Charity bus wary of automatic parking ticket sensors after Perth pick-up penalty
dailyrecord.co.ukA volunteer driver from a Perthshire charity was fined while picking up disabled users due to attend a day centre. Smart Parking issued a £60 penalty to PKAVS recently when their minibus hovered inside Knights Court in Perth to collect elderly service users.
Automatic sensors snapped the vehicle as the driver awaited people living at the sheltered housing making their way to the minibus with carers.
The regular pick-up took around 15 minutes.Staff say vulnerable day centre clients take a while to get aboard as some suffer from dementia and have mobility issues.PKAVS minibuses have Blue Badges on display but this was not effective as Knights Court is private land.Volunteers have been coming to collect from Knights Court for many years and this is the first time they have been hit with a fine.The £60 fine issued by the Australian-based private car parking firm was to be increased to £100 if not paid within a week.Margaret Campbell, manager of PKAVS day services, said it was “soul destroying” for the charity to be hit for carrying out its remit to help senior citizens.“It was very disappointing for our driver,” she said.PKAVS appealed the ticket but were sent an automated reply insisting on payment.“I don’t think they read our explanation of how this was a vital pick-up we carried out as a charity,” said Margaret.Having heard Smart Parking would not back down - despite being contacted by senior PKAVS staff - the PA took up the case.Smart Parking’s main UK office in Birmingham accepted the circumstances and wrote off the fine.But PKAVS have been left concerned about picking up vulnerable people over fears they could be fined again.Raymond Jamieson, PKAVS Carers Hub manager, said: “While £100 may not seem much, we are
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