LETTER: Parking fine despite trouble finding empty space

On December 13, last year, we wanted to shop at St Peter’s Retail Park in Mansfield and so decided to park in the car park there.

Upon our arrival, we found the car park very busy. The parking spaces for the disabled outside the store were all occupied.

I drove around the car park again, hoping to find an unoccupied invalid space as my wife needs the extra space to open her car door and climb into her wheelchair.

However, there were still no invalid space available.

The car park at this time was still very busy and after some considerable time we did manage to find an invalid parking space outside the store we needed.

I parked up, unloaded the wheelchair and assisted my wife out of the car and into her wheelchair.

This obviously takes several minutes to complete.

We then entered the store, which was extremely busy, and did our shopping and went back to the car.

Leaving the car park took a long time due to excess traffic leaving the car park and the traffic lights there restricting the traffic onto the ring road.

I received a parking fine in January stating we had been in the car park for one hour and one minute and had incurred a fine. I paid the fine on the same day I received it.

So much for Christmas being a time for goodwill to all.

I hope the parking company had a merry Christmas, celebrating their gain.

Frustrated

Mansfield