Parking company apologises for giving out WRONG parking tickets to customers at Aldi store in Milton Keynes

Parking tickets dished out to customers at a new Aldi store are not enforceable due to a lack of signage, a parking company has admitted.
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The Citizen was contacted last week by an indignant member of the public who had received a £70 fine after staying for more than 90 minutes in the car park of the Aldi store at Stantonbury.

She said she had no idea there was a maximum length of stay allowed because there were no signs to warn people.

The shopper’s family members, together with the Citizen, scoured the car park of the Purbeck store – and indeed there was no warning on display.

The sign says nothing about a potential parking fineThe sign says nothing about a potential parking fine
The sign says nothing about a potential parking fine

"There’s a notice saying Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) is being used and your registration will be recorded. But there is absolutely nothing to say how long you will be allowed to park and no warning to say you will receive a parking ticket if you stay too long,” said the shopper’s son.

"We were not happy with this at all. My mum put out something on social media about her ticket and several other people commented to say they too had received a fine for parking there.”

The Aldi store opened in December last year and the ANPR sign is from Parkingeye, the company recruited by Aldi to manage many of their stores nationally.

The Citizen contact Parkingeye to ask why there where no warning signs at the Stantonbury site and we questioned whether the parking fines would be legally enforceable without them.

There are no signs about parking restrictionsThere are no signs about parking restrictions
There are no signs about parking restrictions

A spokesperson for Parkingeye told us: “The car park management system at Aldi in Milton Keynes is not yet in operation.”

He added: “All Parking Charge Notices issued in error have been cancelled or refunded and motorists will receive written confirmation to this effect. Parkingeye sincerely apologise for any inconvenience caused.”

The spokesman then promised: “Significant and highly visible signage will be installed ahead of the site becoming fully operational, giving motorists clear guidance on how to use the car park responsibly when shopping at Aldi in Milton Keynes.”

Aldi’s website states: “Aldi store car parks have a limited parking time to ensure that, wherever possible, there are parking spaces available to all customers...

If you overstay the published maximum parking time you may incur a parking charge.”

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