‘Restaurant’ of no return

My wife and I live in Worcester and left in the early hours to be at Gatwick airport at 08:30am. As we were a little early, we stopped at McDonalds for a coffee at Gatwick Airport South Terminal. We were there approximately 20 minutes, I then dropped wife off at departures to catch her flight. I returned to McDonalds to have breakfast before starting my journey back to Worcester. As I had been on the road for more than 4 hours already I felt a rest break was necessary for safety. Imagine my anger when I received a parking charge notice for £50 from MET Parking Services Limited. This stated that I had returned to McDonalds in 29 minutes, which constituted a breach as its minimum period for returns is 120 minutes. I have never heard of a restaurant fining its customers for returning. I can understand its position if people are staying in the restaurant and carpark for 3-4 hours but this is something I have never come across before. Any ideas what I can do about the ‘fine’? I would also like to warn other motorists about this pitfall. The government's campaign to drive safely and take a break, doesn't seem to have registered with McDonalds. According to my parking charge notice I could be liable for the county court and bailiff.

Asked on 7 February 2009 by

Answered by Honest John
I have previously published a report describing how someone had been using the wi-fi facility at McDonalds Gatwick, fell asleep and overstayed the time. McD imposes this restriction to stop taxi drivers waiting there for customers to get through immigration and baggage collection. I think if you explain exactly what happened, and be sure to copy your letter to McD’s PR department as well as to the parking enforcement agency, they will let you off. If they don't, they will be in for some bad publicity, won't they? Meanwhile, in the absence of easily visible signage, let this be a warning to anyone thinking of returning to MacDonalds, Gatwick within 2 hours, or of outstaying their welcome there.
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