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A woman has shared her frustration after being hit with a £100 fine for being parked at a retail park for the whole day – despite only being there for a couple of hours.
Wendy Ainscough from Lostock claims that on January 19 she went to Middlebrook Retail & Leisure Park at 8.40am to use the Asda cash machine and Greggs.
She then left and drove to B&Q at Bolton Gate Retail Park to get to work in time for 10am.
She then says that after finishing work at 6pm, she drove back to Asda at 6.40pm to do her food shopping, before leaving at 7.22pm on the same day.
Parking restrictions for the retail park state that, from Monday to Friday between 7am and 6pm, parking is limited to a maximum of six hours. At weekends and at other times parking is not restricted.
She lodged an appeal with Smart Parking at the beginning of February but this was rejected so she contacted POPLA in April, an independent appeals service for parking charge notices.
Wendy says that she submited evidence when appealing, including a letter from her boss and Google locations, as seen by The Bolton News.
After being unsuccessful with her appeals, she contacted staff at Middlebrook last week. After being contacted by The Bolton News on Monday, Middlebrook notified Wendy on Tuesday that her fine had eventually been cancelled.
A Smart Parking spokesperson confirmed that the charge has been reviewed, cancelled, and refunded.
However, Wendy says that she is yet to receive her refund.
In response, they said that the cancellation may come via a letter and so the timeframe is dependent on Royal Mail.
But Wendy says the situation has put her off shopping at the retail park and annoyed she had to pay out £100 in the first place.
She said: “What annoyed me more than anything is I produced evidence and appealed to Smart Parking, and they rejected it, and then appealed to POPLA.
“I have proof of clocking in at work and out, and people saw me arrive in my car and leave in my car.
“I sent all this evidence and also a letter from my boss stating I was at work too.”
She says she is concerned that this might be happening to others.
Prior to Smart Parking saying the fine had been cancelled and refunded, Wendy said: “I had to pay the £100 fine for something I didn’t do.
“Who can afford to pay this in this day and age?
“I can’t be the only person it’s happened to, and it’s ridiculous even with all the evidence I provided.
“It has put me off shopping on the retail I must admit as I know the rules on parking.”
If you have a story and something you would like to highlight in the community, please email me at jasmine.jackson@newsquest.co.uk or DM me on Twitter @JournoJasmine.
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