I was fined £70 for parking at the hospital to see my sick mother – but I couldn’t pay, the machine was broken

A DISABLED man was slapped with a fine while visiting his cancer-stricken mother in hospital – because a parking machine was broken.

Bryan Grieve, 48, was shocked to be penalised because he could not register his car on the broken machine.

The 48-year-old has slammed the parking firm for the “extreme stress” they caused while he was visiting his sick mum.

Bryan said he and his wife would frequently see his mother while she was in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Gateshead in late June.

But after driving over for a visit on June 30, he discovered that the blue badge registration machine was not working.

Bryan chose to use the disabled bay as he suffers from severe arthritis in his knees and has issues with the cartilage in his joints, but displayed his blue badge after parking.

Despite also paying for a ticket to make sure he was covered, he was surprised to still be handed the fine weeks after his visit due to the broken machine.

After receiving the £70 fine, the situation got worse as Bryan’s appeal was also rejected.

Parking Eye, which runs the hospital’s car parks, turned down Bryan’s appeal after saying he had not made an attempt to enter his registration in the machine.

But Bryan said the appeal was actually rejected because he was not told the reason for the penalty and therefore did not produce evidence of the broken machine.

It was only after he raised the issue with the hospital trust’s team and with  that the fine was repealed.

He said: “I’m pleased it’s over, especially with all the time and stress it has taken.

“We never told my mother-in-law, didn’t want to give her that stress. £70 is quite a lot of money.

“We didn’t realise that [the machine] was the issue, it wasn’t clear from the notice.

“They just said we hadn’t paid so we produced the ticket.”

Brian said the incident was extremely stressful and warned others who may not know how to appeal a parking fine – especially given the nature of it being in a hospital setting.

“If you are in hospital you are under extreme stress,” he said.

“You are only there for one reason – because you or a family member are ill – and having this added to the stress of someone being ill is not on.

“It’s very unfair to add this. It’s bad enough in normal car parks but when it’s a hospital it’s worse.

“I wanted to shout at someone at ParkingEye but there’s no one to shout at.”

The Gateshead Healthcare NHS Trust which runs the hospital has apologised to Bryan for the situation.

Anthony Robson, managing director of QE Facilities, said: “We apologise for any confusion or distress caused to Mr Grieve.

“We’re committed to always providing an excellent experience for all of our patients and visitors.

“Now that we have the full details of the mitigating circumstances in this particular case, we will, of course, waive the penalty notice through our parking management company ParkingEye.

“If Mr Grieve, or indeed any of our patients or visitors need assistance with parking in the future, I would urge them to speak to a member of staff or contact us.”

Parking Eye did not respond to a request for comment.