Petrolheads furious after being hit with parking fines at car meet

A car club has hit out at Sainsburys, after a meetup that took place in one of the supermarket’s car parks left almost 200 enthusiasts with a parking fine.

The event, organised by a Facebook group named Modified Car Driver, took place at the Castle Marina supermarket in Nottingham on Sunday, March 31, after store closing hours. However, complaints from local residents about past meets in the area led the firm which operates parking for Sainsburys to take action.

Horizon Parking, which controls the car park, introduced a new penalty to the car park. While customers are allowed to park for three hours when the store is open, the new rule forbids anybody from parking for more than ten minutes after the store has closed.

However, despite signs in the car park outlining the new rules, many attendees said that they were unclear and so stayed at the meet for hours.

The Nottingham Post reports that many of the 189 enthusiasts who attended were ‘disgusted’ by the fines – and that some will refuse to pay the charge at all. Daniel Hutcheson, 24, drove his modified VW Scirocco for nearly an hour to attend the event. He said: “I do think it’s a joke how 90 per cent of the people that went have got a ticket. I’m not going to pay it.”

Local residents had complained about the ‘noise and disturbance’ surrounding previous meet-ups in the area, leading Horizon Parking to introduce the new rules.

The fine is £70, reduced to £42 if paid within 14 days of issue.

Modified Car Driver, the group that organised the meet, urged its attendees not to pay the fine. A spokesman said: “We as a collective of car enthusiasts feel we have been targeted in a very underhanded way.

“It has never happened that a PCN has been issued at a meet we have hosted. We expect the PCNs to be overturned and would urge anyone who received one to fight their charge notice.”