Parking penalties now dropped

RESIDENTS have had thousands of pounds of parking fines dropped, it has emerged after The Crow took up the case. A proliferation of £170 fines were issued to residents in Church Lane, Royston, after parking restrictions were introduced without any notification. However, after The Crow contacted the car park landlord and G24 - the company responsible for issuing the fines - the parking tickets were cancelled. One resident, Kelly Jacklin, was issued with a staggering £4,080 worth of parking tickets in a single day. She said: "This isn't right, this really isn't right. Why are they so expensive? If there'd been a warning before it happened, then we wouldn't have minded, but we weren't notified." Owner of the car park, Rick Parisi, of Parisi Properties, said the residents should have been notified before a "spy" camera was installed in the car park. The fines, issued by G24, flooded through Mrs Jacklin's letter box just hours after she returned home from hospital after receiving treatment for Crohn's Disease and a liver condition. "I came out of hospital on Monday and I got these on Tuesday, I really didn't need this," she said. The fines were issued when unauthorised vehicles entered the car park at the rear of the shops in Church Lane. On entering, a newly installed camera takes a picture of the car's number plate and a £170 fine is sent to the owner. Mrs Jacklin said: "You get a fine even if you are just dropping someone off, or even just turning around. My mum gets one just for dropping off my daughter." Her mother, Beverly Adams, received £2,380 in fines. She has been issued with these for entering the car park to take her daughter to hospital, and for picking up and dropping off her granddaughter. Mrs Adams said: "I'll go there at about 7.30am, pick my granddaughter up and go - I'm getting a ticket for that. I had 14 tickets. They were all delivered in one day. "If you just stop in the car park you will get fined £170, that's what the sign says, and there's no number to ring G24 or the owner of the car park." Darren Frankland, who lives next door to Mrs Jacklin, has not yet received any notification of the £3,740 of fines he has accrued being cancelled. "We were told we could park there after hours when we first moved in and we never got notification saying we couldn't park there after the shops closed," he said. Mrs Jacklin says none of the residents park at the site during the day. "I've parked there after hours that for six years and my neighbour has done it for eight years with no problem," she said. Dick Girling said: "You wouldn't notice the sign when you drive in. To see the sign and the camera you've got to get out of the car, then it's got your picture." Mr Girling has recently had a hip replacement and has mobility problems. Royston's veteran campaigner Terry Hutt, visits him and helps with his shopping - and he received four fines before they were quashed. Mr Parisi said the camera was installed to catch people who illegally parked at the site while shopping. "These are not the type of people we are trying to catch," he said discussing the residents. "We've had a problem with people just parking and going shopping." He continued: "We are not out to persecute people, and we are not out to make profit." He said he was looking into upgrading the camera system to allow residents to park at the site outside shop opening hours. "Any time now we are going to be upgrading the technology to make sure people have the time to drive in, turn around, and drive out, without getting a fine," he said. G24 were not available for comment.