Lakes District parking fines up since Covid lockdown ended

In the three months since the national lockdown was lifted by the Prime Minister the Lake District National Park has seen visitor numbers increase as more people have been choosing staycations and day trips rather than travelling abroad, and the extra numbers have meant parking spaces have been at a premium.

From June to September 2019 a total of 77 parking fines were issued compared to June to September 2020 where 184 parking fines were issued.

The frustration has taken some to go online to complain. A level one Trip adviser contributor known simply as NFSLO from Glasgow wrote: "We went for a trip to Lake District and by chance ended up at Brockholes.

"Paid the parking for an hour, to look around and then decided that the Treetop trek looks good and gave it a try.

"They estimated two hours on top of trees, so we paid an additional ticket for 3 or even 4 hours. Left the park a few minutes later than it was paid for, as the trek took a bit longer.

"Of course, the nasty surprise came afterwards in the post. What were we supposed to do? Jump of the trek like Tarzan to put more money in the machine? Not really a customer friendly parking service.

"It’s a lovely place to visit, but try finding parking elsewhere, as it gets expensive pretty quick - not even half an hour overdue.”

Officials for the Lake District National Park explained that there has been an increase in problem parking over recent months, with so many extra people visiting the area.

To combat this a website has been set up. An official from the Lake District National Park Authority explained in a statement: “All money generated by all car park income, goes back into looking after the Lake District and we do have some donation car parks.

"We have seen an increase in problematic parking this year and have had many new visitors to the Park so we set up saferlakes.co.uk to allow people to check how busy car parks are and plan ahead."