A BLUE Badge holder has successfully challenged a £90 car parking charge after a visit to an Andover supermarket.

John Hitchings, a self-proclaimed ‘crippled 86-yearold’, appealed the car parking charge notice (PCN) after he visited Lidl on Tuesday, July 26.

Lidl introduced a new car parking policy in March.

A month later a new system allowed customers 90 minutes of free parking after having their shopping receipt scanned before leaving the store.

He said that he had not used the car park since the changes.

After he had parked, he said he noticed the sign and understood it to mean he had 90 minutes of free parking.

Mr Hitchings shopped only in Lidl and left the car park one hour and four minutes later.

He received the PCN shortly afterwards from car parking management company Athena ANPR.

Mr Hitchings said: “I was very angry, I can tell you it was a surprise. When I opened it I exploded.”

His main issue with the scheme is that the signs do not easily explain the new policy.

Mr Hitchings added: “It wasn’t very clear what I had to do, it may have said that but it wasn’t very clear.”

“I didn’t do that and I didn’t know I had to do that, and the cashier didn’t tell me.”

Athena have since withdrawn their invoice, which pleased Mr Hitchings although he has vowed to never to return to the store.

An Athena spokesperson said: “There are 20 signs within this 90 space car park indicating controls are in place.

“There is also a five-metre banner outside advising the public. There are posters also on this site and every till also has a card on it reminding people to use the system.

“Signs were in place for one month informing the public before we actually activated the system and 8,000 leaflets were distributed at the store also.

“Mr Hitchings did not unfortunately register his vehicle, but on receipt of the charge he wrote to us and we requested a copy of his Blue Badge, as is normal.

“We received that from him and cancelled the charge on the same day we received it and also informed him of this by phone.

“We have also spoken with Mr Hitchings today and he was very happy with the resolution of this.

“There are many customers now able to park at Lidl who previously couldn’t, because those spaces were taken by people collecting from the local bus stop or just going into the town without shopping there. We do need to help those people too as they deserve to be able to use the car park and to do their shopping easily.”