Cancer charities: Stop these bullies! Bosses join Mail's fight to rid Britain of the scourge of car parking pirates
Charities condemn tactics used by parking bullies to target hospital patients
Macmillan Cancer Support contact Daily Mail to highlight 'charge on the sick'
Comes after revelations cowboy parking squads are targeting cancer patients during life-saving hospital appointments By Rebecca Evans And Jaya Narain
Published: 00:41, 31 July 2014 | Updated: 07:42, 31 July 2014Cancer charities last night united to condemn the unscrupulous tactics used by parking enforcement bullies to target hospital patients.
Macmillan Cancer Support contacted the Daily Mail to highlight what has been called a ‘charge on the sick’.
Earlier this week, we revealed how cowboy parking squads were targeting cancer patients during life-saving hospital appointments which regularly over-run.
Often patients have to leave treatment sessions to top up parking meters.
Since then, Breast Cancer Care, Leukaemia CARE, Beating Bowl Cancer, Age UK, CLIC Sargent, the Citizens Advice Bureau and the Patients Association have called for reduced rates for those with long-term illnesses and an urgent re-think of the way hospital parking is managed.
The scandal was illustrated again yesterday by a breast cancer patient who received a £70 fine for attending a routine appointment – despite having paid for her parking.
Carole Long, 67, was stunned to receive a letter threatening court action after her stay at Queen’s Hospital, in Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire.
Last night Laura Keely, campaigns manager at Macmillan, said ‘extortionate parking charges’ were leaving many cancer patients in ‘desperate financial situations’.
She added: ‘Targeting people when they are at their most vulnerable is dreadful. Hospitals must do more to ensure parking is fair and affordable for cancer patients.
‘We are delighted the Daily Mail continues to highlight this really important issue.
‘Macmillan wants to see all hospitals in England provide free or, at the very least, discounted parking for cancer patients.’
Tony Gavin, of Leukaemia CARE, added: ‘A cancer diagnosis is an incredibly distressing time for patients and their loved ones.
‘The financial pressure a cancer patient and their family may already be facing will rapidly mount up; particularly if they are being hit with hefty parking fines that are beyond their control. We know that there is a huge variation in hospital parking charges and the availability of parking discounts across the country – despite guidance stating that hospitals should offer free or reduced parking to cancer patients.’
Chief executive of Beating Bowel Cancer, Mark Flannagan, added: ‘Treatment for cancer is unpleasant enough and patients and should not have the additional worry of possibly receiving a fine if they are held up through no fault of their own.’
Helen Dolphin of the campaign group Disabled Motoring UK, believes all disabled badge holders should be able to park for free at hospitals and that pay and display machines should be abolished.
She said: ‘What’s the point of pay and display when you do not know how long you are going to be?
‘People are paying longer than they need to or over-running and having to leg it back to their cars. The sensible thing would be to pay when you leave.’
A spokesman for the Kidney Patient Association said: ‘People on dialysis should have free parking set aside near their units.
‘Dialysis is a regular, life-preserving process, three days a week every week without fail. People spend about five hours every trip so costs can be significant.’
Andrew Cooper, of CLIC Sargent, which offers financial support to children with cancer, said families could spend around £4,400 a year on travel and parking.
He said: ‘Some hospitals offer a discount for repeat or long-stay patients and our CLIC Sargent social workers make sure that parents of children with cancer, and young people with cancer are aware of this where available.’
The Citizens Advice Bureau revealed it has been inundated with complaints over rip-off parking penalties. The consumer information service said almost 2,000 motorists have been in contact after being issued with fines for parking on private land since February.
Conservative MP Dr Sarah Wollaston, chairman of the Health Select Committee, said hospitals ‘need to find a better way’.
Katherine Murphy, of the Patients Association, said: ‘Many hospital appointments over-run. It is not fair that these patients should be worried about rushing back to their cars to top-up the meter.
