A WOMAN has allegedly been hit with a £75 fine after using a car park in Culcheth for dropping her mother off at the GP.
The car park in question is at Culcheth Shopping Centre, and the parking restrictions have recently been changed.
For a number of years, the car park allowed four hours of free parking, with no return within one hour.
As of July this year, this has been slashed to two hours, with no return within an hour.
There is an option to add on an extra hour to your parking, which costs £2.
Residents are complaining that this will impact local businesses, and will hit cafes and retail in the area particularly hard.
One resident said: "A lady was fined £75 for dropping her elderly mum off at the doctors' surgery, going to Sainsbury's, then picking her disabled mum up before parking again on Sainsbury's to finish the shopping."
The car park operators attempted to change the restrictions in the past, but due to displeasure from the public, the change was scrapped.
Located on Jackson Avenue, this is one of the largest public car parks in the whole of Culcheth.
A spokesperson for the site operator said: "The two hours of free parking, with the option of a third hour for £2, equates to an hourly rate of £0.67 which is considered to be very cheap, but the way the car operates means that most users do not have to pay anything for a visit that is no more than two hours.
"We have become aware that some users of the car park are parking their vehicles whilst not visiting the CPS Centre, and this has included some overnight stays.
"Such behaviour prevents some visits to the CPS Centre by reducing the number of spaces available for genuine visitors."
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