No happy meal after a £400 parking fine

Bill leaves a bitter taste
A CHADDERTON family have been slapped with a £400 fine for parking too long at a McDonald’s restaurant during a children’s birthday party.

Brian Mills (65), from Whitegate Avenue, Chadderton, said his wife Margaret took their grand-daughters Madison Smith (nine) and Robyn Smith (11), as well as nine other children to the McDonalds restaurant in Jardine Way, Chadderton, for Madison’s birthday treat.

But a few days later they received a penalty notice for £400 — £100 for each of the four cars in the party. The notice said the cars had stayed 33 minutes over the allowed 90 minutes.

Mr Mills said: “This is totally wrong. My wife was really shocked when we got the penalty notice.

There were no signs inside the store to tell us there was a parking time limit and no staff member told us either.

“I could understand if we had parked and gone shopping but we were in the designated car park.

“We were told if we paid within 14 days, the fine would be reduced to £50 each, but everyone who received a penalty notice is refusing to pay. We want the fines overturned.”

Mr Mills said the family used the fast-food restaurant quite often but vowed never to go there again.

He said: “I called UK Parking Control Ltd, who operate the car parks for McDonald’s, and they just said we were over our limit and wouldn’t budge.

“McDonald’s have since called and said they will try and overturn two of the tickets, my wife’s and my daughters as I had their details, but I’ve told them it’s not good enough as there were four cars affected.”

Local McDonald’s franchisee Gerald Thompson said: “I’d like to apologies unreservedly to the customers. It is never our intention for genuine customers to be charged and while we make every effort to implement a fair parking policy it’s clear that it’s not always perfect, for which we are sorry.

“We are in touch with these customers and working to resolve the issue.

“We had to put restrictions in place after experiencing problems ranging from minicab drivers using our car parks as waiting bays between fares to people leaving their cars for several hours whilst they went on shopping trips or used near-by amenities.

“Customers are welcome to spend as long as they need in our restaurants but if their stay will exceed the stated maximum parking time, they just need to let us know their registration details so that we can ensure they don't receive a parking charge.

“The restaurant does not make any money from UKPC levying parking charges.”