‘Parking charges make a mockery of a service supposedly free at the point of need and we urge the Department of Health to end this charge on being sick.’
Would you risk it? Lidl introduces free-parking trial but with a 10-MINUTE limit that incurs a £90 penaltyLidl has come under fire for offering a ‘ten-minute free stay’ parking policy which fines visitors £90 if they stay a second over the limit.
A branch of the budget supermarket in Kent has installed the system in its camera-controlled car park to sting those who do not buy anything at the store.
Signs, under control of firm Athena ANPR, warn that by entering the ‘private land’ drivers automatically agree to a contract, meaning they must pay the fine if they overrun – or face debt collectors and even court action.
Those who do not make a purchase get a with a £90 fine if they stay longer than ten minutes. The timing starts from the moment they enter the car park to the second they leave. It means they are expected to park, read the sign, get a trolley, go into the shop and exit all within the ten-minute limit.
Customers are expected to finish in just 60 minutes or face a £90 fine.
The recently refurbished Lidl, in Ashford, put up the signs earlier this month but the scheme only went live last weekend. Local resident Deidre Mewse, 51, called the new system ‘extortionate’.
‘The camera takes the time from entering the car park, so if you’re disabled and in a wheelchair, you would almost certainly fall foul of this,’ she said.
‘Also even if you were a customer, it would mean significantly less time than an hour to do your shopping, as you need time to pack the car, return the coin-operated trolley, get to your car and exit the car park.’
Lidl, which employs Athena ANPR to manage all its UK car parks, defended the system which it said ‘ensures that spaces are available for Lidl customers to use’ in ‘exceptionally busy’ locations.
A spokesman at the store said ‘previous misuse of the car park’ had meant customers not always being able to park, adding: ‘The vast majority of our customers are pleased with the implementation of these systems as … they are now able to access parking spaces when carrying out their shopping.’
AA president Edmund King has denounced the ‘cowboy tactics, scaremongering and bullying’ used by many private parking firms.
‘Often motorists know that they are in the right but when they get a letter that looks like an official fixed penalty notice, followed by a letter that looks like an official bailiff’s letter, they pay up because they are scared,’ he said.
Marc Gander, of the Consumer Action Group, said: ‘Private parking companies … making an industry of penalising people without good reason or for their simple human mistakes.
‘Big brands don’t seem to appreciate how this new industry operates or the sense of anger and injustice that it produces in its victims and who are also their own customers.’
Have you been the victim of private parking cowboys? Contact the Daily Mail via parking@dailymail.co.uk
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CASE STUDY ONE: WIDOW FINED WHILE ATTENDING HUSBAND'S INQUESTJan Harrison was attending her husband’s inquest when she was given a parking ticket.
Her husband Anthony died aged 72 in December 2013 from lung cancer after being exposed to asbestos.
He had worked for railway engineering company Crewe Works.
The inquest into his death was in April this year and Mrs Harrison, 65, parked close to the coroner’s court in the Heritage Retail Park in Crewe.
The car park allows a free two-hour stay.
She said: ‘Even though you know what they’re going to say … when the judge read out all the details it was awful. It was a really gruelling day.
It wasn’t very nice to come out and you’ve then been fined.’
She added that the car park used to be free and that she did not see any signs in place.
The retired medical receptionist overstayed by one hour and 40 minutes as the inquest overran.
‘I hadn’t been into town for about a year, as Anthony had been ill, but there did not used to be any restrictions [on] parking there,’ she said.
She was fined £75 by private firm Total Parking Solutions, reduced to £50 if she paid up within 14 days.
She refused to pay and the fine rose to £90. It now stands at £130.
Mrs Harrison appealed through independent service POPLA, but her appeal was rejected. When contacted by the Daily Mail, Total Parking Solutions agreed to waive the charge.
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CASE STUDY TWO: THE BREAST CANCER SUFFERER FINED AT HOSPITAL A Breast cancer patient has told of her anger after receiving a £70 fine for attending a routine hospital appointment – despite having paid for a parking ticket.
