People parking in a Cardigan town centre car park are in danger of receiving a £100 notice following the introduction of the Parkingeye system in Coleg Ceredigion.

Motorists are only permitted to park there between 7pm and 7am, as the car park is used by college students and staff during daytime hours.

But many motorists are being caught out during holiday periods and at weekends when they know the college isn’t in use. These include parents who take their children to the nearby leisure centre and the astro football pitch for evening training sessions and weekend matches.

“It’s extremely frustrating,” said Katerina Lorencova who recently received a £100 fixed notice from Parkingeye.

“I used the Coleg Ceredigion car park on July 28, knowing that my car was only going to be there for a matter of minutes as I only wanted to collect something from the town centre.

“When I went to the machine to pay, I was given the option of downloading an app or paying by phone.”

Katerina decided against downloading the app and so she dialled ParkingEye to begin the phone transaction.

“It went straight through to an automated message, and I realised that it was going to take some time to register as they wanted to know my bank details and all kinds of other related information.

“So I collected what I needed from town and then went back to the automated message to begin the payment.”

After providing Parkingeye will the relevant information, Katerina finally had to key in the six-digit location number for the Coleg Ceredigion car park.

“I tried to key it in three or four times but each time, it rejected the number and told me that it had failed to recognise it.

“There was nothing else I could do and so I drove out of the car park.”

But when Katerina returned from a three-week visit to her family in the Czech Republic, she discovered a ParkingEye notice requiring her to pay £100.

“It’s extremely distressing to be charged this amount of money when I didn’t realise I was doing anything wrong,” she continued.

“I assumed that the college car park was available for general use during the summer holidays and I also did my utmost to pay the fixed notice.

“I know of many other people who aren’t aware that ParkingEye has taken over the car park, as the signs have been placed in areas which aren’t particularly noticeable. And like me, they assume that they can park there at weekends and at holidays.

“The system just seems very unfair and unjustified.”

Parkingeye is currently the UK’s biggest private parking company, with a turnover of around £25 million per year from parking charges or privately issued ‘fines’.

The company primarily uses Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras to monitor its car parks and issue tickets for overstays after sourcing the registered keeper’s identity from the DVLA database.

The Parkingeye’s system has resulted in considerable backlash from motorists and consumer organisations throughout the UK, the chief concern being that the size of charge is disproportionate to the breach.

“After my experience with the company this summer, I will never again use the Coleg Ceredigion car park,” concluded Katerina.

“It’s totally unfair.”

Meanwhile a Parkingeye spokesperson has confirmed that the Coleg Ceredigion car park features '16 prominent and highly-visible signs' providing bilingual information on how to use the car park responsibly.

"Parkingeye operates a BPA (British Parking Association) audited appeals process, which motorists can use to appeal their Parking Charge Notice," he said.

"If anyone has mitigating circumstances, we would encourage them to highlight this by appealing.”