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Rosey Hudson said the car park machine in Derby was out of order and she had to pay via her phone for parking, yet she was still fined.
UK’s Excel Parking sent 10 Parking Charge Notices (PCNs) to Rosey Hudson, amounting to a significant fine. (Representative Image)
A British woman was fined £1,906 (Rs 2 lakh) after taking longer than five minutes to pay for parking. Rosey Hudson said poor signal prevented her from paying for parking on her phone while standing in a car park in Derby.
Hudson said she walked to where she could get connected and paid the full tariff every time she was parked there. Despite this, Excel Parking Ltd sent her 10 Parking Charge Notices (PCNs), which amounted to the hefty fine amount that she called “totally unreasonable”.
However, Excel Parking Ltd defended its actions and said the sign at the car park made it clear that it was ‘Pay on Entry’ and there was a maximum period of five minutes to purchase the parking tariff, BBC reported. “It is the driver’s responsibility to read and understand the terms. It seems that Miss Hudson is the author of her own misfortune,” it said.
What Was Hudson Fined So Heavily?
Hudson had been using the Copeland Street car park since February 2023 while parking nearby. She said the parking machine was “completely out of order”, forcing her to pay through a phone app. She did the same thing every day, paying the full £3.30 daily rate every time.
Despite this, Excel sent Hudson her first PCN letter, asking her to pay £100 within 28 days, reduced to £60 if she paid within 14 days. She said she paid the initial parking fine to “keep them off her back”, but then she received nine more PCNs – increasing to £1,905.76 added with an extra £70 “debt recovery” charge, interest of 8% per annum, a £115 court fee and £80 as legal fees.
Excel Parking claimed Hudson took “between 14 and 190 minutes to purchase each parking tariff by phone, an average of almost one hour”. Hudson said the claim was “ludicrous” as the app did not process the payments straight away. The company also said she could have paid cash, but Hudson said the machine was out of order.
Hudson said she instead contacted Excel directly, and also a debt recovery service in an attempt to appeal, but was not successful. She is now now facing a court hearing within six months, following a failed mediation attempt. “I believe I have got a good case and I believe that it will help not just me, but potentially other people that have been in this situation,” she said.
What Is Excel’s Five-Minute Parking Rule?
Excel’s controversial five-minute payment rule for parking has evoked strong reactions over unfair fines. Hudson called the rule unreasonable, saying, “I haven’t got children but I can imagine a busy mum trying to sort her kids out, trying to pay for something when there’s no signal here, and the machine being out of order. This has been going on for over a year now, and I’m just really hoping it can be resolved.”
However, Excel Parking told BBC that it asks drivers to pay within five minutes to “mitigate against abuse from motorists who simply use the car park to drop off and pick up passengers from adjacent retailers”. Hudson replied by saying the company cannot justify penalising those drivers who pay for a full day’s parking.
Two British MPs have previously written to Excel Parking with concerns over people being unfairly fined at its other car parks. Jumpin Fun, a business next to the car park, said hundreds of its customers had received PCN letters from Excel Parking. After a parking tablet measure failed, the company now warns customers about the car park in reception and its website.
- Location :
London, United Kingdom (UK)
