'Unfair' charges leave drivers 'scared of parking'

Motorists who have used a car park in Essex say they have been stung with charges for overstaying, even though they insist they left long before their three hours were up.

Visitors to the retail park in Pitsea have questioned the reliability of the automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras.

Taryn James was billed for £100 for a five-hour stay, but she said she had been in the car park for less than an hour, and the experience had left her "really scared to park in any car park".

ParkingEye, the company that manages the site, said its ANPR equipment was fully operational but it had cancelled Ms James's bill "as a gesture of goodwill".

Ms James, 49, said she arrived at the retail park on 1 November 2024 just before 13:45 GMT and left shortly before 14:30 GMT. She later visited Sainsbury's for 10 minutes at about 19:00 GMT.

She said she had used her Google location records as evidence to try to overturn the charge.

"I've had one ticket in my whole life and I paid it because I was in the wrong that time, but I'm not paying for something that I didn't do," she said.

Another driver, Helen Murphy, said her husband received a letter saying he had parked for about eight hours – something they disputed.

"Our first reaction was fear," she said. "You think, 'I'd better just pay it'."

The couple, who are in their 50s, asked ParkingEye to check its camera, insisting there was no way the car had been there all day.

The next communication they received from the company was to tell them the bill had been voided.

Ms Murphy said the situation had made her angry "because there will be people who just pay it without question out of fear".

A ParkingEye spokesperson said the car park "features prominent and highly-visible signs throughout, providing information on how to use the car park responsibly".

They added: "Our operational data shows that on both dates when the respective charges were issued our systems were fully operational with no technical issues. However, following a review we have cancelled both charges as a gesture of goodwill."

ParkingEye won a 2015 Supreme Court case after a motorist from Chelmsford claimed that an £85 charge it had imposed was "unfair and disproportionate".

However, although the ruling confirmed that such bills were "legally enforceable", the court added that the company could not charge over-stayers "whatever it liked".

The judges wrote that a parking company "could not charge a sum which would be out of all proportion to its interest or that of the landowner for whom it is providing the service".

There is nothing in criminal law to support a charge for parking on private land, says BBC Watchdog's Prof Margaret Griffiths. It is more of a contract – when you park on private land, you are entering into an agreement.

The parking requirements you are agreeing to – such as the permitted length of stay – and the tariffs "must be clearly displayed on a notice", Prof Griffiths said, and cannot be hidden or obscured from view.

"If all of that's in place and you've breached the terms, then you can expect to be charged," she said.

But what if you get one of these notices when you know you were not in the wrong?

"You could have a very strong case for an appeal," Prof Griffiths said.

She suggests:

• Contacting the company at the earliest opportunity to tell them that you're contesting the charge.
• Asking it to provide proof of its case against you. It's up to the company to prove that you breached the contract. It's not up to you to prove that you didn't.
• Supporting your case with photographic evidence. If the meter wasn't working or the signs were not clear, for example, take a photo.

If you cannot reach agreement with the parking company, you can take your case to an appeals service. The parking company must give you details about how to do this.

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