Being 10 minutes early to a car park has left a motorist with a potential court battle.

Huddersfield resident Helen Taylor is the latest person to reveal she has received a parking ticket at the St George’s Quarter car park behind Huddersfield Railway Station.

The car park on waste ground off Fitzwilliam Street has no barriers or ticket machines.

People using the site must pay a member of staff, who is not always present.

Yet the car park is left open when there is no-one there, prompting many to use it outside its opening hours.

More than a dozen Huddersfield Town fans were slapped with tickets last May after parking up for the club’s victory parade when there was no attendant to take their money.

Now Mrs Taylor says she was hit with a fine in similar circumstances more than a year ago.

One day in September 2016 she arrived at 6.20am to catch a 6.30am train to London and found there was no member of staff there to take payment.

Warning sign at the St George's private car park, Huddersfield
Warning sign at the St George's private car park, Huddersfield

Without time to move on she parked anyway, having successfully paid afterwards on previous occasions.

But this time she was hit with a fine.

More than a year on she is still fighting Preston-based ES Parking Enforcement Ltd – the firm who ran the site at the time.

The car park was bought by Halifax firm, HX Car Park Management, in late 2016.

Through solicitors Gladstones, ES Parking Enforcement has now sent her a legal warning, ordering her to pay £160 or face potential court action.

The demand includes a £60 fee for legal costs.

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Mrs Taylor said: “I use this site two or three times a week and the man is usually there from 6.30am.

“I had to get the 6.30 train to London and one of the guys there knows me and let’s me pay when I come back.

“There’s no barriers to stop you entering, no ticket machine and nowhere to post money through in their cabin so what are you supposed to do?

“They seem to pick and choose who they give fines to as I’ve seen plenty of cars with no ticket that are ignored.”

The Examiner rang ES Parking Enforcement but it has made no comment.

Earlier this year HX Car Parking Management agreed to waive fines given to Town fans as a “gesture of goodwill”.