On Thu, 15 Jul 2010 12:41:57 +0100, Tim Watts wrote:

Another Dave
wibbled on Thursday 15 July 2010 12:02

For years I've parked at Lidl in Uttoxeter. I've done my shopping in
town and returned to shop in Lidl; fair enough I have used their car
park. This morning I returned to find a £90 parking ticket issued by
UKPC issued the minute I left Lidl's car park.

There is a sign which says in BIG letters that parking is restricted to
2 hours and below this, in much smaller letters, that you must not leave
the site. It appears they employ somebody to watch you leave and issue a
ticket (but not to warn you that you're in danger of a ticket). They
don't care if you shop at Lidl or not.

From now on I won't be shopping at Lidl or anywhere else that employs
UKPC.

Another Dave

Stupid way to do it IMO.

The "right" way is to have a Pay and Display machine and refund the cost of
the ticket if you buy more than £5, £10, whatever's worth of shopping in
Lidl (they make tickets with tear off stubs for this, used in Sainsburies'
car park in Tonbridge).

I often do something like you - stupid to keep moving the car contributing
to town congestion.

I hate those pay and displays. Firstly I've frequently not got any change
in my pocket - if I do, it gets used up in the drinks machine at work or
dropped into the charity box next to it (and I can't keep change in the
car, 'cos with young kids, they always "find" it!) Secondly, I always
forget to claim the parking back when I pay for my shopping and with three
kids fussing around, I'm not going back to customer services to do it!

Why does everywhere expect you to have change on you? Quite often in large
amounts - one car park I decided not to use charged £9 and only took coins.

Our local hospital has just declared (finally) that it will stop charging
for parking in September - just what idiot decided to charge for parking at
a hospital with A&E and a maternity unit? Who's in any condition to find
money under those circumstances? A friend of mine was told hard luck and he
may get clamped when he drove there with two broken fingers when his only
change was in a tight jeans pocket on the side with the broken fingers! I
could understand if it was in a town centre and people might park there all
day while they work, but there is nothing else around to park there for -
and the council kindly made the parking on the road outside 30 minutes
only.

SteveW