Parking 'chaos' in Northampton as pay machines in private car park allegedly broken or only accepting card

A shopper claims he has experienced more parking hell in a private town centre car park after he discovered two pay machines were out of order and one was only accepting card payments.

Leksing Seewonauth and his wife from Duston, parked in St Peters Way car park on Sunday (January 5), as they regularly do when they shop in Northampton.

Upon arrival the 69-year-old claims two of the three pay machines were broken at the car park which is owned by NCP.

Mr Seewonauth told the Northampton Chronicle and Echo: "Two machines were out of service and the third machine was not accepting any money.

"You could only pay with card and that was extremely difficult.

"It's no good if you've forgotten your card. I ended up parking without a ticket."

Mr Seewonauth claims there was 'chaos' on Sunday when he and other customers were trying to find a way to pay.

He said: "People were trying to phone the company (NCP) but no one could get through.

"We even went into one of the shops, but they said it's nothing to do with us.

"I ended up parking for about an hour without a ticket and other people did too.

"What else can you do?"

The car park has previously been criticised by motorists for not having anywhere to pay.

Mr Seewonauth was among several shoppers who were concerned they would be fined back in August 2019 when all three machines were out of order and customers couldn't find anywhere to pay.

He added: "I want the company to have their license suspended. We're worried we could get fined every time this happens.

"My wife is disabled so needs to be close to the shops, but we don't want to park here anymore. We don't know what to do."

An NCP spokesperson said: "We’re sorry to hear that a customer had a problem when using our machines on Saturday. We will look into this immediately, and if the customer has received a PCN which they feel is unfair then they must appeal through the method laid out on the PCN details, and we will look into each appeal on a case by case basis."