THE COMPANY which operates the car park at Bromsgrove’s Artrix has apologised after incorrectly issuing letters to drivers before the regulations came into force.
One victim of the administrative error was an elderly woman who the centre on August 27, six days before the fees were introduced.
She was told in a letter she had ‘contravened parking in the Heart of Worcestershire College’ car park and was warned next time she would receive a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN).
The woman’s neighbour said it had caused her ‘horror and distress’.
She added she would no longer use the car park and the nearest pay and display was too far for her to walk so she would go to Rubery instead from now on.
In another blow for the centre a Bromsgrove stroke group organiser said she would no longer take members to Artrix because, as charges could only be made on a mobile phone, many had no way of paying for parking.
Jill Burke runs the group which visited the venue two or three times a month for film screenings.
She said: “While having to pay is a bit of a blow, the worst thing is not having the means of paying.
“Most of our members are in their 70s and 80s and don’t have mobile phones.”
She said after expressing her concerns to the college she was sent a reply with a leaflet which ignored the payment method issue and added she felt sorry for Artrix which was losing out the most.
“Artrix has worked so hard to build up their daytime programme and it’s fantastic.
“It’s so sad this greatly disadvantaged group will no longer be able to make use of the fabulous programme,” she added.
A ParkingEye spokesperson confirmed letters detailing the new car park rules were incorrectly issued to motorists on August 27.
“After this was identified a further letter was sent to all motorist apologising for this error.
“All the processes are fully up to date now and no further problems have arisen since.”
Petition launched against ‘cashless’ Artrix parking charges
BROMSGROVE Arts Alive has launched a petition calling on the college to consider a pay-on-foot machine which could be linked up with the automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) system.
Members said they accepted the college’s need to charge to generate revenue but added more payment options were needed.
A paper version of the petition is available to sign in the Artrix foyer or click here to sign the online version.
