Shoppers to have parking fines rescinded over faulty cameras

Shoppers to have parking fines rescinded over faulty cameras

17 January 2024

LIDL has confirmed that shoppers erroneously issued with parking tickets at its Market Street store in Downpatrick recently will have them rescinded.

The confirmation comes after it emerged last week that some people were wrongly issued with tickets for parking at the store for over 24 hours during the traditionally busy Christmas period.

Currently, shoppers can park free for one-and-a-half hours in tandem with an additional 15-minute grace period.

It was revealed last week that a car park management company had issued what was described as a “deluge of fines” to unsuspecting shoppers who did not exceed the current free parking limit.

Disgruntled shoppers subsequently raised the issue with South Down MLA Colin McGrath who contacted senior Lidl officials calling for the issue to be addressed as a matter of urgency and for all tickets to be immediately rescinded.

A Lidl  spokesman has confirmed the supermarket giant was made aware of a fault affecting the automatic number plate recognition cameras within the Downpatrick store car park where a number of customers had their parking times incorrectly recorded.

“Regrettably, some vehicle owners were issued with parking notices by our car park management company Your Parking Space (YPS), an external third-party contractor, as a result of this issue,” said the spokesman.

“We are urgently working to ensure that this technical error is resolved quickly.”

The spokesman said Lidl can confirm that any fines incurred by shoppers during this period will be cancelled.

“Lidl Northern Ireland introduced the YPS system at our Downpatrick store in November 2022 so that we can always accommodate our local customers with ample free parking to meet their needs and to ensure we can maintain a regular free flow of movement to allow more shoppers to enjoy priority parking at our store,” he continued.

“Ensuring that every one of our customers has a positive shopping experience is of the utmost importance to us and we appreciate everyone’s patience while this technical error is being resolved.”

Last week Mr McGrath – who contacted Lidl about the parking fines issue – revealed he was told that while what happened at the Downpatrick store was rare, if the registration plate on a vehicle is obscured, the camera which polices the car park will not register its exit and that such anomalies are normally picked up by the management company.

He appealed on social media for anyone who had wrongly been erroneously issued with a parking ticket for the Lidl car park to contact him and could not believe the response.

“I was absolutely appalled at the deluge of people who came forward with their own stories,” he revealed.

“There are over 40 individual examples so far, to say nothing of the number of people who commented on my social media post with their own examples. In some cases, I am being told people were parked for 70 hours.”

Mr McGrath said there may already be people who have paid either £45 or £90 illicit parking fines, explaining some of the tickets were issued as far back as last June. 

He said issuing the tickets was “entirely unjustified” and that Lidl should rescind all parking fines and take steps to ensure nothing like this happens again.

The South Down MLA also believes there are major issues with private agencies operating on private land and threatening innocent people with legal action. 

He added: “Action needs to be taken to prevent such profiteering from taking place in future.”