A Bristol woman has been fined four times for parking in a disabled bay at Hengrove Park Leisure Centre, despite being told by staff that she is permitted to use it. The penalty notices, each for £100 or £60 if paid within 28 days, were issued by Smart Parking Ltd, which the centre employed to introduce a new automated car park system based on number plate recognition in October.
The disabled driver, who asked only to be named as Gemma, reached out to Bristol Live following another parking complaint at the same location. She said that as a member of the centre for nearly a year and a blue badge holder, she was given plenty of notice that the new system was being introduced.
She says Hengrove Park Leisure Centre (HPLC) reached out to her to add her registration details to a list of regular blue badge users, so she wouldn’t need to validate her car every time she takes her children to their weekly swimming lesson.
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She said, “They made me feel at ease. They said, ‘bring in your blue badge, and we’ll take your blue badge details and the reg of your car because we’ve been asked by Smart Parking Limited (SPL) to provide a list of regular users, so they don’t have to validate their car for every visit’.
“The first time I went there (after that), I asked if I should put in my reg just in case, and they said, ‘no, no, you don’t need to; you’ve been put on the list.’ I think the first fine came a couple of days after the system was in place.”
"Just a glitch"
Outside the front of the main Hengrove Park leisure centre building are two parking zones, with a provision for blue badge holders like Gemma, and a drop-off zone where waiting longer than 10 minutes is prohibited. Across the road is a sizeable multi-storey car park where customers can access up to three hours of free parking.
A spokesperson for the leisure centre previously explained to Bristol Live the reasons for contracting Smart Parking Ltd, saying: "To make sure our blue badge holders and essential operational vehicles can park as close to the building as they need to, we restrict parking in the car park and drop-off point next to the leisure centre and do not allow any other customers to park or wait here.”
After she received the first fine, posted on November 15, Gemma says she took the letter to the leisure centre, where she says she was advised that it was ‘just a glitch on their (SPL’s) system’ and to ‘ignore the letter’. Leisure centre staff suggested appealing the ticket and telling SPL she is a registered blue badge holder, she said.
Smart Parking Ltd's appeals process is done in writing and takes 35 days to process. Gemma said, “I go every single week to Hengrove Leisure Centre, so I just carried on going, parking my car in the blue badge bay, putting my badge in the window, and within a couple of weeks, it was letter after letter after letter.”
Although she initially felt confident the tickets would be overturned, as the weeks have gone on and her first appeal has now been declined, Gemma has said anxiety over the tickets has begun to take its toll. “It reduced me to tears," she said, "Stress flares up my illnesses, I’m waiting for a few operations, I’ve got a lot going on anyway, I’m not the type of person to not pay a bill, I have a good credit score, and this is going to destroy everything.
“This has taken over; all my stresses are from these parking fines. And because I’ve done everything on my end that I’m supposed to do, I feel like it’s out of my control because they're still persisting that I shouldn’t be parking there when I’m a registered disabled person with a disabled car and a blue badge.”
HPLC told Gemma that she is entitled to three hours of parking in the blue badge area, she said. Her parking tickets, seen by Bristol Live, show she is usually there for around 45 minutes, equivalent to the duration of her children's swimming lesson and a few minutes for getting ready on either side.
The tickets from Smart Parking Ltd do not specify the contravention she is being fined for. Although they plainly show her number plate, the low light of the images means that other details, such as Gemma’s blue badge, which she says she always leaves on the dashboard above the steering wheel, are not visible.
Gemma says she sent a photo of her blue badge and car details to SPL as directed by HPLC and has lodged an appeal for each ticket, assuming it would be an open and shut case in her favour. So far, she has received the result of her first appeal, which has not been successful. She said, “I’ve had one appeal sent back saying I’m not on the system, and there is no list of cars that were authorised to park there.
"I lost my appeal, so I don’t know what’s going to happen now. I’ve done everything right; I’ve registered my car, I’ve put my blue badge in the window, I’ve not gone over the three-hour limit, and they’re still fining me.”
According to Gemma, staff at HPLC, who she says she “cannot fault” and have been “very helpful” throughout, have told her to keep appealing each ticket and assured her that “it’s all sorted at our end”. She says they have repeatedly checked her details to ensure they are correctly input into their system.
She said she has been told that they are raising it with the company for her but have struggled to get in touch. Copies of the fines and the appeal notice have been shared with HPLC, and Gemma claims she was informed that they are currently dealing with similar cases from other people who believe they have been wrongfully fined.
'Worried about bailiffs'
Gemma reiterated that, in her opinion, “Hengrove Leisure Centre has been brilliant with it all, but it still worries me that I’m going to end up with bailiffs and CCJs [county court judgment], and I don’t have stuff like that on my record.
“I was in a mess. I was crying; I told my family I’m worried about bailiffs at the door. I’m in the right by not paying them because Hengrove Leisure Centre has told me I'm on the system and to keep appealing, and I’m going to end up with around £400 of fines and with the backlog of the Royal Mail, there's bound to be more in the post.
“I’ve not got that type of money anyway, especially on top of Christmas; I don’t have those types of funds. I’m a single parent, and I haven’t broken any rules; I’ve done everything I’m supposed to do.”
'We shouldn't be picked on'
Gemma feels there was a need to introduce some ticketing in the car park but said, "I don’t like the new system. I was always able to find a parking space when I went there, but there were a lot of cars in disabled bays that were not showing blue badges, which I think is wrong because they're designated for people that need them. The system is abused, but I just feel we shouldn’t be picked on.
"There should be another system in place, you know, someone that goes around and checks the times on the tickets; the camera system is awful because it just targets everybody.
"I struggle with going out anyway, but I need my kids to know how to swim. So I’m already pushing myself to take my kids out, and that’s a big enough barrier as it is, and when I’ve got this stress as well, it does make me wonder if I should pull them out of these lessons.
"When the first letter came, I was ok because I knew Hengrove Leisure Centre had my back, and I thought it was just a glitch, but when you get the second, the third, the fourth, and you lose an appeal, it is stressful."
Hengrove Park Leisure Centre and Smart parking Ltd have both been approached for comment. In response to a previous parking complaint, a spokesperson for the company previously told Bristol Live: "Smart Parking were brought into manage the car park at Hengrove Park Leisure Centre to prevent parking abuse and ensure people who use the centre can always find somewhere to park."
The leisure centre is run by LeisureCentre.com, which manages 75 leisure centre facilities on behalf of 31 local authorities throughout England and Wales. A spokesperson for Bristol City Council previously said: "The city’s leisure centres are operated by contractors and arrangements for use of the car parks are at their discretion and decisions are made by those contractors."'
A spokesperson for Hengrove Park Leisure Centre previously said: “To make sure our blue badge holders and essential operational vehicles can park as close to the building as they need to, we restrict parking in the car park and drop-off point next to the leisure centre and do not allow any other customers to park or wait here.
"Our signage makes this clear. All customers of the centre can park for up to three hours at no cost in our main car park across the road from the centre and simply need to follow all the signs in the car parks and register their vehicle's details at reception to avoid being charged."
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