Krystyna gave up after 11 minutes and moved her car when she couldn’t get the parking machine to work
A woman says she won’t be bullied into paying an “outrageous” £270 parking fine despite being threatened with bailiffs and court. Krystyna Allen, 81, drove her car into a car park in Stratford-upon-Avon on July 17 last year, but when she tried to pay, she found the machine was not working.
She moved her car out of the car park, but as she had already spent 10 minutes trying to get the machine to work she was liable to pay. 10 days later she received a parking fine for £100 for allegedly using the Stratford Market facility for 11 minutes without payment.
Despite writing numerous letters to explain the situation to Smart Parking, which runs the site, Mrs Allen now faces a fine of £270. She has also received seven debt collector letters and has been threatened with court. “I am a bit disabled but I’m not totally decrepit,” Mrs Allen said. “I went to pay and tried three or four times, with cash and card, but the machine wasn’t working.
“I didn’t have a mobile with me, I don’t use one. Two very kind gentlemen confirmed it wasn’t working by trying their own cards. As I’d already been quite a few minutes, they suggested I’d better move my car before I was fined. I got back in the car and went and parked across the road at the Arts House car park so I could unload my food that I was offering for a singing event at the United Reformed Church next door.”
Former primary school teacher Mrs Allen said that she had been using the car park for four or five years without any problems. “I have written letter after letter, and have just got back more demands for payment,” she added. “I’ve received seven debt collector letters and they are now asking for £270, and threatening to take me to court. My daughter is worried bailiffs will break in.
“I will not be bullied into paying an outrageous car park fine when I am innocent. I will not give in to people like this. Lots of people just sort of cave in, don’t they? Mrs Allen, from Langley, in Warwickshire, is doing a history degree at the Open University, and regularly visits her husband of 39 years, who lives at an RAF care home in Solihull.
She is also occupied with books clubs and coffee mornings, and has started storytelling with children once a week, “I am a local person and I feel very aggrieved because I must have paid hundreds of pounds for that bloody car parking lot over the years because I would never dream of going without paying. At my age, why would I?” she said. “Besides, I’m busy, I haven’t got time for this.
“I’m not frightened or worried in any way. I’m half Polish, and I have this aversion to being bullied or treated unfairly. Although that means that my poor family nearly tear their hair out trying to keep me out of trouble.”
Smart Parking has been contacted for comment.
