SHOPPERS are up in arms after falling foul of what they say are unfair parking regulations governing the Aldi supermarket car park in Bridgwater.

Nether Stowey resident Carolyn Barry says she is being fined £70 for taking too long to do her shopping the first time she visited the shop.

Mrs Barry said: “This was my first time shopping at Aldi and I put a lot of effort into finding my way around, researching the products available and comparing them mentally with those I normally like to buy.

“I ended up doing a very large shop and spending a lot of money.”

She spent £84.48 and was parked in Aldi’s car park for one hour and 42 minutes – 12 minutes over the allotted time.

She was shocked when she received a letter telling her she was was being fined £70.

She claims not to have seen any signs warning her that she was only able to park at Aldi for 90 minutes and says she will not be paying the fine.

“They have lost a potential new customer and I won’t go there ever again – it is utterly ridiculous.”

In a second case, loyal customer and pensioner Hedley Hodge was slapped with a £40 fine after he did a 20-minute shop at the store on Saturday, October 25.

The 73-year-old, who has regularly shopped at Aldi for the past 13 years, told the Mercury: “I went in there on a Saturday morning and saw it was pretty choc-a-bloc so drove right through and came out again.

“I decided to go back later on that day and parked there for about 20 minutes while I went in to buy some stuff.

“The next thing I know I was fined £40 for apparently parking there for five and a half hours.”

The car park is operated by private company Parking Eye which uses Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras to monitor the car park, logs a vehicle’s number plate on entry and exit and will issue a ticket if the stay exceeds 90 minutes.

The system had apparently recorded Mr Hodge driving into the car park just after 10am on October 25 and leaving again five hours and 31 minutes later.

“I am nearly 74 years old so this is quite worrying for me and it is a very difficult thing to try to explain.

“I’ve got my own private parking space outside my house which is about two minutes away so there is no reason why I would park at Aldi for over five hours.

Mr Hodge’s refusal to pay has meant his fine increased to £70.

“Why should I be worrying and going through all this when I’m not in the wrong?

“If I had done this I would pay up but I have done nothing wrong and so I have no intention of paying anything.”

Shortly before the Mercury went to press, Mr Hodge received a letter from Parking Eye telling him that his parking fine had now been cancelled.

On reading the letter, he said: “I’ve been put through a lot of unnecessary stress and I don’t think I will go to shop there again so Aldi have lost a loyal customer because of this.”

In a statement, Parking Eye acknowledged that Mr Hodge had been wrongly hit with a parking fine.

A spokesperson said: “We operate an industry-leading audited appeals process as detailed on the parking charge notice and encourage individuals to appeal if they feel there are extenuating circumstances.

“We can confirm on this occasion our client requested that this charge is cancelled.”