“Still not working is it Council.”

“I only use NCP car parks - you drive in, collect a ticket and pay when you drive out. Much safer.”

“DD I entirely agree.

Both Trading Standards and the Police turned up and told her to pay. If they thought that there was any dodginess they would have assisted her.”

“This car park is now run as well as any other. The permit holders bays are all individually sign written at the front of the bay and also there are loads of signs on the wall stating that they are permit holders only bays. You would have to be blind not to see them. I use this car park daily and it is nothing like the previous rip off merchants. She made a mistake and is not willing to accept that she was stupid enough to ignore the notices.....GROW UP and take responsibility for your own actions. Signs are put there for a reason, if you don't read them when they are CLEAR and PLENTIFUL you should expect to pay for your stupidity.”

“I got involved when the clampers clamped the vehicle of a disabled driver who was visiting his sister and had to go to her flat to get a " visitors parking permit" the clamper refused to remove the clamp I rang the police and an experienced officer had a word with the clampers who removed the clamp I asked what he had said to the clampers and he told me that he had "offered" to check their vehicle over to see if it had any defects.”

“Whilst on the subject of inappropriate or confusing signage there is a lot of dubious parking signage around central Croydon that seems to result in a lot of disputed parking tickets. The best example of this is the sign outside Pizza express in South End that states that the parking restrictions are between 9-5 and that parking is free after that - what it doesn't say is that is only true BEYOND the sign. At least 4 cars get tickets in that 10 yard space EVERY night. It would be simple to amend the sign to make it clear but I suspect it is a nice cash crop for the council - effectively a "sting" so it wont ever get changed. I know that if you follow the letter of the law of the highway code then you would know that a sign's rules only apply to the distance beyond the sign, but most drivers are not well versed enough to know that .”

“What seems to be most troubling here is the lack of adequate signage. If a bay is private then it should be well marked as such - even painted on the ground of the space in question. There is no reason that the operators of this car park can't manage that. If there is no signage then it is effectively a "sting" operation luring victims to get caught out and fined/robbed.”

“I'm sure that if what Ms Russell said is correct, she will hopefully had the sense to take pictures with her mobile phone to back up her version of events. There may then be a case for obtaining money by deception. She could then take out a damages claim against them for emotional distress, etc. If more people were willing to persue this course of action, they would have to consider thier actions a lot more. They are little more than theiving peices of s*** who's luck will eventually run out when they come across the wrong person.”