Confusion over station parking tickets continues

This drawing shows what highway is adopted and what highway is unadopted around Castleton Station. The red part is the station car park

Questions surrounding the issuing of parking tickets at Castleton Train Station last week are still being asked.

Fourteen tickets were issued to cars parked on Station Approach on the grounds that they were not in a marked bay, or were causing an obstruction.

Northern Rail, who issued the tickets, responded to complaints about the signs on the car park after it was suggested they weren’t clear; they said they would review them.

http://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/55434/anger-as-14-receive-parking-tickets-at-train-station

Since the initial ticket issuing, residents and Councillors have wrote to complain.

http://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/55470/calls-to-review-customer-care-approach-following-station-parking-tickets

Further investigations found that the car park is an unadopted highway and doesn’t have any Traffic Regulation Orders on it.

However, Northern Rail, maintain that they can issue parking tickets on the station car park.

A Northern Rail Spokesperson said: "Station Approach is within our lease area and that's why the land is an unadopted highway by the Council.

“We do not use Road Traffic Act Regulations but are using Railway Bylaws to prevent parking and obstruction of this roadway."

Castleton Councillor, Ted Flynn, said he thinks it is “outrageous” that Northern Rail are penalising their customers. He is also questioning what obstructions the vehicles were causing.

“It is ridiculous,” he said: “People are paying over £100 a year to travel to work in Manchester by train and they are being penalised.

"How would people feel if they had to pay for parking down at Tesco or Asda?

“People are now walking to the station instead.”

A spokesman for the Friends of Castleton Station, said: “Whilst agreeing that parking at Castleton Station is a problem, especially with some drivers parking on the pavements, it surely would have been better if Northern Rail had issued a warning for a week so regular train travelers could have been warned of the change in practice.

"The vacant Whipp and Bourne site could be made suitable for parking whilst the increase in usage due to the mess at Rochdale is sorted out."