Portsmouth residents "incorrectly" charged parking fines at Queen Alexandra Hospital - NHS trust apologises

The Local Democracy Reporting Service and The News Portsmouth have highlighted ongoing issues with the hospital’s car park, operated by Parkshield Collections Limited. The company faced criticism as early as 2020 when the former Portsmouth City Council leader accused it of “fleecing” customers.

One resident, John Lynch, 81, and his wife, Hannelore, 81, received a £100 fine in November last year. After paying over the phone in February, they discovered that £170 had been paid to Debt Recovery Plus the following day. The International Parking Community (IPC), a trade association that handles complaints and penalty charge notice (PCN) appeals, told The News that releasing information about the Lynch’s PCN would violate general data protection regulations.

Another resident, who wished to remain anonymous, received a £100 fine due to a technical error with the hospital’s parking system. Although she successfully appealed, she later received a letter from Parkshield offering to reduce the fine to £20. Additionally, a further resident reported receiving two fines from the hospital despite having a correctly displayed, registered blue badge. They expressed frustration with the complicated and potentially unfair appeal process, which includes a £15 fee and the risk of a £100 fine if the appeal is unsuccessful.

She checked a local Facebook group where another resident had posted about a similar issue. Within an hour, the post had received 50 comments from local residents sharing their own similar experiences. Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust said it was looking into the problems, with Parkshield blaming faulty parking machines.

The trust, which runs the hospital, said: “We are aware that a small number of the people who park at Queen Alexandra Hospital have experienced payment difficulties and due to this some fines have been issued incorrectly. We apologise for any inconvenience or distress caused and continue to work closely with our partners to investigate the reasons behind this and what can be done to address and resolve these issues.

“We, along with our partners, are exploring the options available to us, which includes alternative payment methods to our current system. We have also introduced a more robust process for recording when the pay machines are out of commission or patients are eligible for concession charges to prevent fines being issued incorrectly. If anyone thinks they may have been affected, we strongly encourage them to follow the appeals process on the documentation they receive and to email [email protected].”

A Parkshield Collection Ltd spokesperson said: “We are aware of issues with the functionality of the payment machines (which we do not own or manage) at QAH. We have made a recommendation to the hospital that the system should be improved, and they are acting on those recommendations. Parkshield has also become aware of problems with ‘Blue Badge’ registrations, but again, this is not a problem at our end, but a problem at the QAH end, where the badges were not registered properly on the permit system, which 90 per cent of the time was human error. There is a team at QAH who work tirelessly on these issues and dealing with appeals and complaints, and they are doing their utmost to resolve the issue as soon as possible.”