There’s something seriously wrong at Eastbourne railway station car park

I read with interest the letter from Elke Pollard relating to dropping friends off at the railway station and then receiving a parking notice.

I dropped my wife off at the station in June and departed within two minutes. I parked my car at home and did not use it again that day. When she returned from her trip I did not drive in.

Subsequently three weeks letter I received a notice that I had parked in the car park at 9.18 am and not left until 6.59pm. They had even enclosed a photograph of my car leaving the car park at that time even though it was then parked on my driveway at home.

I appealed to the private company that runs this ‘service’ but to no avail. They declined to provide me with pictures of vehicles leaving the car park between 0915 and 0935 to prove my innocence. They told me that having rejected my appeal I could take out a final appeal to the ‘independent’ company that looked at appeals.

This I did but this meant the reduced amount of fine was automatically increased to the maximum. Their rejection letter included threats of court action and potential fines if I didn’t pay.

I continued contacting the original company that issued the ticket but they refused to deal with me.

Having not given up on this issue I was finally informed by the appeals service that the parking operator had decided to withdraw the notice. The reason they gave was that this was my ‘first offence’, they then went on further to state that ‘the car park is not a designated pick up/drop off area’. I am sorry but there is 20 minutes free parking in the car park therefore this statement is incorrect and if anyone at the company had attempted to park at the ‘designated’ drop-off area recently would have had to run the gauntlet of road works around the station.

I accepted the decision not to fine me but I appealed further against the reasoning as this was not a ‘first offence’ as I had not offended. They are still not replying to me.

I believe there is something seriously wrong with the cameras at the station car park but what is more worrying is the wall of silence that you hit when trying to elicit more information from the private company. How many more drivers have received the notice and paid the fine even though they are completely innocent?