Refunds after faulty car park machine led to fines

A number of drivers who were fined after trying to pay for parking at a retail park in Nottinghamshire have had the charges cancelled.

Some shoppers who used their cards to pay for parking at St Peter's Retail Park in Mansfield in the run-up to Christmas later received fines.

They said the payments for parking appeared to have gone through but it emerged the machines were not working correctly and they had not been registered.

After a group of around 50 people approached local MP Steve Yemm, private parking firm Group Nexus has withdrawn some fines as a "gesture of goodwill".

Nicola Green said her card payment was accepted by the machine but a charge notice arrived shortly after, which soon totalled £170.

"It's just so frustrating," she said.

"It was coming up to Christmas. I'm a single parent and every penny counts and £170 is a lot of money for one hour's parking.

"So I was really disgusted."

Chloe Daynes was fined twice.

"For the first charge, I did put in my appeal 'Your machines aren't working correctly, somebody needs to go and look at them'.

"When I got another charge I brought that up again, I said 'Hold on, I've already told you the machines aren't working but you are still charging people'.

"It's not nice. It gives you anxiety that if they decline it you have to appeal to someone else, the charge is going to go up and in a world where the cost of living is already so high. It is just unnecessary for people who have already paid."

Yemm, Labour MP for Mansfield, recently met with officials from Group Nexus.

He said: "Some of these people have not paid their fines, some of them are awaiting a court judgement, some of them have paid, some of them waited a while and so paid a larger fine.

"So in the first group of constituents I put forward, they have agreed to refund all of them within the next two weeks.

"They have agreed to replace the machines here at the retail park in the next two months."

In a statement, Group Nexus said: "The constituents who have been in touch with Steve Yemm MP used the retail park when some of the traditional pay and display machines were out of action.

"However, it was signposted that there's the option to pay by phone instead.

"As motorists were able to pay by phone or the app if a machine was out of order, the notices were issued correctly, therefore the appeals made by some of the constituents were rightly rejected.

"However, on this occasion as a gesture of goodwill we agree to cancel the parking charge notices that we were made aware of."

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