Tesco changes its mind on parking system

9:00am Tuesday 5th August 2008

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A CONTROVERSIAL parking scheme accused of issuing dozens of incorrect tickets at an Altrincham supermarket has been suspended.

Since the automated monitoring system was installed at the town’s Tesco Extra in April, dozens of customers have contacted Messenger to complain of being wrongly issued with fixed penalty notices.

Last month operators Park Assist - who run the scheme for Tesco - insisted their equipment was working without fault.

But Tesco store management have now taken the radical step of suspending the camera based system, which works by automatically logging cars in and out and issues tickets for those staying longer than the agreed two hours, saying it needed ‘refining’.

The news is sure to infuriate those customers who despite appealing their tickets, and in some cases providing evidence to show they were elsewhere at the time of issue, were told to pay up or face court action.

Tesco had been unable to confirm if all those issued with tickets since the scheme started would be eligible for a refund, but the firm’s government affairs director, Deborah Hayeems, said: “Park Assist designed a solution which includes a parking system and an enforcement system to both improve the flow of traffic and to reduce car park abuse by non-Tesco customers.

“Although we believe that the system is capable of preventing the abuse of parking spaces, I understand that cases of erroneous charging have caused our customers inconvenience and upset.

“Therefore, for the duration of 60 days, we will not be using the system to issue parking charges. We intend to use this time to refine the system and resolve the underlying issues. In the meantime we have reverted to manual ticketing.”

Were you given a ticket at Tesco’s unfairly? Send you comments to editorial@messengernewspapers.co.uk, or telephone 0161 908 3388.