I am wanting to have a grumble regarding the Euro Car Parks car park at Wish Street. First let me explain my scenario – I live in Canterbury and my 80 year old disabled mum lives in Hailsham in East Sussex and, after being months without seeing anyone due to the current Covid situation, my mum was getting extremely depressed as were a lot of elderly people.
She had had a minor operation the day before and was not feeling great and, as my mum also suffers from dementia, I decided I was going to travel to pick her up and bring her to my home in Canterbury, which I did.
Upon leaving Hailsham, my mum started to projectile vomit in the front passenger seat. I pulled over to try and clean her up the best I could, but had no wipes or tissues so took off her t-shirt and left her in her vest with a carrier bag for her to use. At this point I was somewhere between Herstmonceux and Battle and there was nowhere I could purchase anything.
I felt I could do nothing but continue driving her to my house as quickly as possible. My mum was continued to vomit for a little while and became extremely pale, and I was concerned as she is also a type 1 diabetic and, being a student paramedic, was aware of the symptoms of her having a hypoglycemic attack.
I reached Rye and found the nearest place to stop which was Wish Street car park, I immediately went to the boot where her diabetic testing kit was and checked her blood glucose, the reading was 3.2. I knew the first course of action was to get her some carbohydrates and sugar to raise her blood glucose level, as she was very pale and had become clammy.
My partner, who was also in the car travelling with us, went into the chip shop nearby and purchased a bag of chips and a fizzy drink. Although my mother did not feel like eating as was still feeling ill, she ate a few chips and had a drink. I checked her blood glucose after about 15 minutes, this had gone up to 3.6. As her blood sugar was going up I decided to just get her home as quickly as possible to monitor her levels.
It was to my dismay that two weeks later I received a car parking charge notice for £100! As a student with a child to look after this was huge amount, so I decided to appeal. I apologised for not paying for the car park, but explained my situation and that myself and my mother did not leave the vehicle – but to no avail, zero sympathy.
I would just like to point out that I would never knowingly park without payment and have never received a car parking charge notice. But this could have led to an emergency situation if I had not acted quickly and I feel aggrieved that they showed no sympathy in their reply email and did not even consider the circumstances.
Image Credits: Lyn Drury .
I also fell foul of this Company’s lack of flexibility on my birthday when I had to wait a few minutes for one of the reserved spaces allocated to customers of the chip shop. Apparently I should have driven round and round through the entry and exit of the car park rather than wait as waiting constituted parking! The space I was waiting for I later discovered was being used all day by one of the contractors working on the new extension to the shop but I was not to know that and Euro Car Parks didn’t care. Expensive birthday!
We should encourage shoppers and visitors to Rye by supporting local shops/restaurants – close the High St, to traffic – access only – provide free 2 hr parking in car parks for shoppers.
I was also caught by this money-grabbing company 3 years ago and will never use this car park again. A point to remember is that this company sponsors the “independent arbitrator” mentioned on the fine document and as such there is no point in appealing.
As a community we should certainly take some action to remediate exploitative parking practices*. I suspect that Christopher Gregory’s well meant suggestion is a non-starter. But we could ask our counsellors to put the matter on their agenda for serious consideration. It matters that both local people and visitors have a positive experience of our community and that we do not passively accept the status quo.
* A quick Google search threw up other people with similar experiences of Euro Car Parks.