Letter: Parking tickets on match day ruined shopping experience
The media is always saying how we need to support the high street. A television campaign announced December 6 as being support your local high street day.
On Sunday, December 28 myself and my family planned to visit Shrewsbury town centre to see if we could find any bargains.
First we stopped at Meole Brace retail park for some items we needed. Unfortunately when we headed back to the car, the car park was completely congested with cars queuing to get on and off the site. Therefore we decided to visit the other stores on the retail park, rather than having to sit in a queue and did some more shopping.
While queuing in a shop I struck up a conversation with the person in front of me. Like myself they had decided to carry on shopping due to the chaos in the car park. After I secured my purchase I returned to the car and as the queues were a lot shorter now we decided to leave.
It was at this point I discovered I had a parking ticket. I pointed out to another person returning to their car they also had a ticket. Like myself they were shocked. We then approached a couple of car park attendants, who explained that the reason for the ticket was due to the fact it was a match day. I had not been aware it was a match day as I do not follow football. The other lady was also unaware of the match. While we were discussing the tickets another coupleapproached and again they were surprised at getting a ticket.
They, like the first lady I had spoken to, were upset that they had spent a large amount of money at the retail park and that they had been unaware of the match day and that tickets would be enforced, especially as it was Christmas and people would be sale shopping.
They were vowing not to return, although having been regular visitors before. I am also reluctant to visit again.
It seems unproductive that a large site like Meole Brace has a car park that gets so congested there is so much queuing, that there are no notices or signs stating when it is a match day. Ninety minutes is not enough time to look around the stores, especially with the coffee shops.
Also, I never did make it into Shrewsbury town centre.
Christine Owen, Welshpool
