Irate driver 'locked in car park' films video to shame council over 'tiny' signs

 
The sign and right, drivers locked in the car park
Laura Proto17 July 2015

A motorist furious with the council after being stranded in an east London car park has created a six minute film to shame them over "poor" signage.

Tahir Ahmad has accused Newham Council of "scamming" families out of money by not displaying signs prominently enough to warn people that the car park is locked at 9pm.

Up to 30 people, including a pregnant woman and disabled pensioner, were among those to have their vehicles locked in a car park in East Ham on Wednesday evening and cars were only released after the police were called.

The council denied the hours had been changed, adding the 8am to 9pm operational hours had been in place since June 2011 and claimed that a large sign at the entrance to the car park had “been tampered with”.

Tahir Ahmad, who was among those to have his car locked in the Shaftesbury Road car park, re-visited the site at 5.30pm on Thursday, July 16, to make a video showing the unclear and confusing signage.

He says there are “massive” signs showing where you can pay and basic information about the car park, but nowhere does it state the opening hours.

“It says here the controlled hours, meaning the times you have to pay for a ticket, 8am to 8pm and that’s all the information you get,” Mr Ahmad said.

The sign can be seen with stickers over the 8pm closing time along with the costs of penalty charges, which the council says they did not place.

The 31-year-old said many of those with their vehicles locked in the car park on Wednesday evening had travelled, some from as far as Southend-on-Sea, to do their Eid shopping in Green Street.

On returning to their car, parking control officers were seen “slapping tickets on the cars”.

In the video, Mr Ahmad walks towards yellow signs, which are “about the size of a folded newspaper”, attached to railings at the edge of the car park.

Motorists had their vehicles locked in the Shaftesbury Road car park after 9pm on Wednesday evening

The notices state the car park is open daily from 8am to 9pm, adding it is locked outside of those hours and vehicles still present will be locked in and “cannot be released until the car park reopens at 8am the following morning”.

Mr Ahmad said: “It does say the car park will be locked but when you are coming out of your car with your families, parking up, taking things out of, the last thing you are looking at is signs on the side of a car park.”

Small pink signs stuck near the ticket machines also state the car park is closed from 9pm to 8am the following morning from July 1, 2011.

Newham Council said the operating hours of the Shaftesbury Road car park, East Ham, is clearly signposted

Mr Ahmad added: “That is hardly clear sign posting. And if you arrive at 8pm and you know you don’t have to pay for your parking here, why would you go to a ticket machine?

“It lacks common sense and it is quite clearly a scam run by Newham Council to leverage money from the motorists and primarily the families who come and park here.”

A council spokeswoman denied any wrongdoing and refuted claims of a scam, stating the 8am to 9pm operational hours came into effect in 2011 and are visible via more than 20 signs in the car park and on the council’s website.

The spokeswoman added: “Prior to this Wednesday evening there were more than 20 signs in place.

“However as of yesterday there were only 16 of which we have photo evidence of. Replacement signs are being installed today

“The large sign at the entrance to the car park has been tampered with and the operating hours have been changed. A replacement sign will be installed shortly.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in