Drivers heading to Balmaha are being urged to pay attention after one local was stung with a £100 fine for a one-hour late-night stay.
The issues with charges at the overflow car park at Balmaha House have been a sore point for motorists visiting the area, with several on social media telling their tales of being hit with fines.
One of those was Clare Henderson’s daughter Katie, who travelled to the car park around 10.30pm on June 15 with a few friends to watch a sunset over Loch Lomond.
Despite the late hour and the car park being deserted for the stay - which lasted for around 70 minutes - Clare was hit with the three-figure demand in a letter from the Liverpool-based company operating the car park, Civil Enforcement Ltd.
Clare has since appealed the fine and successfully managed to have it cancelled, but is keen to raise awareness to ensure others don’t end up in a similar position.
She said: “They looked at the signs and knew that the main car park has no charges after 5.30pm, but the sign relating to the overflow car park is much smaller.
“The main car park is free at that time, so why is the overflow so different? So many people have had problems with it and said this has happened to them.
“It’s an absolutely ridiculous charging cost, even the charge in the supermarket ones are about £70, so it’s well in excess of that.
“We are locals to this and it’s happened to us, so how many tourists visiting have ended up being stung?”
In response, local businessman and campaigner David Fraser - who is involved with the ownership of the car park site - told the Observer that the car park was opened as a temporary solution to long-standing problems in the area which had seen drivers parking dangerously around Balmaha.
He added that since the introduction of the car park, levels of illegal and dangerous parking have dropped to “virtually zero” and solved the issue of a shortage of parking during busy periods.
Mr Fraser said charges were introduced on the site due to the necessity not to compete with the main car park in the village operated by Stirling Council, with flat fee arrangements and extra signage introduced in an effort to make things as simple as possible for drivers.
He said: “Working within our conditions of having to charge and trying to keep the costs and complications for the end user as low as possible we, after many meetings and consultations with other car park providers, decided a flat fee on a daily basis would be the easiest to understand and left no grey areas for overnight and shoulder periods.
“This forces overnight campers and similar to use the main council car park where there are public toilets and better facilities available and wouldn’t turn our site into a long term motorhome park.
“We receive no money or income from the fines people receive and from the outset wanted to make it as clear and simple as possible so that no person is getting fined.
“The legal signage was installed and - as a precaution and to avoid any confusion - we installed more than 20 signs in an area where three to four would meet the legal requirement.
“We also increased the size of the signs and reduced the height so there would be no visual challenge over being too small or out of sight.
“We have invested in the overflow car park and feel it has massively reduced the pressure on Police Scotland, Stirling Council and LLTNP as the danger, bad publicity and frustration created by illegal parking was creating friction between local residents and the tourists and day trippers who provide so much revenue and employment in the area.
“The long-term solution for East Loch Lomond car parking problems may not be on this site, although constant work is ongoing in the background to locate and create similar sites that can be utilised on busy days and have little or no visual impact when not required, along with increased zero emission public transport to reduce general road traffic.”
The Observer was unable to reach Civil Enforcement Ltd for comment on this story.
