of Central Ticketing, the Birmingham company whose practices have attracted criticism from all over the UK for the high charges they impose on some motorists. If she overstayed her welcome in a council car park, for example, she would have been fined only £30 if she did not settle the debt within 14 days, rising to £60 within 28 days.
Mrs Cosgrove had returned to the flats on Sunday afternoon with her five-month-old granddaughter Lacey, whom she looked after the previous night. She left her vehicle in a vacant area behind the building and made four or five trips up to her daughter’s flat with Lacey and various accessories necessary for the overnight stay.
“I arrived at something like 3.20 or 3.25 and after my final trip upstairs I returned to my car and was shocked to find a sticker on the windscreen demanding that I pay £100,” she said. “It was placed there at 3.32 so my car couldn’t have been there for more than 12 minutes it could well have been less.
“The notice from Central Ticketing said that I would have to pay £100 for breaking the parking restrictions but the penalty would be reduced to £65 if I paid that sum within 14 days. It also said that if I didn’t pay they would seek my details from the DVLA and that I may incur additional costs.
“I thought that £100, the first sum the notice states, is pretty steep for a parking fine. If I’d left the car there for hours to go shopping, even on a Sunday afternoon, I might have accepted a fine, but £100 for what must have been no more than 12 minutes I think is ridiculous.
“The parking warden watching me must have seen that I was struggling with a baby, carry cot and bags of clothes and I went as quickly as I could. My car even has a ‘baby on board’ sticker on the back window.Benefit of the doubt”How could someone watch me do all this and slap a £100 penalty notice on my car without giving me the benefit of the doubt?”
Mrs Cosgrove complained to Alison Bruce Property Management, letting agents for the Trades Lane flats, and they agreed to arrange to write off the debt.
Mrs Bruce said, “We have to safeguard the tenants’ parking spaces and the tenants have been allocated spaces and permits for these flats. Visitors have to park elsewhere.
“I have been contacted by Mrs Cosgrove and have arranged for this penalty notice to be written off if she sends me the details and I can take this matter up with Central Ticketing. I can also arrange to give Mrs Cosgrove a visitors’ parking pass to use when she visits her daughter and granddaughter.”
Mrs Bruce said if complaints are raised with her she has the ability to investigate cases and make recommendations for penalties to be scrapped.
Central Ticketing is engaged to monitor parking at the flats by Glasgow landlords HBS Ltd, whose director Ian Carrick said the fact the penalty was written off within about 24 hours of being imposed showed the system was working and appeals were given fair consideration.
Asked if the landlords were happy with Central Ticketing’s management of parking at the flats, he declined to comment. An official at Central Ticketing asked for Mrs Cosgrove to send details of her penalty notice to their offices.
Dundee East SNP MP Stewart Hosie was pleased that “the right thing had been done” and the penalty had been cancelled.
“This fine is utterly disproportionate,” he said. “Given the circumstances a £100 fine is callous in the extreme. Of course our roads and parking spaces must be properly managed but there needs to be a sense of proportion to any penalty levied.”
Central Ticketing has been the subject of many complaints in the past. In Dundee these have included such locations as Marine Parade and Candle Lane. Lidl terminated its contract with the firm after complaints from customers.