A COMPANY that has started issuing fines to motorists who have used a car park for years for free has been criticised by a north Durham MP.

Hilary Armstrong called on Highview Ltd, the company that manages and enforces parking at the Victoria Centre, in Consett, to review its penalty system.

The North-West Durham representative criticised the scheme for its sudden implementation without sufficient warning.

She said: "People feel very strongly that this is an unfair, disproportionate and insufficiently well-timed penalty system "They want to know why up until only very recently is the two hour rule being enforced."

People are fined £50, if they park there for more than two hours, which rises to £75 if it not paid promptly with a further £40 being incurred for ‘administration’.

Mrs Armstrong added: "The two hour rule is a very serious problem for senior citizens, who may now choose for health or personal safety issues, not to attend the theatre because they have to park to far away in order not to be charged because a show lasts longer than two hours."

Teaching assistant Pat Moodie, from Harelaw, near Stanley, was fined when she parked there one Saturday morning in September.

She is refusing to pay the £115 the company is demanding with letters threatening court action.

The 58-year-old said: "It is scandalous. It is just a scam to make money."

Heather Muir, a retired local government worker was fined after taking an elderly friend to the Empire Theatre one evening earlier this month and begrudgingly paid the £50 fine.

She said: "It is highway robbery."

The company has agreed stopping charging people between 6pm-8am but defended its decision to implement the charges.

Samantha Sherrard, commercial director of Sterling Portfolio Management, responded to Mrs Armstrong letter on behalf of Ambassador Holdings.

She said: "This was very much at the request of the agent for this property, Jones Lang LaSelle, who had advised over a period of time that this car park had been abused by shoppers who were not visiting shops within the Victoria Centre but parking the whole day for free to go shopping generally in the town centre."