A couple who paid what they thought was full price to park their car while looking after their injured son were left "annoyed and angry" after receiving a fine for £100.
Gillian and Mark Edwards drove to Liverpool from North Wales to take their son to hospital after he suffered a head injury on New Year's Eve.
After dropping off his wife and son at the Royal Liverpool Hospital on January 2, Mark left his car at a private car park.
The family left two hours and 44 minutes later, once they had entered their car registration number and paid at one of the car park's two machines after 4pm, the Echo reports.
However, four days later they received a parking charge notice of £100, offering them a discount of £40 if they settled the sum within a fortnight.
The company that operates the site, Parkingeye, says the family paid £3.50 to stay for two hours, rather than £4.50 to park for up to four hours - a stance the Edwards' are appealing against.
It comes amid government plans to offer motorists greater protection from “aggressive debt collection and unreasonable fees” through a 50 per cent cut to the private parking fine cap.
Under a new Parking Code of Practice introduced by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, the maximum fine will be reduced from £100 to £50 for most cases in England and Wales, excluding London.
Private car parks will also have to display prices more clearly, use a fairer appeal system and give drivers a 10-minute grace period for lateness, according to the new rules.
The maximum charge will be reduced to £50 in most cases, or £70 for more serious breaches.
Mark, aged 61, said: "I went up to the machine on the way out and paid it, and of course it's dark, so I didn't really see.
"But why I was annoyed and why I'm angry is I use these smart technology car parks all the time, and basically, you just go to the machine, you put your card on, and you just assume that they charge you the right price, and you move on."
A Parkingeye spokesperson said: "The car park at Shepherd Street in Liverpool is monitored by ANPR camera systems and has 16 prominent and highly-visible signs that give motorists clear guidance on how to use the car park responsibly.
"The motorist parked in the car park for two hours and 44 minutes and only paid for up to two hours, they therefore correctly received a Parking Charge Notice.
"Parkingeye operates a BPA (British Parking Association) audited appeals process, which motorists can use to appeal their Parking Charge Notice.
"If anyone has mitigating circumstances, we would encourage them to highlight this by appealing to Parkingeye."
The two payment machines in Shepherd Street car park have an arrow function motorists can use to select the right tariff.
On January 2, 2022, there were 49 transactions of a variety of tariffs made across both machines.
One other parking charge notice was issued that day. It was paid without appeal.
Mark added: "I could only have paid the amount the machine was charging me. I couldn't physically have paid anything else.
"They didn't accept cash, so I had to pay whatever amount it was that they'd worked out with registration technology."
He added: "The only reason I can think of that I would genuinely consider paying that fine is if I genuinely thought I'd done something wrong.
"If I'd have walked away from that car park - because there are no barriers on it, it's up to you whether you stop at that machine and pay or not - if I had genuinely tried to leave that car park without paying at all anything, then I deserve a fine.
"But the fact is we paid and we paid the amount that the machine told us we owed."
Last July the Echo reported another case of someone being fined £100 for paying what they believed was the correct tariff in the same car park.
Louise Fisher, from Southport, successfully appealed the parking charge notice she received following a two hour, 35 minute stay there in March 2021.
She said the signs in the car park said the tariff was £4.50, but the only price the ticket machine would cite was £3.50, which she paid after cancelling the first transaction and entering her registration number a second time.
The charge was cancelled following an appeal through POPLA - Parking on Private Land Appeals - the independent body and Ombudsman.
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