EARLYbirds parking outside a new Dorchester store are warning other motorists after falling foul of the parking enforcement measures in place.

Derek Jackson from Weymouth said he was in the car park outside The Range for just 11 minutes early one morning – completely unaware of the new store’s opening times – and received a parking charge notice for £60 for his trouble.

Dorchester resident Kevin Thorne was also issued with a notice after he arrived at the store 15 minutes before it opened.

The Range opened in March at the site of the former Focus DIY store in Great Western Road.

The parking is monitored by ParkingEye car park management and uses automatic number plate recognition.

The company has now agreed to cancel both fines as it says it is satisfied both were genuine customers at the store.

Mr Jackson, 74, said he was unsure of the opening times of the new store so he went up just before 8am. He said he spoke to a member of staff who was outside and discovered it was not open until 9am.

After a few minutes of waiting he decided it was not worth hanging around for nearly an hour and drove off.

Days later he received the parking charge notice with a fine of £60 if paid within 13 days, and if he failed to pay the fine early he would have to pay a fine of £90 plus an administration charge of £30.

He said: “I was shocked, I did genuinely go round to have a look and see what they had.

“I was in and out in 11 minutes, I wasn’t exactly parking to go and do anything else.”

Mr Jackson said he contacted ParkingEye to complain but still had not heard anything four weeks later.

He said he knew there were signs up in the car park advising drivers of when they could park there but did not take much notice of them because he was genuinely attempting to visit the store.

Mr Thorne, who received a notice after arriving at 8.45am one morning and waiting along with others for the store to open, said: “After Dorchester lost Focus DIY we were all looking forward to The Range coming to town.

“But if this company carries on treating the good people of Dorchester like this I am afraid that The Range will be soon losing some of its local customers.”

FINES QUASHED FOLLOWING APPEAL

A SPOKESMAN for the car park management firm said there was a large amount of signage warning motorists about the restrictions on parking outside the store out of hours.

However, ParkingEye said the system was not intended to catch out the likes of Mr Jackson and Mr Thorne, rather it was targeted people abusing the car park to use other facilities and as a result their fines had been quashed.

The spokesman said: “ParkingEye were brought into manage the car park at the Range as there was a serious problem of people parking there but using other facilities, including the station. “This parking abuse was preventing genuine shoppers visiting the Range.

“There are 13 signs across the car park that clearly highlight the terms and conditions of use, including the fact that parking is not allowed outside the opening hours of the Range.

“Both Mr Jackson and Mr Thorne had parked out of hours. “However both of them have followed our audited appeals process and have proved that they were genuine shoppers, so we were happy to cancel both charges.”