More people have come forward about being handed hefty fines after parking in a popular west Dorset car park.
As reported by the News, unsuspecting visitors to Eype Beach have been receiving hefty fines after the car park operation was taken over by Euro Car Parks.
As well as new charges and the threat of fines, there is no parking allowed between 9pm and 8am - preventing drivers visiting the beauty spot at night.
One regular beachgoer has vowed never to return to Eype Beach after paying £2.50 for a ticket and subsequently being sent a £100 fine in the post.
Mr Billington from Devon said he visits the beauty spot with his dog at least every two to three weeks, adding ‘but after this, we are not planning to come back.’
He said: “I bought a ticket at the machine, however, I had repeatedly tried to enter my full registration number, but it would only allow me to enter the first five characters which seemed a bit odd, hence my repeated attempts to enter my full reg number, in the end I thought that the first five characters must be enough to identify which car has paid and didn’t really think much more of it.”
Around two weeks later, Mr Billington received a £100 fine in the post, but fortunately, he still had the ticket which he purchased.
He explained: “Navigating the Euro Car Parks website to find how to appeal and submit photographic proof of your ticket seems to have been made deliberately difficult.”
Anthony Jones also received a substantial £100 fine after parking in the car park late at night to take his young daughter to the beach.
Mr Jones is a former Bridport resident who now lives in Wales and was visiting the area to spend quality time with his daughter.
He said: “I wanted to take my daughter to the beach. When I arrived at the car park on July 28, I checked for signage and saw the old sign on the gate that says strictly no overnight parking or camping.
“I parked from around 9.45pm to11.15pm, so I wasn’t going to be there overnight, I just assumed this was outside of tariff times.
“It is my understanding that this was the only signage at the entrance of the car park, so when I received the parking charge notice a couple of weeks later, I was absolutely horrified.”
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It has also been recognised that Euro Car Parks had Eype Car Park listed on their website as being in 'Brisport' rather than Bridport – which has since been changed after a resident got in touch.
Euro Car Parks was contacted for comment.
Co-owner of the car park land George Wingfield Digby was also approached for comment but chose not to provide one.
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