Mother gets £75 parking fine after stopping in closed Wetherspoon pub car park to let her four-year-old daughter ride her bike
- Tracy Smith given £75 fine for stopping in empty car park of Green Parrot pub
- She and her husband, who’ve both lost their jobs, were taking van for an MOT
- Tracy said that they had only stopped in the Perranporth car park for 30 minutes
- Despite contacting Euro Car Parks, she was told she had no choice but to pay
A mother has been slapped with a £75 parking fine after stopping in an empty Wetherspoon pub car park to allow her daughter to ride her bike.
Tracy Smith, from Perranporth, Cornwall, had stopped for 30 minutes in the empty car park of the JD Wetherspoon pub the Green Parrot to let her daughter Elsie get some exercise.
Only days later though, Tracy and her husband, both having lost their jobs during the pandemic, were handed the £75 fine for parking in the car park without paying.
Tracy Smith has been slapped with a £75 parking fine after stopping in an empty Wetherspoon pub car park in Perranporth, Cornwall, to allow her daughter Elsie (pictured) to ride her bike
Tracy said: ‘In these times when communities are clubbing together to help people that have lost their jobs big companies are still trying to rinse it in.
‘I had to take my van to the garage for an MoT which I couldn’t afford anyway as both myself and husband have lost our jobs due to lockdown, but on our way we thought we would just let our four-year-old girl have a ride on her bike in the empty, unused car park.
‘As the pub is closed we thought nothing of it. There is nowhere safe in Perranporth for her to go bike riding and as we’re not allowed to travel to any of the wooded bike parks we normally use. The car park is an ideal safe place while it was unused.’
Despite appealing to Euro Car Parks, who delivered the fine, Tracy was told to pay the fine regardless of the circumstances.
Tracy and her husband, both having lost their jobs during the pandemic, said that they had only stopped in the car park behind the JD Wetherspoon pub (pictured) for 30 minutes while on their way to get an MOT for their van
She said: ‘I can’t believe we had a fine a few days later when we was there for half an hour.
‘I think it’s absolutely disgusting in these current times. There’s nowhere to go, nothing to do, we have no jobs and can only go out from our doorstep and now we’re being penalised for trying to give our daughter some exercise on her bike.
‘The worse thing was we only live up on St George’s Hill and we could have walked down. It was only because we were heading to the garage we took the van – so frustrating. I’m shocked and would have understood it if we’d gone off to the beach or something. These companies are hitting people for genuine mistakes.’
MailOnline has approached Euro Car Parks for comment.