Companies offering ‘secure’ meet and greet parking at airports are leaving your motors in PUB CAR PARKS
Holidaymakers expecting 24/7 on-site security have been shocked by the revelations
A FIRM promising secure 'meet and greet' parking to passengers flying from Manchester Airport have been caught abandoning vehicles in pub car parks.
Trusting holidaymakers paying up to £57 for a fortnight's parking have been shocked to discover their car spent hours outside pubs in Wythenshawe - despite the Cheshire service offering "24-hour on site security and 24-hour monitored CCTV".
A staff member claimed there was someone on site 24/7 - and that the pub was "just a holding area".
But during a three-day stake out by the car park was found to be unmanned when the pub was closed.
Footage showed Cheshire Meet and Greet dropping cars at the Cornishman pub on Cornishway on their way to and from the airport.
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Pub landlord, Phil Osborne, said the car park had been used as an "overspill" by the firm.
He told how he had given permission to a friend to use the car park "as a favour for free".
He added: “They are here overnight, sometimes for a couple of nights, but the main site is in Lymm.
“They have only been here since May.”
Evidence found that three other pubs - Woodpecker, The Happy Man and Mountain Ash - were being used to store cars.
Other parking firms using pubs to park cars says it is just "temporary".
A spokesman for VIP Parking told The Sun: "What do they expect us to do?
"We have been forced to use the pub because the airport monopolises all the land and won’t give us permits to sit on the airport and wait.
"Where do they think their cars are going?"
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Companies offering secure meet and greet parking around Manchester Airport are leaving cars in pub car parks in Wythenshawe
Manchester council is working wit Manchester Airport and Greater Manchester Police to clamp down on cowboy companies.
They said they could start to tow away cars left in pub car parks and on residential roads by parking firms.
And are now they are taking enforcement action on firms using five pubs in Wythenshawe with threats to tow vehicles from the land where they have the leasehold.
Wythenshawe MP Mike Kane told The Sun: “I have had meetings with the airport and city council to try and resolve this situation.
"It’s outrageous that some firms are pretending to offer secure parking.
"This impacts not just on those who believe they are paying for their cars to be parked securely but also local residents as well.
"Its time all parties sat down together and resolved the matter once and for all.”
Wayne Poole, Landside Operations Director for Manchester Airport, said: “A number of operators imply they have links to the airport when they don’t, which often results in passengers believing they have purchased a car parking space with us.
"We welcome the crackdown by Manchester City Council and GMP.
“Anyone with any doubts about their car parking can verify it with our customer services team.”
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