Dear Editor,

I would like my concerns known regarding Countrywide Parking Management of Bournemouth.

I live in a private road in Basingstoke and the freeholder has employed this company to manage the parking due to cars being abandoned on the slope and restricting access to the driveway.

Unfortunately, rather than prosecute the owners of these cars they have decided to slap parking tickets on the residents in the gated area of which myself and my 70-year-old neighbour have fallen foul.

I returned home one night after trying to visit my elderly father in law who we had not manage to contact for a number of days only to find someone parked in my bay. I therefore parked in an unmarked bay overnight.

When I returned to my car early the following day, I found a parking ticket of which I duly appealed advising of the circumstances surrounding this which included my husband finding his father passed away in bed that day.

They were not interested and only wanted to recover their £60.00.

I subsequently spoke to my neighbour who also advised she had received a parking ticket and her car was in her own space but her pass had fallen on the floor of the car and as she had been ill she had not been out.

Again, she appealed but was turned down.

I have since taken photos of cars parked on the slope and also of workman blocking access to my parking space and have written to them again but they have not bothered to respond.

I have Googled the firm and have found I am not the only resident to have suffered at the hands of this company therefore I am writing to you to hopefully warn people of the way Countrywide Parking Management operate.

Vanessa Mercer, Winchester Road, Basingstoke