Patients fight for refund after parking fine error

Two patients at Leigh Health Centre said they had been fined for parking there despite registering their car details with reception

Two patients who were wrongly fined for parking at a community health centre despite being registered to leave their cars there have said they had to fight to get them rescinded.

Debbie Harrison and Jenny Soppelsa both received penalty charge notices after visits to NHS Leigh Health Centre.

Ms Harrison told BBC Radio Manchester she received one letter demanding payment on the day of her husband's funeral, and Leigh and Atherton MP Jo Platt stepped in to support those raising concerns.

A spokesperson for Community Health Partnerships, which manages the health centre, apologised to those affected and said the fines had been cancelled after being issued in error.

Ms Harrison said she received a letter on the day of her husband's funeral warning her that the £20 fine would increase to £100 if not paid within seven days.

"I thought I'm going to have to pay it because I can't deal with this. I've got so much going on in my head and I've got so much admin to do," she said.

"Then I thought no, this isn't right, I'm not paying it, I'm going to fight this."

'Tried appealing'

Ms Harrison and Ms Soppelsa said they had both correctly registered their car details in the reception at the health centre.

Ms Soppelsa said she had received three fines for three visits to her GP when she had registered her details.

She said she had "thought nothing of it and then I've received penalty charge notices, one of which is already at £100 and the other two at £60".

"I've tried appealing them, I've tried ringing them and there's no human you can talk to," she added.

"At the end of the day we're people and they should realise that not everybody has £100 spare to pay for a parking ticket that they shouldn't have had in the first place."

A Community Health Partnerships spokesman said they were aware of "a limited number of patients" who had received parking fines incorrectly/

He said the parking system was operated by UK Parking Control (UKPC) and "immediate action" had been taken to investigate what went wrong.

UKPC has confirmed all fines issued on the identified dates, including those under appeal, would automatically be cancelled and any visitors who had already paid an incorrect fine would receive a full refund.

"We would like to apologise for any inconvenience or distress this may have caused," the spokesman added.