A family who were stung with parking fines at Fantasy Island on the Lincolnshire coast have slammed the 'crazy amount of money' that people are made to pay. Retired local government officer Louise Monaghan explained relatives had travelled in three separate cars for the family outing but they had been caught out by the system in place.
Smart Parking (UK) Ltd uses ANPR at the pay-on-exit car park in Sea Lane, Ingoldmells, to record the arrival and departure times of vehicles. But the parking meters do not automatically calculate how long a vehicle has been there for and default to the minimum £2 cost per hour fee.
Families affected say they pay their money, only to receive a £60 'parking charge notice' for not paying the correct tariff. The charge rises to £100 if not paid in 14 days and a £10 admin fee is added if it remains unpaid after 28 days from issue. Motorists have been penalised because they were unaware they need to manually add time by using a '+' button on the side of the meter to select their correct length of stay, or say the function simply does not work, as reported by Lincolnshire Live.
