Two family members of patients at Stepping Hill Hospital have been wrongly issued parking fines after paying to park at the hospital in Stockport this summer. Both tickets have since been cancelled after a 'technical issue' with payment machines was identified.
Terry Wansell, 59, from Great Moor, was fined twice. The first fine came after he took his son to A&E with a serious hand injury in March. He paid for a ticket but did not keep it, and later received a parking charge notice (PCN) by post. He claims he never received the initial letter about the fine, that the first letter he received stated he had lost his right of appeal, and that the amount owed increased as a result, leading him to pay a total of £160.
Terry said he was unsure whether he was within the time he paid for, or a couple of minutes over, but without his ticket and with no right of appeal, he felt unable to fight it. "I had to set up a direct debit for £35 a month," he said.
Second ticket challenged successfully
He did challenge a second ticket he received after taking his wife to A&E in July. "I had to go back to the car to extend it," he said. "I remember thinking, 'I'll keep hold of the stubs. And it's a good job I did.'"
He claims he again only received a second, follow-up letter, which stated the time of the 'incident' was 11.33pm, when he had a ticket until 11.53pm. Despite the letter saying he had no right to appeal, he contacted UK Car Park Management (UKCPM), who oversee the car park on behalf of the hospital trust, through their complaints procedure, and was able to overturn it.
"I think it's farcical," he said. "They are just fining people for the sake of it. They have no idea how much stress it caused me. The first time, I didn't think anything of it, so I didn't keep hold of my ticket, like so many people."
"The second time, I was fortunate I'd kept the tickets. But lots of people won't, and I'm sure there will be many others in the same situation. It's made me really angry, and has upset me as it was a lot of money, money that at the time I didn't have."
Appeals process described as 'absolute joke'
Stockport resident Emily Heward, 39, said she was issued with a fine letter after taking her daughter to the hospital in July. "We were in a marked bay, fully in the lines, and bought a ticket on the cashless parking app," she said. She said she knew it was a 'mistake' and hoped it would be 'easily resolved.' However, she said the appeals process was an 'absolute joke from start to finish.'
"The website kept crashing when we tried to upload our details and the footage," she said. "The screen just kept refreshing back to a blank form after we hit submit; there was no confirmation that it had gone through."
She said she tried four times to appeal via the online portal and emailed several more times, but was ignored. She eventually submitted a complaint via an online form and also complained to Stepping Hill's Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS), as well as her local councillor. Her PCN was eventually quashed last month but Emily said there was 'no apology' from the company.
"Mistakes happen, but there needs to be a proper system in place to challenge them - a system that actually works," she said. "It took weeks of back and forth, and me quite relentlessly pursuing it, to get the matter dropped. I think a lot of people would have just given up and paid the penalty charge in fear of being dragged to small claims court or because they simply didn't have the capacity while sick or caring for loved ones."
"Being a patient or having a family member in hospital can be a very stressful time, made worse by having to deal with a mountain of admin you didn't ask for afterwards. A lot of vulnerable people use the hospital, and it concerns me that they may end up being stung if they aren't aware of their consumer rights or confident in challenging unfair fines."
Parking firm says issue resolved
The hospital announced last October that parking enforcement was being reintroduced, where staff, patients, and local residents have reported parking issues stretching back years. It was one of a number of measures they said would make the hospital site 'safer and easier to park.' The PCNs are £70, reduced to £35 if paid within 14 days.
Bosses say the fines came about as a result of a 'technical issue' following an upgrade to payment machines, which they claim has 'now been resolved.' However, there are posts on social media from patients and staff, dating back to December last year, and as recently as this month, who claim they were also wrongly fined.
A UKPM spokesperson said: "Both parking charge notices in question were cancelled. They were issued as a result of a technical issue following an upgrade to the hospital's payment machines, which prevented some payment data from reaching our system. We apologise for the inconvenience and frustration this caused. Once the issue was identified, affected parking charge notices were cancelled and customers were contacted accordingly. The issue has since been resolved."
