Parking Eye Management of Aldi/Local Gym

pdotk

Hello all and good evening,

First off, hello to all. I have read a lot on this forum and all the stickies and have to say that there is such a wealth of information to be learnt, it's amazing! I haven't really gotten into any bother with PPC for years and note that the usual bin the letters don't work any more.

I haven't had an issue just yet, but would like clarification on a certain Parking Eye setup with a local Aldi. I'm not sure how much information I should divulge so I will keep it to the bare minimum.

At my local Aldi (I don't shop there), their car park is monitored by Parking Eye by two cameras at the entrance/exit of the car park. A new gym has opened up next door to the Aldi and Aldi have given permission to the gym for their customers to use the car park. I am assuming that the car park is owned by Aldi. On the gym's website and inside the gym itself it says that customers can use the car park for 1.5 hours free of charge. Aldi customers however, can only use it for 1 hour. I found this very strange and upon viewing the gym I asked the manager there how this could be the case. He said that the gym members were allowed 1.5 hours in the car park but the Aldi customers were only allowed 1 hour as this was what they had negotiated and the way it worked is that the cameras could pick up were the customer was going, either into the gym or into the Aldi. There are only two cameras positioned at the entrance/exit, both front facing. They cannot pick up after you have entered/exited where you've parked your car and where you've gone off to. In addition, I've checked Parking Eye's signage in the car park. Their signage clearly states that parking is free for only up to one hour.

So automatically, there is a discrepancy. Gym customers definitely are allowed up to 1.5 hours and it even says so on their website. The signage is incorrect and non compliant.

So it leaves me thinking, where does one stand if they leave their car there? To my mind, it is indistinguishable where somebody has gone after they've parked their car so does that automatically mean that everyone can have 1.5 hours? Also, if their signage clearly states 1 hour, then their signage is non compliant and they should never be able to penalize anyone who overstays 1 hour?

My other gripe is that my workouts can range anything from just over an hour up to 2 hours (bearing in mind that the workout portion can only be say just over an hour but by the time I shower, get changed etc etc and get to the car, this further adds to the time I will spend in the gym). So as a paying gym member, I don't see why a workout should be compromised due to a silly parking restriction. I don't plan to drive there anyway as I will cycle there but there will be odd occasions where I will want to avoid torrential rain but can't help thinking that I'll always be hurried.

Just want people's thoughts and how this setup could possibly work, having supposedly 2 time limits yet signage shows something else.

Cheers!

Redx

the only method I can think of is where the gym members will put their reg number into a terminal inside the gym itself, this method is employed in cinemas and bingo halls etc so could be employed here too

pdotk

I will have a look when I go there tomorrow. It does seem a bit of an odd setup. One entrance/exit, a pair of front facing cameras, you can use the gym for 1.5 hours and Aldi for only 1 hour, signs say maximum period of parking allowed only 1 hour.

Redx

its also strange as aldi tend to have 1.5 hours if they can and maybe 2 hours where they cant (like planning permissions)

my local lidl is 1.5 hours, 1 hour seems stupid to me