New row over Granada parking
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• A haulage boss is refusing to pay a spate of parking fines at a motorway service station because he claims there is noone to buy a ticket from when his drivers arrive there.
Andrew Hutchings, logistics manager at Freight Speed Logistics in Tendring, Essex, says there always used to be a parking attendant at the Granada service station on the M4 near Reading. Over the past three months he has received seven penalty fines of up to 260 each from Controlled Parking. the London-based company which administers parking charges at all of Granada's 40 service stations.
"When drivers have parked up there in the afternoon they've gone in to pay but there is no-one around to give them a ticket." Hutchings reports. "When they've woken up in the morning there has been a £60 penalty charge on their windscreens. I think it's a scam."
Grahame Rose, head of development for Controlled Parking, says an attendant is on duty at certain times of the day and a notice clearly states that the 27 tickets are available from the restaurant at other times.
He warns that FSL will be chased if the fines are not paid, adding that hauliers can buy 25 parking tickets at a time or yearly passes at discount rates by contacting the company on 0171431 4001.