Madam,

Beware of ignoring parking charge notices from Parking Eye.

I ignored the notice and the follow-up letters after overstaying the two hours’ free parking by 20 minutes last June. I viewed out-of-date information on the internet which said to ignore everything.

After being sent a county court claim form issued from Northampton for a total of £160, I paid £50 to Parking Eye but sent in a defence as any further charges I thought were excessive.

Subsequently I agreed to use the court’s mediation service.

This involved a telephone service with a court mediator who talks to both parties separately in order to achieve agreement without a court appearance.

My first question was about whether Parking Eye allowed extra time due to the congestion that often occurs, and I was told that they allow an extra 10 minutes. This meant that my charge notice was issued due to a 10-minute overstay.

My next question was about how long my vehicle could be left in the car park without incurring any more cost. To this question I was told two days. This means it isn’t worth running when you realise you are going to be overstaying.

I offered to pay an additional £25, but Parking Eye said that they wanted £120, meaning an extra £70.

The mediator advised me that a judge had already deemed that Parking Eye charges were reasonable and that my chances of doing better by going to court were poor by using excessive charges as my defence. I decided to pay up to end the matter.

This letter I hope will serve to warn others.

It also begs the question as to how a judge views a £50 charge (the minimum I could pay if paid within 14 days of the offence) for a 10-minute overstay as a reasonable charge; he is not trying to get by on a state pension I bet.

If visitors to Aberystwyth are falling foul of Parking Eye I bet they don’t return. I wonder how many parking charge notices are being issued by Parking Eye?

Yours etc,

Robert White, Ponterwyd.

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