Carole Long, 65, was stunned to receive an aggressive letter threatening court action after her stay at Queen’s Hospital, in Burton-on- Trent, Staffordshire.
She was diagnosed with cancer last year and received the fine after paying £2.50 to park at the hospital with her daughter Stacey Collins, 35.
Her car was not ticketed and she only learned she had received a penalty after receiving a letter weeks later.
‘We were all in shock because we definitely paid the money into the machine … so the letter came out of the blue,’ she said.
‘I think it’s disgraceful the tactics some of these firms employ but luckily my daughter wasn’t taking no for an answer and fought back.’
Mrs Long, of Tutbury, Staffordshire, was targeted by attendants working for Parking Eye when she visited the hospital to arrange her second round of surgery.
Her daughter added: ‘We had paid the full amount and this firm was essentially lying.
‘But I was simply not going to tolerate it and vowed to fight it tooth and nail.
'We insisted we had paid and told them we would take it to court to prove my point and, although it took some effort, they eventually relented.’
Mrs Collins, a human resources manager, said: ‘I think it is a disgusting practice because these firms are targeting the most vulnerable people in society – the sick and ill.
They purposefully make the payment instructions confusing to maximize their profits. The whole thing is morally reprehensible and should be stopped.’
The incident happened in April this year and Parking Eye eventually cancelled the fine but insisted there was no record the pair had paid.
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CASE STUDY 2aJames Kane racked up a bill of more than £2,000 when his motorbike was plastered with £140 tickets on a daily basis. The medical student parked his bike in the corner of a car park underneath his flat in Quayside, Newcastle.
As the block of flats was a new property, residents were not eligible for on-street parking permits so were forced to use the underground car park patrolled by firm LDK.
Mr Kane, 38, parked there for a few months without tickets, but when he returned from a week away in June last year there were five tickets on his bike. They were £140 each – a £700 bill.
‘I put my bike in a sheltered corner … that you could only reach if you deliberately wanted to get to my bike,’ Mr Kane said. ‘The tickets were all over it and hadn’t always had a 24-hour gap between them. I was absolutely furious.’
He added: ‘All the advice online was to ignore them. But they kept sticking tickets all over my bike, ruining the paintwork … I must have got about 20 tickets in all … It was ridiculous.’
Mr Kane was so frustrated by the tickets he decided to get rid of his bike and has moved out of the flat.
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CASE STUDY THREE: FINED £100 AFTER STOPPING FOR JUST SIX SECONDSWhen David and Lesley Dawson returned from a holiday in Spain their daughter picked them up on a road outside Liverpool John Lennon Airport.
Despite only stopping for six seconds, she received a £100 fine.
They couple flew back to the UK last August after a relaxing break at their holiday home.
As their daughter Jennifer had not arrived, they decided to leave the airport and take a stroll along Speke Hall Road where they thought it would be fine for her to pick them up.
Mr Dawson claims it was late at night and there were no other cars on the road to obstruct them. They could not see any signs saying this was not allowed and as Jennifer pulled up beside them, they quickly jumped in the car and drove off.
Their daughter was furious when she received a £100 fine from Vehicle Control Services, reduced to £60 if she paid up straight away. The letter contained three pictures of her Hyundai Getz at two-second intervals.
Mr Dawson, 63, a retired personnel manager, said: ‘I originally thought it was better to pay up and save £40.
‘Jennifer was worried about bailiffs coming to her house and her credit rating, but she looked online. She found advice telling her not to pay it and that this wouldn’t happen.
‘I got very angry that a company could do this. The letters were very intimidating. If the fine was turned into an hourly rate it would cost £60,000 an hour to stop on that road – it’s just ridiculous.’
In an appeal, Mr Dawson successfully argued there was inadequate signage and no contract was knowingly entered, no losses were demonstrated and it was an unreasonable charge.
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