Dick Fordham loves Rye. He has been visiting for years and most recently he came here in September from his home in Lake Frederick, Virginia, USA. A long way to come but the trip was worth the effort to see his extended family. Whilst he took away many pleasant memories of his visit to East Sussex his experience of visiting Rye was not the best.
Like many others before him, he decided to park in Wish Street car park. Why not, it’s in a great location to be able to visit all the tourist attractions the town has to offer, many of which are a short walk from there but his experience is one we have heard about many times before. He feels cheated, so much so he felt compelled to write to Rye News to vent his displeasure and with his permission we are able to print his comment and stark warning, and his photograph with him in front of the parking meter. It reads:
“Avoid this car park and all others operated by Euro Car Parks at all costs … and I do mean costs. I visited from the USA in September 2024 and was subsequently the victim of the ongoing scam to charge for entry and exit times with no consideration of the time it takes to get a ticket from the machine.
“In all good faith I paid £4.20 for four hours’ parking from 12.00 noon to 4.00pm. I returned to my car and exited the car park at 3.57pm – and then was charged for the entry and exit time which was in excess of the 4 hours, due to the time it took to get a ticket from the machine.
“To Rye Town Council I would say that unless you are taking a cut from this scam and have no scruples about doing so, I would revoke whatever license you provided for this company and get rid of them from your town.”
When I contacted Dick to seek his permission to publish his comment and photo he responded with the following.
“I checked the date /time stamp on the photo and it is dated 27 September – 11:43:18
“I paid £4.20 for 4-hour parking from 12 noon to 4pm. The fine I received was for a 19 minute overstay, with the exit registration plate photo stamped at 15:57, so I left 3 mins before my time was up, but took @19 minutes to queue for, and find out how to get, a ticket. Cost me a £60 fine and a £42 admin fee from Hertz.
“I used to spend every summer weekend in Winchelsea and Rye as a kid back in the 60s and have been bringing my kids and grandkids back ever since. I make the trip from USA – almost every year for the last 20 years. What a shame to have such a blight on this unique old treasure.
Thanks for highlighting this issue – all the best, regards, Dick Fordham.”
How much leverage Rye Town Council have over this operator will be interesting to ascertain. Rye News have already been in contact with Euro Car Parks Wish Street car park fines as there have been many others who have suffered the same fate. The issue is, the clock starts ticking the moment you enter the car park NOT from when the ticket is issued and, despite the fact that there is no signage explaining this, the time on your ticket is largely irrelevant in their eyes and be warned, they will issue you with a fine. You have to decide to either pay it or not until someone somewhere does something about it.
This is not just happening in Rye, an article in the Telegraph this week highlights the same problem in Margate where a pensioner was fined for staying just a few seconds over her allotted time.
New rules are being introduced as we speak The start of fairer parking and it can’t come soon enough. It will take time to get all the ‘ducks in a row’ and won’t change over night but the situation should improve before too long. One thing is clear: until it is changed, visitors like Dick and many more who plan to come to or return to Rye, may think twice about parking here or perhaps coming to Rye at all.
Image Credits: Dick Fordham , Nick Forman .
Hopefully the council managers who manage the car parking management companoes will manage to come up with a manageable solution…
The private car park operators manage themselves – councils have no responsibility for this.
I never go to Rye (I live in Iden) as I don’t know now to use the meters. Tenterden is so nice
Why not have an Oyster/Bank card system like they use on the trains, buses and underground in London.
Tap in on arrival and tap out when departing.
I’ve no idea what you’re talking about. I seem to travel happily on trains and underground without.
Rother Council list Wish Street Car Park as a private Car Park, as such it cannot issue Penalty Charge Notice (PCN/fine) but can issue a PARKING CHARGE NOTICE (effectively an invoice for unpaid parking session). Therefore this location would not be enforced by the on street enforcement contractor. There are some issues with this car park that should make any Parking Charge Notice UNENFORCABLE. Signage is confusing and unclear, in fact it would take most first time users 10 minutes to read through it let alone understand it. Note the words PARKING CHARGE NOTICE! It is what it says on the tin! A charge for parking not driving through there must be an assumption that a reasonable amount of time should be allowed to find a space and understand signage then make a payment. Has anybody been charged for driving through when the car park is full? Looks like ,asking money by any means is the priority. What can the council do? Maybe Trading Standards need to review the site and its operational procedures.
Read the big yellow sign. Says how they calculate the time. It’s in the photo.
I drove through that car park stopped for 2 minutes waiting for a space then left, made the mistake of driving through again later and got fined as there should have been 4 photos but they showed 2 photos that made it look like I was in there for sometime. That was about 7 years ago Never parked there again
There is a fabulous ANPR car park next to the city wall in Canterbury. You drive in, park and go into the city. On return you type your registration into the machine and it tells you how long you parked and how much to pay. You pay for exactly how long you parked and leave. ANPR technology can be used well!!
Add my name to the victims of the Wish Street parking scam. I’m fighting an erroneous charge with their debt collection agency. They need to be investigated for shady business practices.
Interesting, there is specific case law on when a contract is made which is Thornton’s V shoe lane car parking. It might be worth a look as my understanding is that until someone has read the terms and conditions they are unable to enter into the contract, so the contract would commence once the person has in fact purchased the ticket with full disclosure of the terms and conditions. I am no lawyer but this was from the Law module of my ACII exams many moons ago…
1971. I remember it from my law A Level back in the dark ages. One of the cases of the great Lord Denning.
I also have been given a penalty notice for parking in Morrisons in Hastings by Euro car parks.
I took my Disabled 96 year old mother shopping there and then took her for lunch in the cafeteria and because we exceeded two hours were fined £100 if we pay earlier £60. I was unable to fined a Disabled parking space in order to use her Blue Badge so used an ordinary space, I didn’t even see a sign stating this as paying attention to caring for my Mum.
I won’t be shopping there again
A client of mine won a case because the relevant notices were not sufficiently displayed. Moreover, based on the facts of your case I am sure from a PR perspective Morrisons would refund.