Park and pay – an unexpected cost of opposing the generational smoking ban
Tuesday, October 31, 2023 at 10:00 I can’t believe it.
I have just received a parking charge for overstaying my welcome at a motorway service station.
According to the notifying letter, I arrived at 16:05 on Thursday October 5, and left at 18:46, 40 minutes beyond the free parking limit.
There's no point appealing. They've got me bang to rights. They even have photo evidence of my car arriving and leaving.
On the day, though, it never occurred to me that I had done anything wrong because the reason I was parked up for so long is because I was busy working.
I was driving home from Salford, having already done a number of interviews about Rishi Sunak’s plan for a generational tobacco ban, when I agreed to do four ‘drive time’ interviews - the first at 16:10, the last at 18:20.
Rather than risk getting caught in traffic between services, it seemed sensible to pull off the road and do all four interviews while parked at a single service station.
A similar thing happened some years ago when a breaking news story meant I had to spend the best part of three hours at the Kinross service station off the M90 in Fife.
I wasn’t penalised then so the thought that I might be in breach of parking regulations never crossed my mind.
What happens if you are tired and pull off the motorway to have a break at the nearest services, as you are frequently encouraged to do on long journeys?
If you fall asleep and stay beyond two hours, that little rest could cost you as much as £100.
I'll just have to put it down to experience, but the cost of opposing the generational smoking ban is proving expensive already!
Reader Comments (1)
Wait until smoking is illegal. More fines, penalties and restrictions punished by fines will hit motorists and others going about their day even more than they do now. Someone is going to have to pay for the lost revenue from tobacco which Government has gifted to the unregulated black market.