Tourist 'insulted' by £80 Gloucester parking fine

A tourist has been handed an £80 fine despite paying to park for three hours.

Liz Gower, who is from Hong Kong, was visiting her daughter who is at university in Cheltenham.

They decided to go to Gloucester for the day on 16 July to visit the city's Roman ruins and later went for a meal at the Quays.

She said her day was "ruined" after returning to her car to find she had been slapped with a £80 parking charge notice.

When she got to Southgate Moorings Car Park she paid for three hours worth of parking at 16:51 BST.

The printed ticket showed 18:00 as the expiry time but she, along with other visitors who were paying to park at the time, thought it was an error as she had paid for three hours.

But when she returned to the car at 19:06, she found a parking charge ticket stuck to the windscreen.

"I paid £4 at the machine. The machine took the money," she said.

"The ticket printed showed 18:00 as the expiry time.

"I assumed it was a machine error as the ticket also showed the time I'd paid and the sum I'd paid."

She said there were several other people buying a ticket at the machine who were also confused.

"It was a lovely day out. You go out, you have a nice meal you enjoy the Quays then you come back to that slap in the face," she said.

"You feel insulted because you have paid for three hours of parking."

Ms Gower says she has appealed the charge as the tariff boards are "incredibly unclear".

The council says the information is displayed on the machine but the Local Democracy Reporting Service has reported several instances of people, mainly visitors from further afield, getting caught out there.

A spokesperson for Gloucester City Council said: "Southgate Moorings Car Park operates two tariffs, a daytime rate until 6pm and an evening rate from 18:00 until 19:00.

"This information is displayed on the machine to explain the different charges."

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