A FAMILY were left angry and frustrated after an evening out to the cinema resulted in them receiving a £100 parking fine - for staying 19 minutes too long in a town centre parking space.

Margaret Haydock visited the Peel Centre in Blackburn with her daughter and two sisters for a family evening out to watch a film and have a meal.

But what started as a happy affair soon soured when a number of days later Ms Haydock received a £100 parking fine in the post.

Ms Haydock said: “We’d gone out all together for a nice evening.

"We went to Nando's for a meal and then we had decided to go and see Mamma Mia 2 in the Vue cinema.

“We had to wait longer than we expected to for a table and it was so busy in the restaurant we waited quite a while for our food, but we were busy chatting so we didn’t mind.”

All in all Ms Haydock and her family were in the restaurant for around two hours before they moved to the cinema to watch Mamma Mia.

Ms Haydock said: “We left the cinema having thoroughly enjoyed our evening and didn’t think anything more of it until a couple of days later when I received a fixed penalty notice in the post.

“I couldn’t believe it when I saw it was for £100. It also said that we have gone over the allowed time of four hours by 19 minutes.

“It amazes me that the people running the car park wouldn’t think that going for a meal and seeing a film would take less than four hours.

“I’m sure I am not the first person this has happened to.

“I didn’t even realise that these rules applied in this car park, it will really put me off using it again."

Ms Haydock contacted both Nandos and Vue for advice and appealed the fine with Premier Parking Ltd, the company that owns the car park, but said she will still have to pay the full amount.

She said: “I went back to the car park to have a look for any signs warning about the four hour parking limit and there were two small notices at each end of the car park which were very hard to see."

A four-hour parking limit was introduced at the Peel Centre back in June when signs first appeared in the car park.

Shoppers and centre users complained about the new system at the time, with many believing four hours wouldn’t be enough for families wanting to enjoy a day out.

The Lancashire Telegraph was unable to contact Premier Parking Limited for a comment.