A driver who found himself issued with a £100 parking fine after he rushed to the doctors for urgent treatment says he has no intention of paying up.
Yorkshireman Allen Whitehead was handed a £100 charge when he went to the doctors suffering with carbon monoxide poisoning and forgot to register the car for parking.
Now, he says he ‘won’t be bullied’ into settling the fine.
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The 62-year-old says that he didn’t log the registration of his car when he arrived at the Colne Valley Group Practice in Slaithwaite, West Yorkshire on March 25 2022.
He put that lapse in his memory down to his illness, stating that he was later diagnosed with carbon monoxide poisoning and is still recovering from the effects.
His car was parked at Globe Mill for 13 minutes, which was long enough for him to be sent a letter from company Parkingeye requesting a payment of £100 for a ‘parking charge’ relating to their client, Colne Valley Group Practice.
The letter explained that they issue the parking charges to anyone who uses the car park without entering their registration at a terminal located within the reception of the medical facility.
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However, Mr Whitehead says that he ignored the letter from Parkingeye because he was very ill, but started to receive other letters from a debt collection agency, as well as a legal firm who issued a claim of £266 against him in the county court.
Mr Whitehead, who has worked in road haulage, requested to have a hearing at the county court and filled in a box on a court form in his defence.
He’s explained that he was very ill, forgot to enter his registration, and said that the car park should be a ‘public car park’ during the hours of the surgery, rather than being under a private company.
Whitehead wrote himself down as an ‘expert witness’ and said: "I am an expert of over 35 years in road traffic law."
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He says that he hasn’t heard back from the court, and now considers the matter to be closed and the case to have ‘timed out’.
The last letter that he received was a reduction in the charge to £20, but he hasn’t paid that either.
He claims to have been angered by the correspondence he’s received and at the fact he’s paid £25 on postage while dealing with the whole saga.
What’s more, he claims it has taken a lot of his time.
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"I will not be bullied or intimidated by no one,” he said.
He has written to the practice to let them know how he feels about it all, too.
In total, the whole thing has taken 17 months to sort, but he doesn’t think others should adopt his approach.
"I would say it will be less stressful to bite the bullet and pay it,” he explained.
Kirsty Hull, the practice manager at the Colne Valley Group Practice, said: "I cannot comment on the specifics of the case as the dispute that Mr Whitehead has/had is with Parkingeye and not the surgery.
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"As you are aware parking is a premium in Slaithwaite and we have limited spaces at the surgery. The car park is managed to ensure that our patients are able to park when they visit us.
"There are signs in the car park, in the waiting room, a message on our phone line and also in confirmation text messages advising patients to enter their registrations.
"We always provide assistance to patients if they need help using the registration portal. If a patient receives a fine following a visit to the surgery and they raise this with us in a timely fashion, then we will contact Parkingeye to help get it resolved."
Tom Wood