Waterbeach Station car park

[tivoli]

Parked yesterday at Waterbeach station near Cambridge, operated by First Capital Connect. The normal ticket machine was gone, despite 'pay here' signs still in place. The only option was to pay by mobile phone, fortunately I had mine with me, but the guy following me did not. Paying by phone involves extra fees including the cost of the call. If I had not paid, would I have been protected from a fine because of the absence of the machine?

 

[ess]

waterbeach used to be 10p/day. It doesn't seem to be on the list of FCC car parks any more. Maybe its free.

 

[wibble]

There is no tariff for the car park in FCC's car park tariff leaflet so, unless it's no longer owned by FCC, you could assume that the car park is free.

There should be a tariff poster and a NCP T&C enforcement wording. Without these, you shouldn't receive a charge notice.

I don't know what retail facilites are available at Waterbeach, but they should offer parking tickets at the ticket office and/or self-service ticket machine. If you're not offered another method of payment for your parking, you shouldn't get a charge notice - that's just poor customer service.

 

[tivoli]

Have noticed before that Waterbeach is not mentioned in FCC car parking leaflet, but tariff is clearly displayed where ticket machine used to be; was £2 per day before 9am yesterday. Also it is an unmanned station.

I have e-mailed FCC for an explanation, it may well be that the machine was removed due to vandalism, but it does concern me that the customer is left in the situation of relying on using a mobile and that this may become the norm for the future. It is very easy to book parking on internet before leaving home, but parking there is limited and gives no guarantee of a space,