The daughter of a lifelong Andover man who needs constant medication and care has railed against a private parking firm who charged her family for delivering it to him.

Laurien Griffiths’ brother-in-law, Ash, was charged £60 for dropping off medical supplies at the home for her father, a 68-year-old Covid survivor. The parking firm, One Parking Solutions, subsequently agreed to waive the charge but added an admin fee of £50 plus VAT for doing so – also £60.

Laurien told the Advertiser: “It’s horrible. I hate to think that if next time he’s fallen or something, and someone has to go there, that they get a £60 ticket again.”

One Parking Solutions did not respond to the Advertiser’s request for comment.

The incident occurred on the afternoon of April 17, when the family needed to drop off their dad’s morphine medication.

“My dad is 68 but he’s not in the greatest of health,” Laurien said. “He had coronavirus a couple of months ago and is very poorly and can’t get around his house. He needs his medication three times a day.”

Normally, Laurien and her sister do this, as they have parking passes for the site. But with Laurien having injured her arm, and her sister unavailable, her brother-in-law Ash needed to drop off the medication instead.

“He put a note in the car about caring with my dad’s address on it,” Laurien said. “He got to see my dad, sorted my dad out and cared for him, then came out and saw a yellow ticket.

“We know of course that you need a ticket and we understand that, because people park there to go into town, so we understood that but we needed to get there. It’s unbelievable really.

She added: “They’re charging my dad to live. If someone wasn’t there, he wouldn’t be in a great situation because he needs food with his medication as well.”

Ash was there for around 20 minutes, giving the medication and preparing the food that needs to be taken alongside it. He appealed the fine, while Laurien contacted Kit Malthouse MP, the Citizens Advice Bureau and her father’s carer, Jill Beech, at Aster, to help fight the charge.

“She was on the case and Aster contacted One Parking Solutions and they agreed that the car shouldn’t have been there but the ticket will be revoked due to it being a medical emergency,” Laurien said.

“Then they said there was an admin fee of £50 plus VAT, which was the same price as the ticket!”

Aster then had to pass on the admin fee to her father’s account, but Laurien says that she doesn’t blame them, directing her ire at One Parking Solutions.

“It feels like they’re trying to get this one way or another, and we can’t appeal an admin fee,” she said. “They’ve got us both ways really.”

She continued: “I think if we end up having to pay it, we end up having to pay it. I don’t want to but this is disgusting really. We have coronavirus nurses coming out at the moment and doing jabs, are they going to be treated the same?”

Laurien said members of her family were now “scared” to deliver shopping to her dad in case they get given a ticket again, putting extra strain on her and her sister.

However, since being contacted by the Advertiser, Laurien said that One Parking Solutions have now agreed to take the admin fee away.

“It’s a winner for us,” she said. However, she added that she still wanted to highlight the issue, in case it affected other residents with vulnerable family members.

A spokesperson for Aster said: "While parking restrictions are needed at Threadneedle House, we felt that in this case the fine imposed was not proportionate, and have asked One Parking to waiver the fees.

"This is an exceptional case and we’d advise residents and visitors who park in the area to follow the guidelines to avoid receiving a fine."

One Parking Solutions were contacted for comment.