THE landlady who brought in a company to issue £75 parking charges in her car park has now cancelled more than 800 tickets.

Christine and William Shade of the White Heather pub on Ringwood Road, Ferndown, employed NuPark Car Parks Ltd after the car park was full but the pub was not.

The first wave of tickets posted out in July caused protests from motorists who said they had been turning around.

Mrs and Mrs Shade cancelled 332 tickets, and offered free coffee and cake to customers waiting to query parking tickets.

A bottle of whisky offered to the person with the most cancelled tickets was won by a pub regular who incorrectly wrote her number plate down.

Mrs Shade said she is pleased with how the system is working, and business has soared as people querying tickets have returned as customers.

"It was a settling-in period. It was not our intention to cause upset. Now people are more aware of it," she said.

She also praised Andy Cottrell of NuPark for his work dealing with customers.

NuPark uses automatic number plate recognition technology.

Tickets are posted to registered keepers of any vehicle in the car park unless the registration number has been given at the bar.

There are 16 warning signs and the camera posts are yellow.

Mrs Shade, who is also chairman of Ferndown's Chamber of Commerce, said the pub had extended the time delay to ensure anyone turning around was not caught out, and had closed the rear gate so it could scrap the "no thoroughfare" rule.

Mrs Shade said anyone with a disputed ticket should contact her in writing with full details.

Ferndown mayor Cllr Lesley Dedman said she was approaching the Dorset Area Health Authority to see if its car park could be used by Saturday shoppers.