Smart parking spreads the grief at Inverness
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THE company behind dozens of complaints from Inverness drivers appears to be spreading the misery far and wide.
The Highland News was contacted by Dundee councillor Will Dawson recently after he became aware of our campaign against practices at the Strothers Lane car park in the Highland Capital, run by Smart Parking.
Mr Dawson, Dundee City Council’s city development convener and a former student of Inverness College who still has family in the area, got in touch to explain how he was also caught out at a Smart Parking facility – in his case at a multi-storey car park in the middle of Perth.
“I often visit Perth in my role as chair of our regional TACTRAN transport group and their office is right next to the car park in Perth, so I’ve used it loads of times,” he said.
“I actually use an app called RingGo to pay for my parking, which has all the details already on it including my car registration.
“I was sent a charge for £200 because of an apparent single digit mistake in my car ~registration, but I’m refusing to pay.
“It seems clear to me that if there is any fault it must be with the app because I have never changed my details there and never received a charge like this in all the time I’ve been using it.
“Also I believe Smart Parking could quite easily see it was my car parked in the car park on that particular date and at that time if they wanted to.
“They are just refusing to do so.”
A spokesman for Smart Parking said Mr Dawson’s admission that his app was at fault meant he had broken their terms and conditions of use.
But Mr Dawson insisted he will fight on.
“The way this company works is anything but ‘smart’ and people need to be aware of what’s going on,” he said.
“I for one certainly won’t be using the car park in Inverness when I’m next visiting and I would encourage everyone else to avoid it too.”
n Have you experienced problems at the Strothers Lane car park? Let us know by emailing newsdesk@spp-group.com or call 01463 233059.
