A driver was landed with an £80 parking fine after paying for three hours and being given a ticket valid for only seven minutes. Doug Forbes when he stopped at a car park and paid £2.50.
That should have covered him for three hours, he thought, while he went for dinner in Gloucester, which he was visiting from Coventry on March 2. However, returning around 90 minutes later, he was greeted with a parking charge notice.
Doug had bought his ticket at 5.54pm and paid for three hours. However, the ticket was valid until only 6.01pm. He had fallen foul of the car park's overnight charge, which is a flat rate starting at 6pm, reports Gloucestershire Live.
Doug said: “We visited Cheltenham and then Gloucester. We looked at the sign and put the money in. The sign said it was £2.50 for three hours.
"We knew it would be cheaper if we waited, but we thought we weren't going to sit around and get the cheap rate. So we just put £2.50 in the machine.
“Then the ticket said it had 6.01pm on it and I thought, that must be a mistake as I’ve just paid for three hours. I didn’t think anything of it.
"We went for a meal at Bill’s and then came back about an hour and a half later to find we had got a ticket. Then I thought I’d appeal, but they rejected it.
“I actually overpaid for parking. I booked for three hours. If I had waited five minutes it would have been £1.50 for the whole night until 7am in the morning. So, I overpaid and I got fined.”
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Gloucester City Council has not responded to requests for comment. Previously, a spokesperson for Gloucester City Council said: “Southgate Moorings Car Park operates two tariffs, a daytime rate until 6pm and an evening rate from 6pm until 7am. Customers can pay for both the daytime and evening rate at the same time at the machine if they intend to stay beyond 6pm. The ‘Just Park’ app allows customers to pay for the daytime and evening rate in one transaction for their stay.”
