A TECHNICAL error at a
supermarket car park has led to
dozens of shoppers being wrongly
issued with heavy fines.
Supermarket chain Lidl yesterday (Tuesday)
apologised after customers at its Downpatrick
store were mistakenly sent parking fines stating
that their vehicle had been left outside their
premises for 24 hours or more, and in one
instance three days.
It confirmed that anyone wrongly penalised
will have the fine rescinded.
Current signage displayed in the Downpatrick
car park states that Lidl customers get up to 75
minutes of free parking, and that anyone wishing
to use the car park for longer can pay in advance
via an online app.
Many people took to social media to say that
they had in fact only shopped in the store for a
few minutes, not for a number of hours, or days,
which parking notices had claimed.
Local MLA, Colin McGrath, said a “deluge of
people” had come forward to complain about the
matter.
In light of yesterday’s apology from the
retailer, Mr McGrath welcomed Lidl’s
commitment to revoke the fines.
The company has put the issue down to a
“technical error” involving an automatic number
plate recognition camera, with a spokesman
confirming some customers’ parking times were
incorrectly recorded.
The car park, along Market Street, is run by a
third-party company, Your Parking Space (YPS).
One motorist told Mr McGrath they were
charged for parking in a space for 66 hours,
whilst other examples of the glitch included
someone being fined for leaving their vehicle in a
space for three days.
Having raised the issue on social media, to
further gauge the extent of the problem, Mr
McGrath said he had “exposed a deluge of
parking fines issued at Lidl’s Downpatrick store
that were issued erroneously.”
Mr McGrath said he was “shocked” to learn of
the scale of the problem, which escalated over
the holiday period, and explained that in each
instance the shoppers concerned used nothing
more than their allocated free parking period at
the store.
“I queried this with Lidl and was told that they
would investigate the matter further. When I
then put an appeal out on social media for those
who may have received such a ticket
erroneously, I was absolutely appalled at the
deluge of people who came forward with their
own stories,” he explained.
“The issuing of these tickets is entirely
unjustified,” continued Mr McGrath.
“Given the scale of this revelation, I welcome
that LIDL have agreed to rescind all of these
parking tickets.
“They must now charge the third company,
Your Parking Space, with investigating the
practice of issuing these tickets, determine
where the error took place, and ensure that this
is not repeated.”
Yesterday, a spokesman said: “Lidl Northern
Ireland has been made aware of a fault affecting
the automatic number plate recognition cameras
within the Downpatrick store car park, where a
number of customers have had their parking
times incorrectly recorded.
“Regrettably, some vehicle owners were
issued with parking notices by our car park
management company Your Parking Space
(YPS), an external third-party contractor, as a
result of this issue. We are urgently working to
ensure that this technical error is resolved
quickly.”
Confirming that “any fines incurred during
this period will of course be cancelled”, the
representative said the YPS system was
installed at the Downpatrick store in November
2022 “so that we can always accommodate our
local customers with ample free parking to meet
their needs and to ensure we can maintain a
regular free flow of movement to allow more
shoppers to enjoy priority parking at our store.”
He added: “Ensuring that every one of our
customers has a positive shopping experience is
of the utmost importance to us and we
appreciate everyone’s patience while this
technical error is being resolved.”
