Beckett Street car park: Leeds woman fined while attending urgent breast cancer screening despite broken machines

Tracey Sanderson, 56, was attending an urgent breast cancer screening at St James's University Hospital when she parked up and found the meters were all out of action with the pay by phone option covered up.

All car’s in the car park had left notes in their windscreen explaining and as Tracey was waiting to be seen her husband popped back to the car to find every car had been ticketed, with five traffic wardens circling.

Speaking to the YEP, Tracey said: “I’ve never seen two traffic wardens there let alone five and it was almost like they knew the machines were going to be out of order. One warden was getting confronted regarding this and he said we could have paid by phone, but this fact was only shown on the side of the machine not in view and not everyone is able to or feels comfortable paying by phone.”

Despite the unfair nature of the fine, Tracey is not planning to contest the fee as a payment within two weeks caps the cost at £25 rather than £60.

Tracey said: “I was there because they thought I had breast cancer so you aren’t really thinking straight and are just desperate to get to your appointment. It wasn’t visiting hours in the afternoon, it was first thing in the morning and quiet. The wardens are just doing their job but it feels like I’ve been scammed with five sent out to make sure the maximum money was made.”

A spokesperson for Leeds city council, said: “Although there have been recent issues with one of our ticket machines at Beckett Street, during this time there have still been two working machines, one in the upper car park and one in the lower car park. Cashless parking is also available via an app.

“The council endeavours to rectify faults with ticket machines as quickly as possible, with an engineer on call to deal with any issues as and when they arise.

“Anyone who feels that they have received an unfair parking penalty can of course appeal in the usual way.”