Driver brands leisure centre parking system ‘grossly unfair’

A driver in Maidenhead has questioned ‘grossly unfair’ Royal Borough parking arrangements with a payment platform that he believes leaves residents ‘ripped off’.

The Royal Borough uses the RingGo app to charge people for using its car parks, a digital or by-phone system.

In some of these, including both Braywick and Windsor leisure centres, charges are determined by time parked.

Parkers must begin their timer upon parking and stop it upon leaving, after which RingGo will charge for the amount of time spent in the car park.

The scheme has attracted criticism in the past as some drivers claim it is easy to forget to stop the timer.

In 2022, a Windsor man said he felt ‘fleeced’ after he was distracted and ended up paying 10 times as much as he should have.

Now this problem has reared its head again, with driver James Richards facing the same thing in Maidenhead in August.

He parked for an hour, forgot to stop the timer and was charged £10.

He also found that, unbeknownst to him, he did the same thing in April and was charged £14 instead of £1.70.

James said RingGo ‘wash their hands of responsibility’, saying only the Royal Borough can authorise a refund. But that avenue, too, was closed.

He said that when he contacted the Royal Borough’s parking team, he was told the user needs to prove he left the car park, ideally using video evidence.

James was refused a refund over his error, and this has raised concerns for him over the ethics of the practice and motivation behind it.

When someone overpays for parking using RingGo, the parking revenue goes to whoever owns or manages the car park – in this case, the local authority – not RingGo.

“I think the council knowingly profits from it,” James said. “I think this practice is grossly unfair, and that people like me are being ripped off.”

The disgruntled driver sent a Freedom of Information request to the Royal Borough, trying to determine how much this is happening.

He asked how much money the council has collected in revenue via RingGo, and discovered that it has gone up steadily for the past few years, from about £2.2million in 2021/22, to £3.3milion in 2022/23, and £3.9million in 2023/24.

James also asked about complaints and found that there have been a handful (between six and nine) each year.

For each year, about half of these complaints were regarding overpayment from failing to stop the RingGo parking session in time.

He asked about refunds, too – but the FOI said the majority of refunds are handled directly by RingGo and ‘do not relate to the formal and informal complaints received [by the Royal Borough].’

“I think the practice is ethically wrong,” said James.

“I think the process for seeking reimbursement is inadequate and unfair, and RBWM is ripping off drivers and getting away with it.”

A spokesperson for RingGo said its start/stop functionality reduces the likelihood of motorists overpaying for their parking session as they only pay for the exact amount of time they need.

A statement said: “In cases where a customer has forgotten to stop their session – RingGo is unable to determine when the customer has left the parking space and must rely on the parking operator (in this case the local authority) to decide what the appropriate course of action to take regarding a refund is.”

The company said it collects parking fees on behalf of the parking operator, the Royal Borough, and decisions regarding refunds are the responsibility of the council.

A spokesperson for the Royal Borough said: “Car parks in the Royal Borough use a start/stop parking system which allows residents and visitors to stay in the area without having to decide the length of their stay up front.

“This is advertised in the car park and users can add a reminder through the RingGo app to ensure they stop their session.

“The vast majority of car park users enjoy quick and seamless parking with only 10 complaints about the system in the last year."