Shoppers' fury at new Marshall's Yard parking fines

The centre ended its contract with Smart Parking in August after agreeing a period when fines would be cancelled.

However, furious motorists are continuing to contact the Standard with complaints about tickets.

One shopper, who declined to be named, said: “My daughter went into Marshall’s Yard on August 12, and bought a ticket.

“ However, the machine was faulty and it issued the ticket without her full registration number. She received a parking charge notice from Smart Parking, but in view of the date we assumed it was a cross over in the system of the contract being cancelled and ignored it.

“She then received a notice from a debt recovery firm for £130. In view of this, I appealed to Smart Parking on the basis of the confusion with Marshall’s Yard published dates. This appeal has been rejected. As you can imagine, we are seriously underwhelmed by this and have approached Marshall’s Yard, who have refused point blank to meet with us or help us at all.”

A spokesman from Marshall’s Yard said: “We terminated the contract with Smart Parking at Marshall’s Yard on August 18, as a direct result of the negative feedback we received from our customers.

“We did at that time state Smart Parking had assured us they would cancel all tickets between June 20, and July 20, which was the originally agreed ‘soft period’ introducing the new system. However this did not cover the period from July 20, up to the cancellation date of the contract on August 18.

“While we understand this family’s frustration the course of action we would advise is to appeal to Smart Parking, who were operating the car park at that time.”

Carol Crosstick, aged 73, was issued a ticket on July 21, and her appeal has been rejected.

She said: “If I hadn’t brought a ticket I wouldn’t have gone through all this, I would have just paid the fine. But I had brought a ticket, I just put the wrong registration number in.”

Smart Parking did not respond to a request for a comment.