Blackpool Vic nurse hit with £60 parking fine - even though he paid for a ticket

Stephen Warde, 53, paid £1.50 for a ticket for the Buchanan Street car park on August 19, so was shocked when he got a parking charge notice (PCN) a few weeks later

He showed his ticket to company HX Car Park Management, but was told that, as he had only entered the first four digits of his registration into a ticket machine, he would still have to pay

Mr Warde, of Warbreck Hill Road, North Shore, said: “I paid for a ticket and I still had half an hour left on it. I could understand if I had gone over the time limit or if I hadn’t paid. I would have put my hands up straight away.”

HX Car Park Management said the instructions on the ticket machine were clear, and that drivers were warned that they could be fined up to £100.

They said: “We do allow a two digit error margin, and so up to two digits may be entered incorrectly or omitted completely before a PCN is issued. Unfortunately, the driver exceeded this allowance and so the PCN was issued correctly. Whilst we appreciate that mistakes are made, this is why the error margin is in place, and to enter the correct registration is a simple instruction.”

Mr Warde said: “I thought that I had put in the whole registration number.

“I think it’s unfair. I paid for my ticket, I didn’t stay over time, but missed three digits off my registration by pure accident. It seems a bit extreme, that’s all.”