Victory for residents as 'grossly unfair' parking fines picked up attending Peterborough Dragon Boat Festival cancelled

A Peterborough father has won a victory in his campaign against “grossly unfair” parking fines picked while attending the city’s popular Dragon Boat Festival.

Jason Duff is one of many people that has seen his £100 parking fine cancelled after intervention from the Dragonfly Hotel and event organisers.

Jason, along with his son, attended the festival on June 10 and were directed by marshals to park at the hotel’s car park at Thorpe Meadows.

Such were the crowds attending the event that there was between a 15 and 20 minute wait to use the machines to pay for parking.

This saw many fall foul of the car park’s rules which state that tickets must be purchased within ten minutes of arrival, a fact only found out by those who received a letter for the fine several weeks later.

At the time, Jason said: “Paying within that time frame was just impossible without jumping the queue.

"The whole thing is grossly unfair and feels designed to catch people out. Everyone in that queue had the intention to buy a ticket and ultimately did so.”

Vowing to fight the fine, Jason began the formal appeals procedure with the owner of the car park, Civil Enforcement Limited, based in Liverpool, and the organisers of the festival and the hotel itself.

On Tuesday, he received the confirmation that the decision has been made by all parties involved to cancel the fines.

Jason said: “I’m happy that the common sense, sensible decision has been made.

"There were lots of families there with children and money is tight for so many at the minute, £100 really isn’t a small amount of money at a time like this.

"I have to thank everyone that has got involved to help get to this point.

"Since I had already written that £100 off, I will be making a donation to Sue Ryder (lead charity beneficiaries of the event)."