Retired nurse, 71, vows to ‘fight for the older generation’ after she was hit with a parking fine despite ticket machine being out of order – then told she should have downloaded an app to pay
- Agnes Chandler, 71, has said she will go to court if she must to fight this case
A retired nurse has vowed to ‘fight for the older generation’ after she was slapped with a parking fine despite the ticket machine being out of order.
Agnes Chandler, 71, was told by a private parking firm that she should have instead downloaded an app to pay for her ticket at a car park in Wadebridge, north Cornwall, on January 23 this year.
She was hit with a £60 fine but since contesting it 11 months ago, I Park Services Ltd have escalated it to £160.
Ms Chandler believes that her generation are being ‘left behind’ due to the growing use of technology – and she fears that older people will be left with no choice but to stay at home.
Speaking to MailOnline alongside her nine letters from the parking firm and their lawyers, the defiant grandmother said: ‘I’ll have my day in court if I need to. I want to fight this purely to stick up for the older generation who are being left behind with all this ‘fantastic’ technology.
‘We don’t know anything about apps and how to install them. Well most of us don’t.’
Agnes Chandler (pictured), 71, has vowed to ‘fight for the older generation’ after she was slapped with a parking fine despite the ticket machine being out of order
Ms Chandler’s car is seen driving into the ‘atrocious’ car park in Wadebridge, north Cornwall, where the ticket machine was broken
Ms Chandler was told that despite the machine being broken, she should have downloaded an app to pay
Ms Chandler was off to the cinema with a friend to watch Tom Hanks’ latest film A Man Called Otto when she decided to park her Ford Fiesta nearby because she had a bad hip at the time.
‘My friend went to get the ticket and said it’s not working and that it had an out of order ticket on it so there was nothing we could do,’ she recalled.
‘The car next to me also had a sticker on his car saying machine out of order, so I’m sure he’s got a ticket too.
‘So we just carried on going to the cinema. I enjoyed a nice afternoon matinee and went home. I never thought any more about it until I got the letter two days later.’
Ms Chandler has received three letters from the parking firm and six more from their lawyers in the last 11 months – and despite her son telling her she probably ought to pay, she has vowed not to give up.
‘I’m sticking this out,’ she said. ‘I’m not paying for something I feel I was in the right for.
‘It’s the principal, the app bit got me, nothing else. That’s when I began to see a little bit red.’
She continued: ‘So that’s why I’m fighting it, because the machine was not working. I didn’t have an app. So what am I meant to do? To park it and leave it and hope for the best – and it backfired.’
Ms Chandler told MailOnline that she and the older generation are being ‘left behind’ because of the increase in technology
Ms Chandler has received several letters from the parking firm and their lawyers demanding that she pay
Ms Chandler, who described the car park itself as ‘atrocious’ with faded lines and said that she sent the parking firm a letter to say the machine was order but got one back to say she should have used an app.
‘That’s not realistic if you don’t have apps on your phone or have any idea how to use them,’ she added.
‘If I had gone out of there they would have still got me. Because, unfortunately, that car park is notoriously known, for when you go in and you go out you still get a ticket.’
Ms Chandler says she is being threatened with court action and bailiffs, while they have also said it could impact her credit rating.
‘They can’t do bailiffs unless they’ve taken me to court,’ she said. ‘I’m not bothered about my credit rating because I’m retired, and I own our own home.
‘So they’re just sort of making people think I better pay, because I’ll get the bailiffs and this affects my credit rating, and to me that sounds a bit like a bullying tactic.’
Ms Chandler continued: ‘We’ll wait and see what happens, because it’s gonna cost them money to take me to court, and if I’m in court I will then be able to explain why and how the elderly people are being penalised for technology which we don’t have.’
She said that she is lucky that she has a family who can help her with technology, adding: ‘But there are loads of people who don’t, and this stops anybody elderly going into town because they can’t park because they don’t have these apps on their phone.
This is the car park that Ms Chandler drove into before heading to the cinema. Two days later she received a fine
Ms Chandler is seen leaving the car park. She is determined to fight the case and has vowed not to back down
‘In 15 years time it won’t matter, because then we won’t be here, and all the youngsters will have all the technology they need. But people seem to forget that we also have a life, and we want to go out. This is stopping us from doing so.’
Ms Chandler said that there are at least five different parking apps and is calling for better regulation.
‘I think it needs to be regulated that people are safe in these private car parks. They just buy a bit of land, stick a machine in and put a camera there and Bob’s your uncle.
‘Basically, that’s what they do. They’re not regulated, they can do what they like – that’s what’s got the bee in my bonnet.’
She added: ‘I just feel strongly that we should be heard, and we are not being heard because, you know, we’re only old, it doesn’t matter.
‘They’re leaving us behind. That’s why it’s so annoying and we shouldn’t be ignored.’
MailOnline has contacted I Park Services Ltd for comment. DCB Lawyers declined to comment.
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