A dad-of-two said he was left shocked after being “unfairly” slapped with a parking fine at a Lidl due to a “crazy” rule.
Perry Rand, from Weybridge went into the Brooklands retail park branch to pick up some dinner for his children.
After only five minutes in the shop, the 36-year-old returned to his vehicle and drove home. However, a few days later, Rand received a letter in the post informing that he had been fined £100 for parking the work van he uses for his plumbing business in the overflow car park.
The rules, enforced by National Parking Control (NPC), state no commercial vehicles are allowed to park in the overflow car park.
The Lidl in Weybridge where the incident took place
Google Maps
He told SurreyLive: “It’s crazy, I proved I was using Lidl, now I am being charged £100 just to use the shop for five minutes. I’ve never, ever had anything like this before, and I have had a van since I was 17.”
While NPC have signs up indicating that commercial vehicles cannot park there, Rand said there were not enough signs, and the existing displays were too small and not obvious enough to drivers.
He said: “If I’m not allowed to park there they should have larger signs up. I had no reason to look at the small print as a shop customer. Without clear signage, I don’t think it’s fair. Why shouldn’t you be able to use your commercial vehicle? A lot of van drivers don’t have a second car.”
When he returned to the car park, he noticed damaged signs. In a photo of the sign taken by Rand, it appears the commercial vehicle rule has been added via a sticker after the sign was put up.
Lidl has said they do not operate or own the car parks
PA
Rand said he was hoping that the parking enforcement company would grant his appeal, on the basis that signage wasn’t clear enough However, his appeal was unsuccessful.
He added: “I feel totally let down by them, and the worst thing is that I love that shop. I don’t understand the need for it.”
A spokesperson for Lidl said: “We always want our customers to have a positive experience when shopping with us and are sorry to hear that this was not the case on this occasion.
“Unfortunately, the car parks across The Paddock Retail Park are not owned or operated by Lidl, therefore, in the extremely unfortunate event that a customer believes they have wrongfully received a parking charge, we encourage them appeal directly with the car park management company.”
GB News has approached NCP for a comment.
It comes as local authorities have raked in over £1billion in parking fines and charges this year alone with drivers footing the bill despite councils blaming budget cuts as an excuse for cost rises.
The latest data from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government found that the sharp increase in revenue was due to price hikes in both on-street and off-street parking.
