"Car Parking at Sunderland Royal Hospital"

I purchased parking ticket for the correct amount of £2 for the required time and did not overstay, but must have made a finger misplacement when keying in the car registration number. As a consequence I am now in receipt of a parking charge notice from Parking Eye for an amount of £70, discounted £40 if paid within a certain time scale. Do you really regard this company to be the best one to oversee your car park when they can issue parking fines when there is no good reason to do so?

How many other patients coming to appointments have been harassed in such a way when they pay for parking. Many patients are in a concerned state when visiting a hospital anyway so why should there be this added element of having to key in a car registration number when all they are doing is purchasing a parking ticket. Does it really matter which car they are parking as long as a ticket is purchased for the required time?

In my opinion patients or visitors to your hospital are being treated in a most unsympathetic way by the use of this type of parking. Surely many of them will now decide to decline using the car park and park away from the hospital grounds thus causing parking problems elsewhere in the area. Is not the reason for a hospital car park being next to the hospital for the convenience of anyone attending the hospital? I have no problem with paying for parking in the hospital car park and I certainly do not expect to receive a parking fine for having purchased a correct ticket. Have the ParkingEye Company purchased the parking area from the Sunderland Hospital Authorities? Does this mean that the Sunderland Hospital Authorities now do not own their own parking areas? Is the Sunderland Royal Hospital able to decline the services of ParkingEye, as the North Tyneside Hospital has done?