Hucknall man calls for parking fines to be quashed after ticket machine confusion

Richard Johnson, who runs Peppers Newsagents on Watnall Road, said some people, particularly the elderly, were left unsure about what to do after the council announced last month that free parking was due to end on June 7 and only the first two hours would be free.

But when that date came, some of the ticket machines were not working.

Mr Johnson said the council told him it had delayed the start of the new parking rules.

But he said there were no signs up informing people of this, leaving people confused about whether they needed tickets or not.

He said: “I spoke to the council and I said you’ve got parking machines but only a couple of them are working and there’s no signage explaining what’s going on, so we all stood around wondering what to do.

"The council we should use an app to pay for our parking.

"Well people like my father-in-law haven’t got a smart phone, he can’t use the app, he relies on the machines.

“The council have apparently delayed the start of the new parking rules – it would help if they’d told us that.

"The other week, we were down to just one machine working and there was a great big long queue around the car park

"On top of that, there were traffic wardens going around and instead of helping people, they were just taking pictures of people’s cars that hadn’t got a ticket on but that’s because the drivers were either trying to find a machine that worked or thought they didn’t need one.

"The council said the wardens were taking pictures of cars that hadn’t got a ticket but I said that’s because they were confused as to whether they were meant to have a ticket or not.

"The ones at the entrance aren’t working, you’ve got to walk all the way across the car park to find a machine that’s working, well some of the elderly can’t do that and they haven’t got the app.”

Mr Johnson has called on the council to any rescind fines handed out in the last month.

He continued: “I asked the council if they would just quash all the fines given out during this time and they said they couldn’t do that as people needed to appeal.

“Well some people don’t realise they need to appeal and they need to make this clearer, especially for old people who haven’t got a clue what they need to do.”

Theresa Hodgkinson, director for place & communities at the council, said “We are currently experiencing problems with the ticket machines at Piggins Croft.

"Since June 21, all the machines have been bagged and had signage on them that clearly states a ticket is not required to park.

"The car park enforcement officers are aware of the situation and enforcement action is only active on disability and parking out of bay contraventions.

“If anyone feels they have wrongly been issued a parking ticket then they must follow the appeals procedure set out on the back of the ticket.

"We are currently working to resolve the issues with the ticket machines.”