Fury as parking firm fines dozens of apartment block residents £20,000 for leaving their cars in their OWN spaces

More than 100 Salford drivers say up to 200 tickets issued in less than a month
Each one carries a £100 charge and some residents' unpaid fines are at £2,000
Bosses only gave residents one working day's notice to display their permits
Residents can be fined if they are forced to park in a space other than theirs
Drivers are refusing to pay their fines, with one ignoring more than 20 penalties

By Sebastian Murphy-bates For Mailonline

Published: 14:43 GMT, 2 December 2017 | Updated: 17:50 GMT, 2 December 2017

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More than 100 drivers who claim they have been fined about £20,000 for parking in their own spaces are refusing to pay and battling to get them cancelled.

Residents living at the Broadway Complex in Salford Quays, Greater Manchester, say private parking enforcers Vehicle Control Services (VCS) has issued up to 200 tickets since it launched its scheme less than a month ago.

Some have racked up unpaid fines of £2,000 on the tickets, which carry an initial charge of £100 charge, reducing to £60 if paid within 14 days. In all, they estimate £20,000 of tickets have been issued.

More than 100 drivers say Vehicle Control Services has issued £20,000 worth of fines since it started operating less than a month ago

Most fines have landed on cars belonging to apartment owners or renters parked in the space allotted to them in their contracts, but have not been displaying the new permits which VCS demand they use.

The firm posted warning letters and permits through residents' mailboxes just one working day before the launch, with many drivers saying they were away, didn't receive the letter or never got a permit.

Because the permit is specific to each parking space, residents can even be liable for a fine if someone parks in their space and they park elsewhere.

Drivers are refusing to pay up after the implementation of the unpopular parking scheme, meaning some have racked up fines of £2,000

Others have been ticketed after refusing to adhere to the unpopular permit scheme, which residents claim they never asked for and were not consulted about.

Lambert Smith Hampton, which manages the 160 apartments in the complex, contracted VCS.

Jeff Smart, a 42-year-old media worker, led his neighbours in refusing to pay the fines and are refusing to give up until their fines are revoked and the firm is cut loose.

Staff members have been accused of rudeness toward residents and even parking in their spaces while issuing the fines

Mr Smart has ignored more than 20 fines and says he's prepared for legal action.

'We're fighting this as a group and will not be paying VCS. We will fight this all the way to the courts if we have to,' he said.

'Our management have put in place a stupid parking scheme to solve a minor and rare problem of people parking in our spaces that nobody minded that much.

'We weren't consulted, it was doomed to fail.

'The spirit of the blitz is alive and well - we have a common goal and a common enemy - both the management who imposed this scheme without fair warning and the parking company VCS.

The tickets have been handed to visiting relatives whose family have given them permission to park in the space

'Hopefully it will encourage other residential groups to fight for their rights when they find themselves trampled underfoot.'

The scheme works on the basis that if a car doesn't have a permit for the space in which it is parked, it gets a ticket, meaning visiting relatives given permission by their hosts to use the space have been hit by fines.

Mr Smart says staff from the firm have not only been rude to residents, but parked in their spaces while handing out tickets.

More than 100 residents have signed a petition against the parking scheme after one car was slapped with a fine despite being broken down with a written apology displayed in its window.

This car received a fine after it broke down and its driver left an apologetic note explaining the situation to parking enforcers

Among them is a driver who was on holiday in India when it launched and returned to find six tickets on his car.

Disgruntled drivers held talks with Lambert Smith Hampton, who they accused of doing nothing despite promising action.

After a slew of complaints, VCS offered to reduce fines to £20 - but Mr Smart claims this is just a way of getting people to pay up and accept blame.

The vehicle was left in the space after it broke down there and received a fine from VCS, who only gave residents one working day's notice about the new scheme

A Lambert Smith Hampton spokesman said: 'We introduced permits to improve parking for local residents however we have been informed they prefer the previous permit-free system.

'With that in mind we are in the process of cancelling the parking control and all issued tickets.'

When contacted, a VCS telephone operator refused to pass the call to a manager and said the communications department did not have a telephone number.