Drakehouse Retail Park: Drivers 'fined' £100 for visiting popular Sheffield shopping centre twice in one day

Drivers were left fuming when they received a demand for £100 for returning to a Sheffield shopping centre twice in one day.

Sheffield MP Clive Betts was made aware of scores of complaints from people who visited Drakehouse Retail Park and then 'popped back' - including a disabled couple who dropped their dog off for an hour’s grooming, a DIY-er who bought the wrong piece of plumbing, a couple who bought the wrong wallpaper and a man who forgot his wallet.

One said: “My wife and I parked in the disabled spot outside Pets at Home, we have a blue badge and had it on show when we dropped our dog off. We were in and out, then we went back an hour later. About two weeks later we got a fine.”

The retail park is home to Halfords, JD Sports, McDonald’s, Wickes, Pets at Home and Asda. It has 750 parking spaces an offers four hours' free parking.

The site is managed by Fidum, parking is controlled by Civil Parking Office Ltd, which won the contract recently.

Local MP Clive Betts said he contacted Fidum and within 24 hours a policy banning people from returning within 90 minutes had been ditched, all penalties would be cancelled in writing and refunds promised for those who had paid.

He added: “This is obviously very good news, but if there remain any problems, or that the letters are not forthcoming, please get in touch with my office and we can raise them on an individual basis.”

Richard Wyn-Davies, of Fidum, said the ‘no returns’ policy was in the rules but had not been enforced until the new operator took over.

He added: “We had lot of people getting in contact and within an hour the rule was removed.”

The site needed to be policed to stop people staying all day, he added.

He also said they were paying a fee to the parking firm to reduce the incentive for it to issue as many tickets as possible.

Civil Parking Office Ltd did not respond to The Star.