Man has £100 beach parking fine overturned

Anthony Jones, a former Bridport resident, received the substantial fine after parking in the car park late at night to take his young daughter to the beach.

As reported, Mr Jones who now lives in Wales, wanted to take his daughter to Eype beach, but wasn’t aware of the changes introduced by car park operators Euro Car Parks.

He said: “When I arrived at the car park on July 28, I checked for signage and saw the old sign on the gate that says strictly no overnight parking or camping.”

As he was only planning to park there from 9.45pm-11.15pm, and not ‘overnight,’ he assumed that this was just outside of tariff times as the ‘signage wasn’t clear.’

Mr Jones was then ‘horrified’ to receive the parking charge notice a couple of weeks later which he immediately appealed but Euro Car Parks refused, so he took the issue up with POPLA (Parking On Private Land Appeals).

He has since received a letter stating that his penalty charge had been withdrawn which he described as ‘really good news’ and a ‘big relief.’

Mr Jones previously saud that he had been struggling financially, ‘having to watch every penny.’

Anthony Jones and his daughter Grace (Image: Anthony Jones)

He believes that there should be a sign at the entrance of the car park that should be ‘clearly visible,’ stating that you cannot park outside of the designated hours.

He also noted that motorists are able to park in nearby car parks such as the ones in West Bay, which are owned by Dorset Council, past 6pm for free.

Recently, the car park opening hours have been changed and initially, there was no parking allowed in the car park outside of the designated hours, which in the summer is between 8am and 9pm and during the winter is between 8am and 6pm.

George Wingfield-Digby who co-owns the car park, revealed that the decision has been made to bring forward the opening times by two hours to 6am in the summer and 7am in the winter from November 1 - March 31.

The new restrictions have also caused major upset within the fishing community, with one person describing the best fishing times as ‘first light’ or ‘when it starts to get dark’ - times when the car park is closed.

Members of the West Bay Sea Angling Club, who have been fishing at Eype since the group came together in 1952, say they now have to fish elsewhere due to these changes.

he club do fish all over west Dorset, but due to the car park changes at Eype, members have been spending a lot more time at West Bexington beach.