LOYAL customers Cecil and Sarah Withers who were outraged when they got a parking ticket from Morrisons in Devizes are feeling vindicated for taking the store to task.

The couple from Chirton, near Devizes were furious when they got a ticket in the post after overstaying the two hour maximum parking time.

Mr Withers, 69, paid but after his complaint was taken up by the Gazette he has now received an apology and had his fine money returned.

He said: "I have been reimbursed by Morrisons for the parking fine and if I need to stay longer in future I was told to go to the customer service desk."

The Gazette story on Mr and Mrs Withers sparked a number of on-line comments about the parking system run for the supermarket by Parking Eye. A number of other customers said they had been caught out by the time limit especially when using the cafe.

Others took to Facebook to claim that the fines imposed by Parking Eye are not enforceable and should just be ignored. But legal advice is that private companies can issue parking tickets and may call them Parking Charge Notices, but they are not the same as a Penalty Charge Notice.

The advice from MoneySavingExpert. com is: "If you get a ticket from a private parking firm which you believe is unfair, don't just pay it.

Trying to reclaim cash already paid isn't easy, so it's far easier to dispute it before paying it.

"If the car park operator wants to force you to pay, they will need to take you to the civil court, which is costly and time-consuming."

But Mr Withers, like many others, paid up straight away as he wanted to reduce the fine from £85 to £50. He called for the system to be changed and said the two hour limit was not long enough for those doing a big shop and going to the cafe.

At the time Morrisons manager Chris Nicholas said: "In these situations where people have used the shop and been in the café we can waive the fine.

"The two-hour limit was brought in to stop people who just use us to park all day. We wanted to make it easier for our customers to be able to get spaces.

"I have brought up with head office about the time limit being extended but it was decided that two hours should be sufficient to do a shop."

He said that the fine money went to Parking Eye.