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Parking ticket victory after rail station 'blitz'
Commuters were today celebrating victory after successfully overturning a raft of parking tickets handed out at a Lancashire railway station.
Northern Rail carried out a mass sweep on illegal parking at Chorley station, dishing out around a hundred 50 fines in one week.
The 120-space car park is often full and desperate motorists regularly abandon their cars on kerbs, yellow lines and outside parking bays.
Rail bosses were accused of alienating customers during last month's crackdown rather than addressing the shortage of spaces. Now, a number of commuters have successfully appealed the tickets.
Civil servant Cathy Webster, 38, who challenged her 50 ticket, said: "I appealed the ticket on the grounds that the signage at the car park is incorrect.
"The signs that say you have to park in the parking bays also say you need to get a valid parking ticket from the ticket office and display it in your window, but that system is totally obsolete.
"They overturned my ticket but I'm worried that a lot of people just paid it without questioning it.
"Around 100 tickets were issued and that is a lot of money that, as far as I am concerned, people shouldn't have to pay."
A former rail chief from Chorley also condemned the blitz and said current bosses should do more to address customer need.
Alex Green, former director of regional railways in the North West, said: "The station car park has been a nightmare for a long time and I have every sympathy for the commuters because it simply isn't big enough. The solution, however, isn't to alienate customers. It is to increase the size of the car park and the only feasible way to do that is to build a multi-storey car park on the site."
Mr Green has written to transport secretary Lord Adonis demanding that money is pumped into the station to expand the car park.
A spokesman for Northern Rail said she could not confirm how many people successfully overturned the tickets but said the sweep had a "positive" impact on parking at the station.
She said: "There have been a number of appeals but it is difficult to say how many have been successful.
"The issue has always been about people parking irresponsibly and we've already seen a remarkable improvement.
"It is still early days but people are not parking as inappropriately and hopefully that will continue."
Work is due to start at the car park to improve CCTV, re-mark bays and create about 10 extra spaces.
For previous stories see lep.co.uk:
Parking ticket revenue drops in Lancashire
Beware those pesky parking ticket cowboys, pardners...
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Weather for Preston
Wednesday 08 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: -3 C to 3 C
Wind Speed: 18 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Light sleet
Temperature: 3 C to 3 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: South east
