A WOMAN has argued that a £70 parking ticket she received while parking at a hospital for half an hour was issued unfairly.

Myra Reece, of Rockcliffe, received a parking ticket from UK Parking Control (UKPC), a private company that operates the car parks at Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle.

She said she was visiting the Cumbria Health On Call (CHOC) unit for an emergency appointment to which she was taking her husband, who was suffering from an eye infection.

Myra explained that he couldn’t drive and so she took to the wheel, hastily making it to the hospital and parking in one of the hospital’s car parks.

She left the car slightly over the white bay lines - which is why UKPC gave her a ticket - but she said that it was unfairly issued because the white bay lines are severely worn down, making it hard to tell where the boundaries of the bay were.

She said: “I did appeal two days later and I got a message back saying I did have to pay, and that I could appeal to another company but if I didn’t win I would have to pay the full fine.

“The fine was for £70, but £40 if paid within a certain time.

“I was only there for around 30 minutes.”

Myra showed the News & Star a ticket stub to use to get in and out of the car park that raises the barrier, which showed her time of entry as 3.05pm.

The parking ticket, which she also shared, showed that the ticket was issued at 3.17pm, and Myra asserts she left at 3.26pm.

On her reaction to getting the ticket, she said: “I think I swore.

“There were people around and they asked why I got a ticket, I thought it was something to do with paying for parking, but when I opened it out it said because I’m not within the bay.

“I am now quite paranoid about parking, and it was only a one-off.

“It’s a terrible thing, I’m a pensioner, and I’m struggling to make ends meet, and then I’m slapped with this fine; £70 is a couple weeks of shopping in the end.”

A spokesperson from North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust said: “Car parks at our Cumberland infirmary site are managed by a private company, UKPC.

“They do stipulate that you need to be parked within the marked bays in our car parks.

“This is for safety reasons and to reduce the likelihood of damage to neighbouring cars when getting in and out of vehicles.

“We will pass the feedback onto UKPC.”

UKPC was approached for a comment.