A mum of five who was slapped with an £100 parking fine after pulling over for less than a minute to take an emergency call from her daughter has called the charge "wrong on so many levels".
The 36-yaer-old was forced to pull over in an emergency in a taxi bay last month after she got a sudden phone call from her 13-year-old daughter who suffers from a debilitating skin condition.
But just a few days later, she received a PCN notice from a parking firm named ES Parking Enforcement Ltd, telling her that she had to pay £100 within 28 days, or £60 within 14 days. She appealed, telling them the circumstances, but has been told she must pay the fine, reports LancsLive.
The letter from ES Parking Enforcement Ltd, informing her that her appeal has been rejected, states: “Photographic evidence shows you did not park within a marked parking bay. There are multiple signs stating vehicles must be parked fully within the confines of a marked parking bay. The terms and conditions of parking at the above site were displayed.”
But she says she was "panicking" in the moment and pulled over because you cannot answer the phone while driving. She claims she was only parked for "less than a minute".
“My daughter was having a panic attack and I couldn’t answer - it’s the law to pull over to answer your phone and I did that, and it was literally less than a minute. I appealed, but within a couple of days they wrote back and rejected.”
ES Parking Enforcement Ltd stated, in its letter to her informing her that her appeal had been rejected that she could opt to either pay a reduced fine within 14 days, use the Independent Appeals Service within 21 days, in which case the discount for early payment would be withdrawn and the full charge would apply, warning her that if she did nothing the company would seek to recover the monies via its debt recovery procedures and could proceed with court action. She said that at this point, she chose to pay the reduced fine within 14 days as she could not afford to take the risk.
Her daughter suffers from dermographism, a rare skin condition meaning she is allergic to touch, as well as severe panic attacks. The mum said she is used to getting phone calls from her daughter's school telling her "she’s not breathing, can you come and get her?".
To make matters worse, the mum of five was then stung for the second time a few weeks later when she says she received a £90 fine for allegedly overstaying in a car park outside the B&M store on Derby Street in Preston on June 28. The mum, who suffers from a rare condition called vasovagal syncope, which causes her to faint, is under the remit of the neurosurgery department at the Royal Preston Hospital.
She told Lancs Live how her condition forces her to move slowly, since she could faint at any time. She also said she is currently appealing against the fine. The letter, which says she went over the maximum duration of stay, sent by G24 Limited, says the fine can be reduced to £50 if paid within 14 days, and again, threatens to send the matter to a debt recovery agency along with additional charges for late payment if it is not paid at all within 28 days. It also states that ‘the terms and conditions were clearly displayed at the entrance to, and in prominent places within, the car park.’
The mum, who is currently appealing against that fine, told Lancs Live : “I have to take things really slow and not stress, and it was my daughter’s birthday, so I went shopping with a friend to shop for our daughters’ birthdays, and we were in there a couple of hours, and they said we overstayed our welcome on the car park.
“I just assumed that the parking notices were to say people could only park there if they were going to B&M. I’ve never read them because, with five children, you don’t have time to sit there and read a parking sign when I know that I'm following the rules and I wouldn't park somewhere if I was going somewhere else; I parked on their car park to shop in their shop. I spent £100 in there, and got this fine.
“I have appealed and said, I was in your shop and I haven’t gone anywhere else - and because of my disability, I do have to take my time. I can’t get stressed out or over excited about things, I have to take things slowly and at a pace, otherwise, I will collapse.”
The mum has had the rare condition for seven years, and her daughter has also been suffering panic attacks for around the same length of time. She added: “She’s suffered panic attacks for years so the school is very aware and they ring me up and say, she’s not breathing, can you come and get her? And she has dermographism and is allergic to touch.”
Being doubly hit by parking fines has cost her daughters a summer holiday dance club that she can no longer afford, says the mum. On the first fine, she told Lancs Live: "At that moment, my priority was to answer the phone to my daughter, and to make sure that she was safe. I was stationary and I was following the law, and as quickly as possible.
“I wasn’t causing an obstruction, I wasn’t stopping anyone else on the car park and there wasn’t a taxi waiting to pull in and I wasn’t in somebody else’s space, and it was literally like a minutes, but it cost me a lot of money. I’m waiting for number three, because everything happens in threes."
"It's wrong on so many levels that there's no phone number or a person that you can speak to and explain the situation; there's just someone at the end of an email clicking on something. Are they reading it and understanding what people are saying? It just seemed to be very quickly rejected and it's intimidating and frustrating."
Lancs Live contacted Morrisons, ES Parking Enforcement Ltd, B&M and G24 Ltd for comment.
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