25/07/25 Newquay Airport short stay car park.My wife and I took two cars to collect our family who arrived from Dublin. They were last through the arrivals gate and then had to spend 30 minutes to register that none of their luggage (4x cases 2x car seats) were on the flight from Dublin. I used one of the four machines in arrivals to pay for both vehicles. I entered the Full VRM for both vehicles and the charge displayed on the screen was £2.50. I paid by contactless and received a ticket with the VRM displayed and fee paid, along with a separate receipt for payment. I did the process for my wife’s car and received the same ticket and receipt. So payment was made for £2.50 for each car. We left the car park with our family but no luggage. On 05/08/25 both my wife and I received a PCN for £100 reduced to £60 if paid within 2 weeks. We both appealed supplying photo evidence of both tickets and receipts and a copy of a bank statement to prove that 2x £2.50 payments had been made to the airport .Both appeals were refused.I now realise (having returned to the airport today) that the £2.50 that appeared on the screen was for the minimum amount of time and it was up to me to alter the time spent in the car park to cover our stay there. I have used many car parks that use ANPR and when you put in the VRM into the the pay machine, it calculates what fee you need to pay, and it displays on the screen what fee is due. I have never known a car park where you have to calculate your stay time and alter the tariff on the machine. This is an absolute disgrace of a system aimed purely to catch unsuspecting motorists out. Had the machine had displayed £4.50 (that is apparently the fee that was due ) I would have gladly paid it. The machine obviously knew what time I had entered the car park so why not display the amount due.
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