November 11th 2023.
Things have been tough for Sandie Hickman lately. After 16 years of unwavering loyalty to Wilko, she was one of thousands of employees in the UK who lost their job when the business collapsed. But, if that wasn't bad enough, Sandie is now being pursued for parking fines!
The 57-year-old used to park in the nearby Abbey Walk car park where an agreement was in place between Wilko and Vehicle Control Service (VCS) to allow workers to stay longer than the two-hour limit. When fines were previously issued against her, Sandie had the support of Wilko and the GMB Union to fight the charges.
However, since Wilko slipped into administration, Sandie has been chased for the fines directly and left feeling vulnerable, alone and even physically ill at the threat of court action. To make matters worse, despite following the Wilko protocol and consulting with her colleagues, Sandie was issued with a further 14 fines for parking at her workplace between April and June 2022.
The letter Sandie had been dreading landed on her doormat in February this year - VCS said they were taking her to court. Wilko requested that Sandie hand over all 15 fines to her manager but she kept receiving more letters of demand after doing so. Fearing the vehicle change was the reason behind the constant fines, Sandie consulted with her colleagues who told her they had also been issued penalty notices through the same period of time.
Wilko’s HR department said they ‘did not want their team member to be stressed’, so they stepped in during the 28-day period and fully paid off the two fines before Sandie was able to defend herself in court.
Since Wilko went into administration in August 2023, Sandie has been left to battle the parking fines on her own. She contacted Wilko administrators PWC for help, who in turn asked Sandie to contact VCS for the full details of all the fines against her that are held on their system. However, VCS confirmed there were 12 other fines on the system but said that due to GDPR requirements, her request could take up to a month to fulfil.
To Sandie’s frustration, she has since found out that at least five other colleagues facing similar fines have had theirs waived by VCS, leaving her feeling like she is being singled out. Sandie turned to her local MP Keir Mather who’s office said he was yet to be able to speak to VCS directly about the matter.
A representative from Vehicle Control Services Ltd said: ‘The Abbey Walk Retail Park Car Park has a maximum stay period of 2 hours which is monitored by ANPR cameras. An agreement exists with our client to exempt certain car park users from the maximum stay, on the condition that the vehicle registration mark is provided in line with an agreed process.’
Sandie is now desperately trying to make the fines go away. She said: ‘Knowing that there are 12 more fines to come through and that I might keep having to go through this over and over makes me feel ill. I just can’t understand how they can cancel other people’s fines but not mine, it feels like VCS is singling me out for some reason. I just want them to see sense, to have some compassion and think about how this is affecting me.’
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