A Dubliner has warned others to be alert after she was hit with a hefty parking fine for briefly stopping her car at Bristol Airport.
Somerset Live reporter Nancy Connolly was flying to her hometown Dublin from Bristol last month when she was hit with a £100 parking fine.
She was travelling home for a "a long-awaited family get together" as her mum has passed away during the Covid-19 lockdown.
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Her friend offered to drop her to the airport around 11am on Saturday, March 19, because her flight was at lunchtime. They were in Nancy's car so they drove to the airport from her home in Bath.
When they got to the entrance she stopped the car to hand over the driving to her friend.
"I got out of the car briefly so she could take over and that's when the cameras spotted me. And if I'm being honest I was trying to avoid the fee for just dropping off, we are all human," she said.
"Wrong move. I was fined £100 right there, what's worse is that my flight was only £20."
Her fine was for "stopping in a zone where stopping is prohibited".
She said: "I get it, I was wrong to stop where I did, or to stop at all, and there are signs. It is just good to be forewarned as the charges are very heavy."
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Nancy has warned that things have gotten "really serious" at airport car parks, saying: "There are cameras everywhere and hefty fines if you stop your car.
"An outside company called Vehicle Control Services are operating the car parks and they mean business."
Nancy wants to make others aware that parking policy at the airport has changed since the pandemic.
She said: "If it has been a while since you travelled just be warned, there are signs everywhere but you might be rushing or think it is alright to just stop briefly like before. Car park charges have also increased and now it is a whopping £5 just to drop someone off in the drop off area even if you are only there for a few minutes.
"And the charges in the short and long terms car parks have also gone up. The new charges have been there for some time, but many people have not travelled for a long time and may not be aware."
Nancy acknowledged that the airport needs to make money after the devastating impact Covid-19 had on its business but she wants to "warn people who may not have travelled in a while there are big changes afoot in the friendly little airport where it was always such a joy to begin your holiday."
She said: "Those days when you could just pull up outside and drop someone off at what was one of the friendliest little airports in the country have well and truly gone. I even remember a time when a nice parking man looked after my car at the front door while I helped my elderly mother into the terminal."
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