£100 Telford vaccination centre parking fines cancelled as 'gesture of goodwill'
Penalty tickets were automatically given to motorists parking near a Telford coronavirus vaccination centre due to human error and will be cancelled as a "gesture of goodwill", a company has confirmed.
People travelling to the New Bucks Head stadium in Wellington, which is being used as a Covid vaccination site, are allowed to use a nearby car park with the vehicle registration details collected by centre staff and volunteers on arrival.
Terry Rickard, 62, of Church Street, Hadley, and his wife Christine, 61, received a notice after leaving their car near the Whitehouse Hotel on March 3.
He said he gave his registration number to a volunteer, but ended up with a fixed penalty ticket.
Patients attending their appointment are allowed to park for free on the AFC Telford United car park or in certain spaces at the Whitehouse Hotel.
They must provide their vehicle registration details on arrival to volunteers who authorise their stay by inputting the details into an iPad.
But ES Parking Enforcement Ltd, which manages the car park at the Whitehouse Hotel, says the process has not always been followed, resulting in fixed penalty tickets being issued.
However, it has agreed to cancel the notices as a "gesture of goodwill", saying it does not want to penalise genuine users.
Supportive
In a joint statement, AFC Telford United, The Telford Whitehouse Hotel and ES Parking Enforcement Ltd said: “AFC Telford United, The Telford Whitehouse Hotel and ES Parking Enforcement Ltd are fully supportive of the NHS Covid vaccination programme and are working in partnership to enable the service to be provided to the local community.
“AFC Telford United offered the use of its facilities to Wellington Pharmacy in February and they have been successfully vaccinating hundreds of local people a day.
“Users of the vaccination centre are asked to park on the AFC Telford United car park, where parking is free for two hours.
"Limited parking facilities (blue bays only) are also provided on the Whitehouse Hotel car park.
“ES Parking Enforcement Ltd is contracted to provide parking management services to The Telford Whitehouse Hotel to protect car parking spaces for genuine hotel guests and prevent unauthorised parking.
"As ANPR cameras are in operation on the car park, the hotel and ES Parking Enforcement have agreed a process with the vaccination centre to enable people receiving their vaccination to park their car without receiving a parking charge notice.
“Visitors to the vaccination centre are asked to provide their full vehicle registration details on arrival and volunteers then input their details into an iPad to authorise their parking stay.
"It appears that unfortunately this process has not always been followed, which has resulted in the ANPR cameras picking up unregistered vehicles which automatically issues parking charge notices.
“We fully support the NHS Covid vaccination programme and certainly do not want to penalise genuine users.
"As a gesture of goodwill, ES Parking Enforcement Ltd have agreed to cancel parking charge notices to people who had an appointment and had attended the site for a Covid vaccination.”
