Shopper issued £90 penalty notice - despite buying ticket

A LISBURN motorist was shocked when she returned to her parked car on Saturday afternoon to find a £90 penalty notice left on her windscreen - after she had already purchased a ticket.

The female motorist had left her car around 2pm at a parking bay along Linenhall Street to go to the butchers. As she had no spare change she used the Park Mobile, a pay system she had successfully used before.

She registered her car with the Park Mobile system, used a location code along with her registration number and waited until it was credited 75p from her account before she left her vehicle.

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She had only been away for an hour and returned to find that she was issued with a £90 penalty charge.

“I could not believe it when I returned to find a big ticket on my car,” she said. “If everyone is always going on about shopping in the city - and when we do we are issued with a ticket - for no reason. I was totally disgusted.

“Is it any wonder there are empty shops around Lisburn. Motorists will simply stop coming into the city if they are treated this way.

“I live in Lisburn so I do like to shop in the city. I had to go to the butchers but all the same if I had gone to Sprucefield where there is free parking and went into Sainsbury’s to purchase my meat I would not be in this bother.

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“I had checked everything and knew that I had done everything correct. I was just so annoyed that this had happened.

“Obviously, it being a Saturday afternoon I couldn’t speak to Roads Service about this but after a bit of persistence and transferring to the right department I was advised that the parking attendant should have checked with Park Mobile to see if the vehicle was registered.

“I think attention should be drawn to it because if we are trying to encourage more people into the city centre. People are often put off from pay and display as they don’t have change or the right amount of change so either have to use surface sites, which cost significantly more per hour, or go to out of town which offers free parking.

“Once a car is registered with Park Mobile should they not issue a tag or sticker that can be displayed in the vehicle, so avoiding penalty notices being incorrectly issued?”

A DRD Roads spokesperson said: “Any customer who feels they have been unfairly treated is entitled to submit a challenge by following the instructions on the back of their Penalty Charge Notice.”

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