A young mum was was trapped in a Tesco car park for 90 minutes during a sweltering heatwave has been handed a £70 fine.
Ellie Brierley, 21, was stuck trying to leave the supermarket in Stretford due to traffic building up from the Manchester United versus Brighton football match at nearby Old Trafford on Sunday, August 7. The mum and her two boys, aged 20 months and nine months, were in the car with her at the time.
Manchester Evening News report that the air conditioning in the vehicle wasn't working and temperatures inside her car reached 32 degrees. Ellie and her boys eventually exited the car park and made it home, but the fuming mum says she received a car parking fine from Horizon Parking a few days later of £70 - reduced to £30 if paid in 14 days.
Ellie, who says she was shopping for just over an hour in Tesco says: "I had to unpack my shopping in the car and give my boys bits of food and some yoghurt to cool them down. I was sat in standstill traffic on the car park for one hour and twenty five minutes.
"The exit was blocked and the traffic lights went to green and back again four times before I could exit. I was then forced to turn left when I was trying to turn right because all the traffic was in the road."
Ellie says the parking time is normally three hours but is reduced to 90 minutes on match days. But she says she had only just returned from her holiday and wasn't aware the match was taking place, and it wasn't advertised on the LED board.
"I was stressed out when I was stuck in the traffic and my babies were crying. It was awful when I was in my car because everyone was hot and bothered and some were yelling at each other because they had cut each other up or couldn't move anywhere - everybody was in the exact same situation and some people were taking it to a different level - it was just mad.
"I have lived round here all my life and I know what it is like on match days but I was fuming that I got a fine, when fans were parking their cars in the Tesco car park. I opened it up at my mum's house and I just blew."
In response to Ellie's complaints, a Tesco spokesperson said: “We’re sorry to hear that this customer experienced delays leaving our car park. We are looking into what happened and we’ll be in touch with the customer when their appeal process is completed.”
Don't miss the latest news from around Scotland and beyond - Sign up to our daily newsletter here .
