‘An expensive pizza’: Customer stung with £100 charge despite valid ticket
A Birmingham man has spoken of his anger after receiving a £100 parking fine during a brief visit to collect a pizza, despite his wife paying for a valid parking ticket.
Shak Khan, 56, from Great Barr, visited the Pizza Hut branch on Newton Road in the Scott Arms area on Thursday, November 13, shortly before 3.30pm. He parked with his wife in Bromford Walk, the privately-owned side road adjacent to the restaurant.
The Instant Fine: A System 'Set Up to Fail'
Mr Khan went into the shop to get his pizza while his wife remained in the car. Spotting the cameras and signs, she promptly used her phone to pay for an hour of parking via the PopPay Plus app, which is accessed by scanning a QR code on site.
To their horror, days later on Tuesday, November 18, they received a £100 Penalty Charge Notice in the post. The couple had been caught by ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) cameras which, according to Mr Khan, do not provide any grace period for drivers to make a payment.
"The way it’s been set up, they set you up to fail," Mr Khan told BirminghamLive. "I even paid for the ticket but still got a fine. You’re being penalised for nothing."
A Notorious Road and a Profitable Scheme
This is not an isolated incident. Bromford Walk has gained a reputation locally as a hotspot for parking fines. The road is not owned by Pizza Hut but is private land. It appeared on the property auction site Bond Wolfe in 2019 with a guide price of just £5,000.
At the time, the sales particulars revealed a telling detail: "The parking provider will pay the owner £10 for every fine issued and paid on the site parking." Although the land went unsold, this clause highlights the revenue model at play.
Other locals have reported similar experiences on social media. Nicola Decota said her fine escalated to over £160 after missing the first letter. Beth Martin received a £60 fine for parking for "a couple minutes," and Javaid Latif was also charged despite paying.
Fighting Back Against the 'Sneaky' Charges
Shak Khan, who described the ordeal as getting "more than he could stomach," has no intention of paying the charge. He believes local businesses are suffering as a result of the aggressive enforcement and has expressed surprise that Pizza Hut has not argued against the system.
"People will carry on getting scammed," he warned. "Particularly those not from the area that may go there at night. It’s sneaky. They must be making a lot of money out of it. It could be Birmingham’s costliest road."
One Parking Solution Ltd, the company which operates the parking scheme on Bromford Walk, has been approached for comment by BirminghamLive but has not yet responded.
