A woman was left fuming after she was hit with a £100 fine for taking up two parking spaces.
Tracey Carlisle, 57, was returning a faulty smoke alarm for her elderly mum, who has dementia, and parked up to Beacon Hill Retail Park in Newark, Nottinghamshire.
She claims her 4x4 Nissan Navara pickup was too big for any of the spaces, so she was forced to park over two bays, straddling the white lines so that she and husband Graham, 61, could get out without hitting other cars’ doors.
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However, after going into The Range to return the alarm, Carlisle came back to the car to find a ticket on the windscreen.
The mum-of-two said: “I am not denying that we were parked straddling a bay but it wasn’t done to be inconsiderate.
“We drive a Nissan Navara, which is 5.3 meters long and nearly two meters wide so we wouldn’t fit into a normal bay.
“I had bruising at the time and couldn’t get out from the car properly so needed the extra space to open the door fully.
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“We know the car park, and the wall beside us means we are not sticking out into the flow of traffic. We always park aware of other people.
“We go in a corner where we can have two bays together so we can get in and out of the vehicle, as we need to get the doors wide open to get into it because it’s high."
Carlisle, a medical secretary, has contested the fine – which was given to her by parking company on 26 November, and can potentially be reduced to £60 upon appeal.
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She said: “We were only in The Range ten or 15 minutes returning a smoke alarm.
“If we were in a single bay I simply wouldn’t have been able to get out of the passenger side of the vehicle.
“I paid the £60 fine, which is bad enough, but in the week leading up to Christmas, it’s a lot of money."
Carlisle, who is from Newark, claims managers she spoke to in store were unaware of restrictions against parking across two bays as they did not own the car park. She said there were also no signs warning shoppers of the rule.
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Concerned about how UKCPS’ management of the car park could affect others, such as disabled people, she added: “A gentleman who had got a camera strapped to his front and an ID badge was walking around.
"I thought that’s a bit odd, perhaps it’s his lunch time, I couldn’t work out what he was.
“But he clearly just stood and watched us do this without coming across and just saying ‘if you park here I’ll have to give you a ticket’.
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“Obviously it’s got a knock-on effect for anyone with a disability or prams and things like that.
"I know they have certain bays marked out but there’s not many of them.
“It just leaves a nasty taste in your mouth, but I don’t expect anything to change and I think I will just pay it because the letter is quite heavy-handed about if you don’t.
"It says they can take action against you and it can affect your credit status and everything else.
“I’m never going back there again. I’ll find somewhere else to park.”
LADbible has reached out to UKCPS Ltd and The Range for comment.
Featured Image Credit: SWNS
Topics: UK News