St Peter's Way Car Park: Northampton man, 71, calls on company to fix pay machines after more issues reported

A Northampton man has been left frustrated after he was unable to park in a busy town centre car park as all pay machines were out of service.

Leksing Seewonauth, from Duston, visited the St Peter’s Way car park, run by National Car Parks (NCP), on Saturday afternoon (February 26) at around 3pm.

The 71-year-old discovered all the pay machines were out of service, so he had to park in the council-run car park further away from the shops, which he says is not ideal for his disabled wife who then had to “walk a long way to access the shops”.

Leksing said: “Everybody was complaining about it [on Saturday] and I said we need to get out of here quickly as the machine might not work but the camera always does.

“There’s never anyone around to help either as it is all run virtually.

“I asked another motorist what she was going to do and she said she was going to take the risk and park there and then see if she got a ticket or not.”

He added: “This happens frequently and we had the same issue with the machines being out of service a few months ago.

“Nothing has changed

“How come they can’t get the machines to work but they can get the camera to?

“They’re supposed to be running this car park, but they don’t ever seem to do anything and they have a disregard for their customers.”

NCP has apologised for issues over the weekend and said staff are conducting a “full-service review”.

A spokeswoman for the parking firm said: “We apologise to customers who have experienced any problems when using our payment machines on this site.

“We are conducting a full-service review and will correct any faults we find.

“We will continue to monitor the performance of the machines following this review.”

When asked what customers should do if the pay machines are out of service in the future, the company said there is an alternative way to pay, via its app.

The spokeswoman added: “It’s important to note that we already have an alternative payment method on this site. The NCP ParkPass app can be easily downloaded, and we have signage at the car park explaining the process in full.

“Once downloaded it is simple to use and saves customers money against the standard tariff.

“Should any customer experience any difficulties using the machines then we would suggest they use the ParkPass app for a convenient way of paying for their parking.”

There have been long running concerns about the car park as residents have previously feared they could be fined for parking on the site when the pay machines are broken.