Melton charity’s anger over parking fines issue

Melton and District Furniture Project has operated from its Park Road premises for more than 20 years, with visitors using the access adjacent to Harwood House.

But that property has changed ownership and last summer the previous barrier was removed and a security camera installed to enable Smart Parking to manage the car park.

The camera is triggered by drivers visiting the furniture project and any which linger for longer than the 10 minutes allowed for loading or unloading are hit with a parking ticket.

One of those caught out recently was local radio presenter Jeremy Lefever, who was astounded to get a £60 ticket after finishing a two-hour outside broadcast from the charity’s premises, despite parking his vehicle inside the warehouse.

Angela Dawson, the furniture project’s chief executive officer, and who has been with the charity since it started 36 years ago, is concerned the fear of getting a parking ticket is going to put people off visiting and threaten the future of the organisation.

More than a dozen visitors have recently received parking tickets, as well as the charity’s fuel supplier.

Angela told the Melton Times: “We tell people they can only park for 10 minutes and we are now having hardly any donations because people can’t park in the car park to drop stuff off.

“It’s ruining our business because people daren’t come.

“I’ve spoken to the owner of Harwood House but he says it’s nothing to do with him.

“I don’t expect people to be able to park and when we had the barrier no-one did come in and park.

“We would tell them they would need to go to a car park and they could come back and pick it up outside later.

“Now no-one is coming in and we are getting the blame.”

The organisation was originally based in a collection of garages at Weaver Green before moving to premises on Snow Hill and then Windsor Street ahead of relocating to Park Road.

It only opens Tuesday’s Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, from 9am to 1pm, and Mrs Dawson said it would not be financially viable to move elsewhere.

She added: “It’s pathetic really. If they can’t give some leeway to a charity which is only open 16 hours a week it is a pretty poor show.”

Radio presenter Mr Lefever received his parking fine in the post after presenting his 103 The Eye show from the furniture project on November 24 last year - he has not yet paid it so it has risen to £100.

He said: “I wasn’t happy at all when I got the notice - it didn’t seem right at all.

“I even parked my car inside the furniture project on their land and we took photos as evidence.

“It’s the principle of the thing - I want to highlight this so others are not caught out when they visit the charity.”

SmartParking rejected his appeal against the fine, pointing out the camera had recorded his vehicle entering the car park shortly before 10am and leaving just after 1pm.

The notice was also upheld following a further appeal to POPLA, an independent service, which stated that Mr Lefever had no prior arrangement to park in the car park for more than the 10-minute alloted period.

We approached the owner of Harwood House for comment but have not yet had a response.