5:10pm Saturday 13th March 2010
A Bradley woman is claiming Northern Rail passengers at Cononley are being “harassed” for parking outside marked bays at the station.
Veronicka Dancer told the Craven Herald: “Commuters are being harassed with warning tickets telling them not to park outside of marked parking bays, on land that we have parked on for 10 years with no problems, no incidents and no accidents.”
She said the area in question was a thin strip of rough land which, in 1995, she was told was not owned by the rail company.
At the time she had asked for it to be surfaced to allow more parking when the number of regular spaces was reduced to meet the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act.
Mrs Dancer said Northern Rail started issuing the warning tickets at Cononley station about two weeks ago.
“It’s part of a crackdown that’s been going on since the beginning of the year.
“They said they received hundreds of complaints about damaged cars, but I think they’re just making it up as they go along,” she said.
She said the warning tickets, left on car windows, told people that their registration number had been taken and that, if they continued to park outside marked bays, Northern Rail would take action against them.
Mrs Dancer, who works in Leeds, said she found it strange that Northern Rail wanted to encourage more people to use the trains, but then cracked down on parking in station car parks.
A representative from Northern Rail said: “We have recently made some changes to the way we manage our station car parks.
“This is to ensure that parking spaces are protected for use by rail users and ensure that car parks are used safely and that cars park within the designated parking bays.
“We appreciate that parking is restricted, however parking out of marked bays is a problem as it restricts access for emergency and trackside vehicles as well as blocking in and causing damage to cars parked correctly.
“Cars using the car park have been leafleted in advance to advise that a penalty will apply to anyone who does not park in designated parking areas and within marked bays.”
Mrs Dancer said Northern Rail had also clamped down on illegal parking at Chorley station in Lancashire, where a raft of tickets was issued, but many were challenged and successfully overturned.
But Mrs Dancer said she did not know if her complaint would change the situation at Cononley.
“To be honest, I don’t know what’s happening and I don’t know where to go from here,” she said.
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