PARKING charges have been introduced at a Sale town centre supermarket – but some shoppers say it will “strangle” other high street businesses.

Visitors to Tesco, in Hereford Street, can now only park for two hours for free providing they meet the minimum spending requirement of £5 in-store.

Previously, the car park offered two hours free parking to all town centre visitors. Tesco said the move is designed to protect those growing 'increasingly frustrated' by the misuse of spaces by motorists who aren’t using the store.

It said that the superstore’s car park has “long suffered” from misuse due to its location and wanted to free up parking spaces for customers.

The maximum stay is also designed to allow customers time to visit other services before leaving.

Motorists who park for 30 minutes or less will still be able to use the car park for free, without the requirement of spending a minimum amount in store.

Anyone staying over 30 minutes and don't validate their parking will be fined £70. The fine is reduced to £40 if paid within 14 days.

Rachel Donaldson, Sale superstore services manager, said: “We’ve received lots of feedback from customers in store that they’re growing frustrated by the lack of available parking spaces, because the facility is being misused by other motorists.

“The system is really easy to use, generating a unique code for customers on their shopping receipts. As long as they meet the minimum spend of £5 in store customers can park for up to two hours. The minimum spend also does not apply to customers who park for less than 30 minutes.”

“To help customers, we have marshals on-site letting people know about the changes, leaflets are being handed out to visitors, signs are up across the car park and in our store, we’ve had big banners up around the car park ahead of the new system introduction and our colleagues are talking to customers about the changes.”

The new system was introduced on February 23.

It uses Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) technology to monitor car park usage while also generating unique parking codes on customers’ shopping receipts, to be scanned at the parking machines before they exit the car park.

But some shoppers are not happy about the changes. One anonymous resident said she had been told by customer services it was to combat “all day parkers” but pointed out there was a limit of two-hour parking stay under the old scheme.

“In the past, people have used Tesco car park to visit other Sale centre shops, banks, charity shops and then go into Tesco, sometimes maybe for a few items,” she said.

“In essence, you are paying £5 for one and a half hours parking. If you do not spend £5, initially you will get a warning, after which you will receive a fine.

“Hopefully, other businesses will not suffer, due to Tesco’s stranglehold on its parking facility.”

One customer got in touch yesterday to complain about the new system.

He and his wife parked up for a visit to the town centre and were told when they returned to their car that they would need a Tesco receipt to validate the free parking.

“So after walking through Tesco and up the stairs to get to the car park, we had to go back down again,” he said. “And we had to stop and sit down as my wife has a bad back.

“I saw a lady who was quite abrupt and said if I drove away I would get a £70 fine. So we had to go and find something for £4 and queue up to buy it. For years we have been going to the car park and we didn’t know about it. I think the only way companies can make money is relying on people making mistakes.”