The Lemon Fool

Hi Folks,
We have pay to park cark near us with entry/exit cameras (not sure about exit cameras) but no barriers. You enter the your car reg which is printed on the ticket. So far so good. If I pay for two hours should I be able to leave and return within the two hours with no penalty. If there were no cameras it wouldn't be a problem but I'm wondering if they 'cancel' your ticket as soon as you leave.

The '90 minutes free'car park we go to somewhere else has cameras and a notice saying 'No return within 4 hours' which is fair enough. I can't see any such notice in the first car park.

Cheers,
Ray.

If it is a private car park then penalties will be run by a ‘scum of the earth’ parking company with the morals of a cockroach (I had the misfortune to have to deal with several in my professional life).

Thus any ‘logic’ about how it should operate will be out of the window. As such unless it explicitly says in the T&Cs that exit and return is permitted in the same paid parking session then I expect them to treat each session as complete when you leave and you need to pay again for the next arrival.

I use one of these quite regularly. They have ANPR cameras on entrance and exit. Once you have exited you will need to pay again. No matter if it is within the period remaining that you have paid for. At least that is how the one I use works. Best to pay when you are about to leave but it is easy to forget if laden with shopping. I try to note the time of entry and time my return to just before the next whole hour.#

Dod

Hi Folks,

Thanks for the replies. That was my sort of feeling, any reason to make another charge wouldn't go unused. I'll take my magnifying glass out and see if there is anything in the T&Cs, but a cursory look showed nothing.

Ray.

Most of our local supermarkets have now added those 'Type in your car reg' function to their machines, so the days of handing my ticket over to another person seem to have disappeared.

I discovered the unfairness of plate-recognition technology about four years ago when going to pick someone up from an airport near Milan. As with most airports, you're allowed 10 minutes before having to pay. I never parked, but just drove past the terminal, waiting for their phone signal to say they were coming out.

Finally I got the beep, they jumped in and we sped off.

The fine arrived about two months later. I quickly realised that I'd driven past the terminal two or three times and the software must have registered my number the first time and the very last time, so it looked far longer than 10 minutes, even though I hadn't even stopped the car.

Steve

PS Anyone remember Luton airport when they had the free 10 minute period? Luton then introduced a 1 pound charge, which then went to 2....3....then 4 pounds pretty quickly!

stevensfo wrote:PS Anyone remember Luton airport when they had the free 10 minute period? Luton then introduced a 1 pound charge, which then went to 2....3....then 4 pounds pretty quickly!

Sure do... it's a complete rip-off now

pje16 wrote:

stevensfo wrote:PS Anyone remember Luton airport when they had the free 10 minute period? Luton then introduced a 1 pound charge, which then went to 2....3....then 4 pounds pretty quickly!

Sure do... it's a complete rip-off now

Think it's now £5 for 10 mins then add a pound for each minute, though you can pick up and drop off free in the mid term car park as long as you are there for less than 15 minutes.

raybarrow wrote:Hi Folks,

Thanks for the replies. That was my sort of feeling, any reason to make another charge wouldn't go unused. I'll take my magnifying glass out and see if there is anything in the T&Cs, but a cursory look showed nothing.

Ray.

Why not try it once, in the spirit of experiment? Then you will know for sure.

stevensfo wrote:PS Anyone remember Luton airport when they had the free 10 minute period? Luton then introduced a 1 pound charge, which then went to 2....3....then 4 pounds pretty quickly!

Ah, the lovely Luton airport where I once spent six hours waiting for them to fix a broken aircraft. It wasn’t fun.

As for charges, I remember Luton always charged £1 for a plastic bag if you had forgotten one for the liquid items in hand luggage, when every other airport handed them out for free.