Dropping off fine, Chippenham Station Car Park

[whole diary]

[grahame]

Behind a paywall at the Gazette and Herald

Driver fined at Chippenham train station short-stay car park

A Wiltshire couple were left “fuming” after being slapped with a parking fine for dropping their son off at a railway station.

and backed up by a picture of them standing in front of a "Pick up and Drop off only - 20 minute limit" sign.

[ellendune]

....and backed up by a picture of them standing in front of a "Pick up and Drop off only - 20 minute limit" sign.

Yes, but they did not spend 14 hours there as alleged, they visited twice. on both occasions for less than 20 minutes. The car park company refused the appeal.  I know someone who had the same issue elsewhere and had to get her employer to certify that she had been at work in the intervening period before the rail company concerned backed down!

[Ralph Ayres]

Off topic, but it's the first time I've come across a local news website with a paywall. They're normally desperate for you to visit so they can swamp your screen with ads and clickbait to more ads.

Back on topic, a local retail park has a "No return within 3 (or similar - I forget the detail!) hours" rule for parking.  Not quite sure what they're trying to achieve, but it makes it difficult to drop someone off to pick up later, or nip back 'cos you've forgotten something or the thing you bought is faulty, without the risk of having to fend off attempts to levy a (probably unenforceable) penalty. 

[Timmer]

And how many people just pay up not wanting to risk the fine doubling after 14 days or the hoops you have to jump through to appeal to get it reversed?

If you were to carry out a survey, I suspect you’ll find many motorists have been caught out by these private parking companies at some point. After all their cameras cover:

Airports
Hotels
Railway stations
Pubs/Restaurants
Hospitals
Shopping Centres
Service stations
Supermarkets

Easy money once you’ve stuck a couple of cameras up and leave it to a computer system start issuing the fines.

[ellendune]

Back on topic, a local retail park has a "No return within 3 (or similar - I forget the detail!) hours" rule for parking.  Not quite sure what they're trying to achieve, but it makes it difficult to drop someone off to pick up later, or nip back 'cos you've forgotten something or the thing you bought is faulty, without the risk of having to fend off attempts to levy a (probably unenforceable) penalty. 

I think the idea is to allow for the parking enforcement, who cannot be there full time, a reasonable time to come round between visits.  Otherwise someone could say they had left and returned after 5 minutes.