Woman who visited Capitol Centre gym, supermarket and cinema blasts five-hour parking limit

The car park at the Capitol Centre Pic: Google

A woman has claimed that the parking hours at the Capitol Centre are not long enough to visit the cinema and have a meal.

The Capitol Centre recently changed their parking limit across the whole retail park to five hours – but one woman still got a parking fine when she visited for a day out.

Katarzyna Pres went to the centre shortly before 10am on March 2 before going into a gym class. She then went shopping at Waitrose before going to Vue cinema at 1pm for a film that was more than three hours long.

Katarzyna received a parking fine after a six hours 17 minute stay. Her fine was £60 if paid within 14 days and £100 thereafter.

She told Blog Preston: “My anger is due to the pointless parking limit at a shopping centre that has facilities that can be used for a whole day (gym, restaurant, cinema). Is the limit just to catch out genuine customers to generate funds so fix the absolutely horrendous potholes on the car park?

“With most of the movies these days being close or over three hours long, how is one supposed to go for a meal at Bella Italia and then watch a movie at Vue without getting a fine? Whilst caring for the environment, is the answer to simply exit the car park, do a U-turn and enter it again?

“In this economy, with businesses struggling to attract customers, why is there a maximum parking limit at a shopping centre that has a gym, restaurant, and a cinema?”

A spokesperson for the Capitol Centre has since confirmed that the decision was made earlier this year to extend the maximum stay at the retail car park to five hours so that both car parks at the centre share the same five-hour maximum stay – previously one side was five hours and one side was three hours.

They said: “We are committed to ensuring visitors have a positive experience while with us and the car parking management system is in place to help make sure we have spaces available for those that need them.

“To simplify the system and ensure our customers can make full use of the centre’s facilities, we made the decision earlier this year to extend the maximum stay at the Capitol Retail car park to five hours so both car parks share the same maximum stay.

“If any customers feel they may have been issued a parking charge notice incorrectly, we’d encourage them to follow the appeals process, and this will be reviewed by the car park operator.”

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