Beware of these unfair parking charges at this Yorkshire resort – Yorkshire Post Letters

I HAVE read articles on the unfairness of parking in Staithes. This is my story. We visited Staithes in July. Due to Covid-19 guidelines, I thought paying by card would be more acceptable and so checked beforehand that this was possible.

We parked, tried to download the parking app but had no reception. We managed to find reception, download the app and then found out that you could only pay online for 24 hours at the cost of £10 which we didn’t want to do.

I then walked to the local fish shop to buy fish and get change, but he had none.

Not wanting to leave the car park without paying due to the ANPR cameras, I walked to the Co-op. There was a large queue to get in but eventually I got some change for the car park.

I then paid for six hours of parking. I was then quite shocked to receive a fine of £60 for not paying within 10 minutes.

The whole process had taken me 41 minutes, but I had still paid for more time than we parked for, even measuring the time from when we entered the car park.

I appealed, immediately thinking that they would see that it was an unfair fine, but this was rejected as I had breached their terms and conditions.

These T&Cs of paying within 10 minutes were not clear at all and, in any case, once back home, I had no way of checking them. This is totally immoral and unfair. How can it be okay to receive a fine when I had clearly paid for more hours than I was parked for?

From: Emma Lear, Chapel Close, Doncaster.

I WOULD like to thank you 
for running the article about 
the Staithes parking situation, as it raises awareness of the charges.

We visited in early August, had a lovely family day out and received a charge within a 
couple of days of arriving 
home. Yes, it did sour the experience.

Looking into the signage on the site, it first appeared that we shouldn’t have been issued with the charge as the 10 minutes seemed to be referring to cashless payments, but then it was brought to our attention that additional signage with alternative terms and conditions were located around the boundary of the site.

Our argument has been how do you enter into a contract if there are two forms of terms and conditions on site.

Regardless of any of our points, it has been deemed that we took an unreasonable time to pay. This car park is designed to issue charges.

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Thank you

James Mitchinson