A GRIEVING son has spoken of his anger after a he was sent a fine for parking at Warrington Hospital – even though he had paid the charge.

Ian Spurr was visiting the hospital nearly every day when his mum was admitted on February 19 before she died a month later, but was stunned when a letter arrived from Highview Parking, which operates the car park, demanding a £40 penalty.

After appealing the charge, it was withdrawn but the day before his mum’s funeral he received another letter telling him the fine had gone up to £75 and threatening legal action if he didn’t pay.

“Me, my 90-year-old dad and other family members handed over nearly £100 in car parking charges only to be served with a penalty notice because I had keyed in a wrong digit on the ticketing machine,” he said. “This is quite easy given the poor lighting and small and sometimes malfunctioning keyboard. "Given the timing and the total lack of sensitivity of the second letter, I was spitting blood.”

Ian contacted the company again and was told the second letter had been sent in error but he is still angry at his treatment the way he was treated.

“Normally I wouldn’t make a fuss, but as hard as I tried I was unable to get beyond the call handler,who refused to discuss my complaint or provide any contact details of anybody more senior in the Highview Parking management structure.

“The care my mother received at the hospital was exemplary from all the doctors, nurses and care staff on the ward. I cannot praise and thank them enough. It’s the hospital’s exorbitant car parking charges that are so abhorrent — quite simply it’s a tax on the sick whatever way they choose to dress it up.”

A spokesman for Highview Parking said: “The car park system is intended to provide visitors with an improved experience by allowing them to pay on exit rather than predict how long they will be in the hospital.

“On the rare occasion that an administrative error occurs such as a reminder letter being issued before the cancellation is actioned it would be rectified at the earliest possibility and as in this case, an apology was issued both by post and by email.”

A spokesman for Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: “We introduced the system to better manage our parking facilities and it has also allowed us to make paying for car parking easier for our patients and visitors without an increase in general tariffs.

“We are aware of some isolated incidents when we first introduced the new system a few weeks ago, with some tickets being wrongly issued.

“These have been picked up and voided through our appeals system.”