Complaints from angry gym users has prompted Hemel Hempstead’s MP to step in over the controversial new parking management scheme at the town’s Sportspace.
Mike Penning has written to the charity-run leisure centre requesting that the system, introduced to stop shoppers and commuters from parking there, be looked at again.
It comes after gym goers were landed with fines of up to £150. The politician even admits that he almost fell foul of the scheme, which requires motorist to input their registration number into a computer upon entering the Park Road gym. He only dodged a fine because a friend pointed out the new system.
“If I can make that mistake with the knowledge I have of what is going on in the area then it is very easy for my constituents to make the same mistake,” said Mr Penning. “I didn’t notice the signs.”
Also falling foul of the system is 76-year-old Margaret Sinclair, a gym member who was attending to take part in a health walk as part of recuperation following surgery for stomach cancer.
She too was not aware of the registration requirement. Her son David Sinclair, a legal consultant, said: “She is quite understandably distressed.”
Mr Penning said: “I’m hugely supportive of Sportspace as an organisation but I think, just on this one, it needs tweaking.
“We need to be encouraging people to go to Sportspace and not in any way deterring them.”