Parking stink

Ian Fozard, managing director of Market Town Taverns plc of Knaresborough, which runs a chain of niche bars and restaurants, has complained to City of York Council chief executive David Atkinson after being penalised for parking without a ticket on a city centre street at 8.13am on a Sunday last month.

He said he had visited York to carry out some market research, with a view to possibly investing in the city, and stayed overnight at the Quality Hotel in Piccadilly.

He parked in George Street, at the back of the hotel, paying at a machine for a ticket.

"I have to say I found it extremely unusual that parking charges applied up until 8pm," he said in his letter to the council, a copy of which he passed to the Evening Press.

"In my experience, on-street parking charges, even in the centre of Harrogate, normally expire at 6pm."

He said it never occurred to him that charges might apply in such a relative backwater on a Sunday morning.

"So imagine my amazement when, on retrieving my car at 8.30am, I found that I had been ticketed by a parking attendant at 8.13am."

The signs in the area say simply that charges apply from 8am to 8pm, but do not indicate whether they apply, or do not apply, on Sundays.

Mr Fozard said: "Being a law-abiding citizen, I have, of course, paid the penalty charge. However, in my opinion, your council's parking policy stinks and it appears to be more designed to extort money from otherwise law-abiding citizens than to manage genuine parking congestion. This policy is likely to drive away the very people your city needs to attract to prosper, namely small businesses and repeat visits from tourists and shoppers, and I would strongly urge you to reconsider this."

Coun Ann Reid, executive member for planning and transport, said her research had shown that towns and cities across the country operated very different parking policies, and it was important for visitors to York to check whether and when they needed to pay charges.

Updated: 11:06 Wednesday, September 08, 2004