I WANT to warn others about the perils of using the Winmarleigh Street car park and maybe uncover other similar stories.

In December my daughter took time out of work to attend a charity meeting in Winmarleigh Street.

She parked on the pay and display car park at the end of the street.

Unfortunately, the payment machines weren’t working and the contact phone number printed on the side of them, to cover such emergencies, didn’t provide any advice.

It simply took her to an answer phone and a male voice by the name of Martin.

A subsequent check of the number indicates that it belongs to a house clearance company in Warrington, who are presumably tasked with the job of emptying the machines.

It was noticeable that a number of other motorists were experiencing the same problem.

She had parked at this convenient location in order to attend the meeting.

She didn’t have a lot of time to spare and naturally expected the parking and payment to be a smooth and seamless operation. It was not.

As she had attempted to pay via two methods and failed through no fault of her own, she decided to park there anyway.

Some days later she received a charge notice from High View, a London-based company that probably makes lots of money for managing this car park.

She appealed pointing out that the machines were not operational and that the help number was of no help whatsoever.

Alas, the modern day sport of ‘milk the motorist’ appears to have won the day.

The £50 charge still stands on the basis that she should have gone elsewhere if the machines were not operating.

Ok that’s an almost reasonable statement to make.

Shame that it doesn’t give that advice on the signage in the car park.

Then again doing that may limit the amount of money they make from fines.

She has now decided to pay up as any further appeal could result in the charge increasing to £85 plus £40 for debt collection.

No wonder there’s little investment in manufacturing when a simple piece of car park can generate such profits.

JOHN COGAN Great Sankey