SHOPPERS using the Cradle Bridge Retail Park in Trowbridge have called on the parking operators to cancel fines they have sent to people as its system is a ‘farce’.

Although Smart Parking, which manages the 125-space car park at the new retail park, changed its system five weeks ago, people who parked there during the last four months are still receiving demands for money for ‘offences’ committed before then.

The Wiltshire Times asked Smart Parking this week who owns the site and appointed them to manage the parking, but had received no response by the time the paper went to press. M&S Foodhall and Toby Carvery, whose customers have both been hit by parking fines, are tenants and have no control over the parking.

Until October 16, drivers using the three hours’ free parking at Cradle Bridge had to put tickets, bearing their car’s registration number, on their cars. That rule was scrapped after Smart Parking received a torrent of protests from people who said that poorly worded signs meant they had not realised a ticket was needed.

Like hundreds of others, Michael Martin, of Mascroft, Trowbridge, fell foul of Smart Parking’s system after he parked at Toby Carvery in a disabled parking space with his mum in June.

He received a £48 fine. The 39-year-old nurse appealed this twice but each time it was turned down. After heading to America for two weeks on charity work, he returned home to find a letter from a debt recovery company saying he now had to pay £150, which was later cut to £80.

Following Wiltshire Times’ coverage of the issue, this was reduced to £80, but Mr Martin says fines should be cancelled.

“Why would they change the system if it was working in the first place? It is a farce. They should wipe the slate clean and cancel the hundreds of fines people have unfairly been hit with,” he said.

“I spent £20 for a phone call with Smart Parking and they are not very helpful. I received an email from a spokesman saying people only received fines if they went over the three-hour free period but many have been way under that – they are digging their heels in.”

Margaret Gliddon, 83, of Tyning Road, Winsley, saw her original fine of £48 rise to £150 this week for not paying, despite the fact she has appealed it as she accidentally put her registration number in incorrectly.

“They would not have scrapped the system if it was a good system, but they did as so many complained. I think there should be a new parking operator there,” she said.