£170 charity shop parking fine dropped

A MAN threatened with a £170 parking penalty while donating goods to a charity shop has had the payment dropped.

Nigel Ackland was issued with the fine after dropping off clothes and toys at Age Concern in Church Lane just days before Christmas.

Mr Ackland said: "Fortunately for myself, the manager at Age Concern, Hilary Webb, has dealt with it for me.

"I believe my fine has been quashed but you've got to ask yourself - are they doing this to deter illegal parking or are they doing this to make some money?"

The company that issued Mr Ackland, of Rivermill Court, Royston, with the fine, G24, set up the camera at the end of last year to combat illegal parking.

A North Herts District Council spokesman told The Crow: "We don't operate any parking restrictions there and we don't ask anyone else to."

G24 are employed by the landlord of the premises and Mrs Webb believes that they perform a valuable service.

"The people are very, very nice. They are just trying to control the illegal parking around the back and these are just teething problems."

She said the restrictions do not cause any problems as long as anyone who needs to drop donations in, contacts the shop in advance with their registration number.

"There wasn't any grief about cancelling the fine whatsoever, they were very nice about it," she added.

However, while Mr Ackland has had his fine cancelled he was concerned of the company's motives.

He said: "Whatever way you look at it that's an abuse of power.

"There's nothing to stop you going into that car park, the barrier isn't even down, it's up all the time.

"If it was at 5pm and the charity shop was closed, I could understand it. But this is just draconian.

"It doesn't seem to be pro-active, it seems to be reactive. They are just gaining an income from people who go in there.

"But I don't want this to stop people giving to the charity, they just need to plan it a bit better," added Mr Ackland.