A MAN is refusing to pay a £60 fine he received after he overstayed a 20-minute limit on parking while queuing for a sandwich at a convenience store and post office in Tavistock.

Colin Bradbury says he only breached the parking limit behind Central Convenience Store on Abbey Place because he had to queue due to covid regulations.

However, he has now received a Parking Charge Notice fining him £100 — reduced to £60 if he pays within 14 days — by UK Car Park Management, which manages the car park on behalf of Central Stores.

The letter received by the 65-year-old from Princetown said he stayed for 37 minutes on the day in question — Monday, April 26 ­ during the afternoon, a time when there were queues outside the post office and store.

He waited his turn in the queue until he could go into the shop and be served.

‘I would like to know just how many people have been caught out like this,’ he said. ‘To be charged £60 for going shopping is appalling. It is a licence to print money.’

He said he regularly stopped off in the car park on the way from his business, Willy’s Ice Cream in Lamerton, on his way home to Princetown, always to buy a drink and a snack. He said that the limit used to be an hour, but it had been changed to 20 minutes.

‘I would like this to be squashed because it is simply not fair,’ he said. ‘When the shop is putting you in this position for obeying the rules on Covid, it is ridiculous.

‘The reason I like to come to this shop is because I though it was a small privately owned business so I wanted to give them my business, but when they are acting like this it is the pits.’

He said that he had approached the manager of the shop, who had told him that it was nothing to do with them and to contact the car park management company.

‘I think they should put a sign outside the shop to make it clear that you can only park for 20 minutes,’ he said.

‘I can’t believe they are treating people so badly because this has always been a nice shop.

‘I call in here three days a week to buy my sandwiches, they do a snack deal with a bottle of drink and a packet of crisps for £3.50. I want to support a local business. With covid, they shouldn’t be enforcing rules like that,’ he added. ‘There is no sign on the door telling you that is what willl happen.

‘I’m 66 years old in one week and four days and I’ve never been done for parking until now and the only reason I hve been is because of covid rules.’

The management of the shop were approached by the Times but declined to comment.

A phone call to the car park management company was met with a message to say that the office was closed until further notice.