I was stung by a little-known parking rule change – it cost me a £60 fine

A MAN was left frustrated after having his family day out ruined by a parking fine.

The dad-of-two from Kent was enjoying a day out in Margate, before a little-known rule change left him £60 worse-off.

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As reported by Kent Live, Nicholas Danton warned other motorists about parking in private car parks.

Having already paid for four hours of parking in the private car park, they decided to extend their stay by another hour.

They paid using an app, but Nicholas was surprised to receive a PCN in the post demanding £60.

Drivers used to enjoy a ten-minute ‘grace period’ to leave a car park under the Private Parking Code of Practice, which began in 2015.

However, the Government’s website says this was removed in June 2022 and is currently under review.

Nicholas told Kent Live: “I think the general public don’t know about this. I didn’t even know about the ten minute grace period until I appealed and I wanted knowledge to back me up.

“I had no idea it had been withdrawn, and people need to be aware of that.”

But it turned out that the company running the car park, Smart Parking, we’re being doubly unfair.

Nicholas continued: “I appealed against that because it was unfair.

“They decided to uphold it because I was in the site for 10 minutes longer than I paid for.

“This means they’re counting the time that you enter the car park before you’ve paid – people going there for the day probably don’t realise they’re being charged as soon as they go into the park.

“It was the middle of the summer, so you can’t find a parking space straight away.

“I used the RingGo app to pay, which takes time to set up your bank details and so on.”

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