Woman fined £1,906 after taking longer than five minutes to pay for parking

A woman is being taken to court for £1,906 after she took longer than five minutes to pay for parking

She walked to where she could get connected and paid the full tariff every time she parked there - but despite this, Excel Parking Ltd who own the car park sent her 10 Parking Charge Notices (PCNs).

The car park operator was contacted by the BBC about the fines who stuck by their decision saying Miss Hudson was 'the author of her own misfortune'.

Two MPs - Lola McEvoy and Abtisam Mohamed - have previously written to Excel Parking with concerns about people being unfairly fined at other car parks it operates.

Miss Hudson who parks on the car park for work purposes believes the five minute rule is 'totally unreasonable'.

She said: "I haven't got children but I can imagine a busy mum trying to sort her kids out, trying to pay for something when there's no signal here, and the machine being out of order.

"This has been going on for over a year now, and I'm just really hoping it can be resolved.

"I desperately don't want this to happen to anybody else, more than anything, because it gives you a lot of stress."

Miss Hudson started using the Copeland Street car park in February 2023, when she was working in the Derbion centre nearby.

She said the parking machine was "completely out of order", so she tried to pay using a phone app.

When she couldn't get a signal she went into work and paid once she had connected to their wifi.

Miss Hudson did the same thing each day, paying the full £3.30 daily rate each time, until she received a PCN letter.

It asked her to pay £100 within 28 days, reduced to £60 if she paid within 14 days.

"I rang the company and explained the situation, and they basically said 'you have to pay it'," said Miss Hudson.

"So to keep them off my back I did pay the initial parking fine."

She then received nine further PCNs of £100 each but Excel Parking has since added an extra £70 'debt recovery' charge to each one, eight per cent interest, a £115 court fee and £80 costs for a legal representative.