I feel I am a victim of the Lake District’s lack of hospitality, regarding coach parking fines. Whilst taking a group around the Lake District National Park, my tour guide was responsible for the purchase of the coach parking ticket – £2. Unfortunately, upon parking, we had 45 elderly passengers who, due to no fault of their own, took some time to disembark from the coach and required items from the luggage compartment and confirmation of information for the visit.

The parking ticket machine only took cash, no credit or debit cards, specific coins only and did not give change. My tour guide did not have the correct change and went to the café close by to get some.

She was then delayed yet further by helping out our passengers. I then proceeded to go and look for her. After finding her, and with change sorted and ticket purchased, we returned to the coach to discover a penalty notice.

I felt that this was highly unfair as, due to the circumstances, I had only been in the space for 20 minutes without purchasing a ticket. I feel that coach drivers and GTOs need a certain amount of time to sort out passengers before they can purchase a parking ticket for their coach.

Since then, all pleading and explanations have come to nothing. I, the driver, have been fined £600 and threatened with prison and the baliffs if I do not pay.

John Williams
Coach Driver
John Williams Coaches, Worcestershire

GTO asked the Lake District National Park Authority to respond:

In response to Mr William’s letter, I’d like to clarify a few points. We do welcome visitors to the Lake District and try hard to provide adequate coach parking where space allows. We want everyone to enjoy the beautiful scenery but it does need maintaining so car park revenues contribute to the vital upkeep of our national park, helping to pay for footpath upkeep and other important jobs. But we keep the charges as low as possible; the rate is the same for coaches and cars and it’s worth noting that a charge of two pounds for 45 people isn’t exactly steep. Plus it shouldn’t really come as a surprise to a tour guide that she might need some change to pay for parking. We think 20 minutes is ample time to be able to get some change if needed. And we are working hard to get the new technology in place to allow people to pay by card.

We do regret that Mr Williams now has a large bill to pay but we do avoid court procedures if we possibly can. He was given ample opportunity to pay the fine for not displaying a valid ticket but instead chose to go through the legal procedure of going to court.

David Coxon
Car Parks and Boating Centre Manager
Lake District National Park Authority