NOEL HARRISON, of Vealenia Terrace, Ashburton, writes:
I'm going to refute the points made by Premier in their ill-informed letter, first paragraph: 'charges have been kept low'.
I live opposite the cattle market and park my car there every day. I usually buy a 24-hour ticket which costs £1.50. This is £45 a month, or £540 per year. I don't consider this a low price. (The town car park charges £175 for an annual permit). Premier does offer a reduced night rate of 20p from 6pm to 9am. All other car parks in the area are free at night.
The attitude of Premier Parking's employees on site has been, quote: 'People are taking the mick' by attempting to park without paying. While there may be the occasional individual who deliberately doesn't pay, the majority of ticketings and clampings have been because people have parked at night for late shopping, etc, assuming that free after 6pm applies. The signs at the entrances simply say 'Pay and Display'. At night the machines are in deep shadow and the rates and instructions cannot be read without a torch.
Furthermore, I parked at 10pm two weeks ago and both machines were not working. One was marked 'out of order', the other was jammed. I left a note on my dashboard. Next morning at 10am I saw a Premier employee from my window and went out to speak to him. He told me he would alert company personnel not to ticket anyone until 5pm that day, and he then repaired the machines and I bought a ticket. However, an hour later I saw a £100 ticket on the car next to mine. It and others had been ticketed while their owners were at work, even though both machines were down when they arrived that morning. Premier management are either lying or dysfunctional when they deny this.
Many of these problem could be solved by adding the words '24 hours' to the pay and display signs at the entrances, lighting the machines, and by management instructing employees not to assume that we are trying to steal from them, and to treat the people of Ashburton with respect and fairness.