Charged £70 for a parking violation at work (NHS hospital). Worth complaining to the Chief Exec ?

[maxplanck]

Was delayed by road works one morning so was late for shift on ICU. Set off at usual time which if anything is probably earlier than necessary. I searched frantically for a parking spot and ended up on a car park that had a sign at the entrance saying ‘Car park for staff and visitors only, permits necessary’. As far as I knew I had a permit as I pay a monthly fee for the privilege of parking there directly out of my salary.
A week later I received a parking violation notification and was informed that I owed £70 to Parking Eye (reduced to £40 if paid within 14 days). Spoke to the car park dept who told me that only a certain area of the car park was designated for staff.
Tbh I was so focussed on getting into work and not being excessively late that I failed to read the small print underneath which presumably explained this. I appealed to Parking Eye, explained the situation about rushing to shift, not realising that there were specific staff areas etc but they have rejected this as I didn’t send proof.
I appreciate I made a mistake, should have read the signage properly but to charge £70 for a clearly innocent error just seems like a money making scam.
Would you bother emailing the chief exec ? Not just to complain about the extortionate fee but the fact that it’s not made clear on the signpost apart from small print underneath.

It won't hurt you to email. See what the exec says..

Yes do it. What a ridiculous situation. Definitely complain.

good luck with that! 😂 (zero tolerance shown to staff parking in the wrong place in the Trust I work in)

Assume you mean the Chief Exec of the car parking company, as the CEO of the hospital won't have anything to do with parking! But yes it does sound very unclear, I'd challenge the fine and let them know.

I appreciate I made a mistake, should have read the signage properly but to charge £70 for a clearly innocent error just seems like a money making scam.

it’s not made clear on the signpost apart from small print underneath.

It’s annoying that you get fined for just trying to park at work but you’ve admitted it was your mistake. Everyone who wants to appeal will have an excuse whether it’s genuine or not. You say it does say on the sign in the small print so the information is there it’s up to people to read it, so for that reason I wouldn’t complain to anyone

I'd give it a try. I appealed a fine at our nearest hospital because the shoetsge of signage and the stupid location of the machines meant I didn't realised it was prepaid. I said I was happy to pay what I owed, but they needed to be clear about the prepayment system. They forgave the fine.

Pay it , it may have been a legitimate mistake but surely everybody says that .

i parked in a 15 minute pick up bay as my mum had a biopsy and couldn't walk far from the day unit so staff rang me and said to pick her up there. i was longer than 15 minutes because she sadly got diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and there was a lot to go through about next steps. the nearest paid for visitor space was too far for her to walk. got stung by parking eye so i emailed the trust chief exec as parking eye are commissioned by the Trust to provide parking services on their behalf. he passed it to the head of security who wiped the PCN and give us a 6 month parking permit for the duration of the chemo and a big apology.
not sure if that would work as staff but shy bairns get nowt!

Definitely take it up with hospital management. If the hospital owns the car park they have the power to tell the parking company to drop it.

If that fails you have a case for appeal if the signage isn’t sufficiently clear.

It's worth checking Money Saving Expert - they have lots of advice on appealing parking fines. I am not an expert, but as you had paid (via your permit) you might have a case on the grounds you did not intend to deprive them of revenue.

The hospital would be able to overturn this. My DH got one at his place of work when he changed cars and they failed to update his registration on the system, so he was fined as if he was a customer who'd overstayed the 2 hour limit. The company got it cancelled. Not the same scenario, but mentioned to illustrate that it can be done.

I had a fine scrapped when I complained to Head of Security at my Trust, worth a try OP.