Hauliers ask for action over MSA parking fines
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by David Craik
Anxious hauliers are asking the Freight Transport Association to fight their corner against penalty charge notices of up to £90 being imposed on them to recover unpaid parking charges at Granada Service Stations.
Don Armour, head of highways and traffic at the FTA, says he is seeking urgent
clarification from the Highways Agency on whether Granada is legally justified in imposing the penalties.
"Nobody is questioning the right of the owners of motorway service areas to charge parking fees or reclaim unpaid fees,'' says Armour: "However, MSA parking areas are no different in principle from supermarket car parks and are not equivalent to statutory local authority parking schemes which can impose penalty charges such as this."
Armour says Grananda's notices have deliberately been designed to look like local authority statutory notices.
Ken Harvey of K&SJ Harvey and Son says he is one of the hauliers being asked to pay a penalty charge of 190 after one of his drivers did not pay a £10 fee for parking at a Granada station in Greater Manchester.
"We are the only country in Europe which asks hauliers to pay for parking at service stations," says Harvey.
"I have concerns over the right to impose these penalty charges and the parking prices themselves," he adds. "A £10 parking price comes with a £6 tear-off voucher for food. The charge should really be only £4. We are indirectly footing this bill."
A spokesperson for the Highways Agency says Granada is already working with its contractors to solve the problems outlined by hauliers and the ETA.