A motorist has accused a parking company of issuing unfair fines after claiming he was penalised three times despite showing his blue badge. Rowan Meyer, from Ovingdean, often visits his friend Barry at Napier House in Brighton and parks in one of several disabled bays in St Martin’s Place. He said he always displays both a permit and his disabled badge.
The parking area is on private land owned by the Church of St Martin’s with St Wilfrid and St Alban. It provides spaces for residents of three council-owned housing blocks. Two months ago, he received a parking fine, which he paid.
He said he was then issued with two further fines in quick succession, on August 27 and September 10.
“I paid one but the more I looked, the more I thought – this is wrong,” Rowan said.
A sign on the wall behind the car park states: “Parking is permitted for vehicles fully and clearly displaying a valid permit in front windscreen and parked fully within the confines of a marked bay and/or pre-authorised vehicles fully parked within their allocated parking spaces”.
Rowan said that on each of the three occasions he was fined, he had displayed both his disabled badge and a visitor’s permit supplied by Barry.
The fines listed the reason for the contravention as “vehicle not pre-authorised (No E-permit)” even though the sign allowed for a valid permit to be displayed.
“The contravention is ‘the vehicle is not preauthorised’ – but a visitor’s car would never be preauthorised,” Rowan said.
“That would be for the actual residents in the building. These people don’t even think of that.”
The 66-year-old said he had tried contacting the parking company, One Parking Solution, to ask how he could authorise his car, but he claimed there was no guidance on their website and no answer when he phoned.
“Most of the time people just pay it because they think ‘maybe there is something I forgot’. I can’t keep doing that at £60 a time.
“It’s just ridiculous that they can get away with this with impunity.”
