Delays at a Highland supermarket led to unexpected parking charge for Sutherland man making him 'feel like a criminal'
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A Sutherland man who received a parking fine after visiting an Inverness supermarket has had the charge cancelled.
Hugh Maclellan, from Lairg, only noticed the letter informing him of the fine after undergoing a quadruple heart bypass operation in September.
His trip to the Highland capital was in August when he got his weekly shop at a branch of Aldi at Inshes Retail Park.
He said that, as he lived 110 miles away from the store, he did not visit it very often and he was completely unaware of restrictions for its car park – Parking Eye, the car park operator, had imposed a maximum stay of 90 minutes.
Mr Maclellan said when he did visit the supermarket he always filled two shopping trolleys, adding: “This takes some time and I empty the first trolley to the car then head back into the shop to refill it.
“In August, there were excessive queues and each time a delay of almost 15 minutes occurred due to slow checkout services which is always unhelpful.”
He said that the time he had spent in the store’s car park, almost two hours, was the time he had spent inside the shop and this was usually how long any of his shopping trips took.
Mr Maclellan said that the parking charge notice had made him “feel like a criminal as if I have deliberately cheated Aldi out of a car parking space”.
He added: “I was completely unaware of any parking restrictions at the car park. If I had been aware, then I would not have shopped at Aldi and would have quite simply gone across the road to Tesco.”
When we contacted Aldi on Mr Maclellan’s behalf, a spokeswoman said: “We are happy to review all cases if a customer believes a parking fine was issued in error, and have instructed the company that manages the car park at our Inshes Retail Park store to cancel Mr Maclellan’s charge.”
Parking Eye provides car park services across the UK and aims to solve problems for landowners who experience parking issues.
