Recently the St Peter’s Way Car Park in Northampton town centre was transferred from Northampton Borough Council ownership to NCP ownership.
The new NCP owners changed the rules which previously had meant that disabled drivers could park for free. Dozens of disabled drivers were not aware of this rule change, and that they were now expected to pay for parking, and when they parked there and did not pay they were given parking penalty notices as a result.
One of these drivers contacted me to ask if I could help. I immediately wrote to the Chief Executive of NCP asking him to exercise his discretion to cancel these tickets because in my opinion it was quite clear from the number of people caught out that the new signage in the car park was insufficient and drivers had no idea of the change of rules.
At the time of writing I am awaiting an answer from the NCP company and will update readers on this when I hear more.
In the meantime here is a full report on the story from this week’s Chronicle and Echo newspaper: https://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/news/mp-backs-blue-badge-holders-slammed-with-100-fines-at-northampton-car-park-1-8666271.