My family day out was ruined after new parking rule cost me a £60 fine – I’m furious

A MAN was left fuming after he received a parking fine that ruined his family day out.

Nicholas Danton, from Kent, was the victim of a little-known rule change which left him £60 worse-off.

As reported by Kent Live, the dad-of-two warned other motorists about the risks of parking in private car parks.

Having already paid for four hours to leave his car in the Margate private car park, the family decided to extend their stay for a further hour.

They paid using an app, but Nicholas was surprised to receive a PCN in the post demanding £60.

Drivers used to enjoy a ten-minute 'grace period' to leave a car park under the Private Parking Code of Practice, which began in 2015.

However, the Government's website says this was removed in June 2022 and is currently under review.

Nicholas told Kent Live: "I think the general public don't know about this. I didn't even know about the ten minute grace period until I appealed and I wanted knowledge to back me up.

"I had no idea it had been withdrawn, and people need to be aware of that."

But it turned out that the company running the car park, Smart Parking, we're being doubly unfair.

Nicholas continued: "I appealed against that because it was unfair.

"They decided to uphold it because I was in the site for 10 minutes longer than I paid for.

"This means they're counting the time that you enter the car park before you've paid - people going there for the day probably don't realise they're being charged as soon as they go into the park.

"It was the middle of the summer, so you can't find a parking space straight away.

"I used the RingGo app to pay, which takes time to set up your bank details and so on."