A Rotherhithe man has hit out after being fined for allegedly spending seventeen hours parked in Surrey Quays shopping centre – despite living a minute’s drive away.
“There’s no reason for me to be parked up there for that long,” said Russell Lewell, who has lived in the area for 40 years.
Mr Lewell said he thought the £60 fine came from two separate times he was in the car park on the same day in late October 2021, which the cameras would have counted as one long stretch. The fine only came in last week.
“It gave me a sleepless night… I wanted to go down there and burn the place down,” he said, adding that he was joking. “It’s extortion… it’s an absolute liberty. It’s ridiculous, they’re ripping people off.”
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Mr Lewell said he had contacted Trading Standards for help but he has not heard back yet.
Group Nexus, which manages the car park on behalf of British Land, which owns the shopping centre, did not comment. British Land also did not comment.
This is not the first time a driver has allegedly been fined incorrectly in the Surrey Quays shopping centre car park. Christopher Fisher got his fine reversed “as a goodwill gesture” in 2019 after he claimed he was wrongly penalised for two short stats that the cameras read as one longer stretch.
The British Parking Association, which maintains a code of practice for the industry, told the News at the time that it supported the use of automatic number-plate recognition (ANPR) cameras to manage parking but that complaints over double visits were common.
The cameras “can be extremely efficient, effective and precise” said a representative of the group, which “brings with it a responsibility to use it carefully.”
“The main criticism is multiple visits, which are sometimes not identified and which can lead to false enforcement for overstaying, non-payment or incorrect payment,” the spokesperson said.