WITH the soaring costs of fuel, road tax and parking, motorists have it pretty tough these days.

So being slapped with a £176 parking ticket, just for dropping someone off in the town centre, certainly doesn't help.

But are parking companies just being over zealous, or is it time for a crackdown on people parking illegally?

Andrew Hegerty was stunned to receive a parking ticket after stopping for a few minutes in a service area at the back of Falkland Square, Poole, to drop off his partner.

The carer, from Creekmoor, says he was told by AS Securi-T the £176 charge would be reduced to "just" £100 if he paid within 14 days.

He's not alone. Gill Cryer, from Bristol, contacted the Echo to complain about a £176 ticket she received when she stopped at Wimborne's Riverside Industrial Estate to re-programme her sat nav and ask for directions.

It's a similar story in Ferndown, where regulars at the White Heather pub were shocked to receive parking tickets from NuPark Car Parks Ltd.

The company was brought in by landlady Christine Shade to stop people parking and not visiting the pub.

But, as NuPark uses automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) technology to record any vehicle crossing into the car park, many customers received £75 tickets after simply forgetting to register their vehicle details at the bar or for just turning around in the car park.

One customer was landed with a staggering 42 tickets while a van driver is thought to have received 28.

Mrs Shade has now cancelled more than 800 tickets and the company now has a time delay programmed into its system to allow vehicles to turn.

There have also been problems at the Lyndon Hotel in Bournemouth.

Ashley Miller, chairman of Bournemouth Taxi and Private Hire Joint Committee, said NuPark had issued some 50 tickets to cabbies in just three weeks, despite them handing in their registration details.

He added: "We are fed up to the back teeth with it.

"There are about 1,200 Hackney and private hire drivers in the town and we are advising them all to boycott this hotel."

Andy Cottrell, a partner at NuPark, admitted there were "problems" at Lyndon Court, where there had been a number of complaints.

But he added: "As far as I'm concerned, these tickets are going to be cancelled and should never have been raised."

Despite the high number of complaints, Andy was adamant that, far from being over the top, the company was one of the fairest around.

"At the White Heather, if you drive in, wait ten minutes in the car park, then go in and write down your registration details, some point during the next hour your details would be put into the computer system and that would automatically cancel the ticket.

"The biggest problem was people not remembering their registration. A lot of them just didn't do it. We've had people from all over the country saying they were a patron and we've cancelled the tickets.

"We've only issued four tickets at the pub in the last week. That means it works."

A spokeswoman for the DVLA said the organisation does not, and cannot, regulate any aspect of private car parking enforcement companies and therefore has no influence over the length of time allowed to park or the value of the charges imposed.Despite the NuPark charge escalating to £95 if not paid, Andy insisted the ANPR system was fairer than using a clamping company, as those in receipt of tickets had 28 days to either pay up or register an objection.

He added that unpaid tickets did escalate to £95, but that this only happened after two reminders had been sent out.

"I'm not after crippling people," he said.

"The one at Falkland Square they've got something like £150 to pay within 14 days. Now that's harsh."

AS Securi-T declined to comment when contacted by the Echo, but those who had received tickets agreed the fine was excessive.

John Griffiths stumped up £100 when he received a ticket while waiting for someone to pull out of a parking space in the service area at the back of Falkland Square in Poole.

"They apparently took a photo, but nobody had the decency to come over and say you can't park there," he said.

"I paid the ticket because they said if I didn't pay it in 14 days it would go up from £100 to £176, but now I'm trying to get a refund.

"It's out of order.

"People have got enough financial issues at the moment without having to worry about things like this."