![\"Sophie](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/sophie-culf-parked-at-a-site-near-ecclesall-road-whilst-having-her-hair-done-at-carla-hackett-s-salo.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nA mother from Sheffield has successfully challenged a parking fine of \u00a3170 that she received following a visit to a hairdressing salon in Banner Cross. <\/p>\n
The penalty arose from problems with an electronic permit system that local businesses subscribe to for \u00a3150 per year.<\/p>\n
Sophie Culf parked at a site near Ecclesall Road whilst having her hair done at Carla Hackett’s salon. <\/p>\n
The location serves nine businesses that have paid for the e-permit service, which should allow their customers to park without charge.<\/p>\n
However, technical difficulties prevented the salon from registering her vehicle on the system during her visit.<\/p>\n
Following her visit, Sophie Culf was sent a parking charge notice for \u00a3100 from Vehicle Control Services for “not being a valid permit holder”. <\/p>\n
The situation escalated when DBL Solicitors, representing VCS, increased their demand to \u00a3170 and warned of potential debt collection proceedings, legal action and a County Court Judgement.<\/p>\n
After making her case public, VCS withdrew the charge, acknowledging her visit was “genuine”. <\/p>\n
Sophie Culf parked at a site near Ecclesall Road whilst having her hair done at Carla Hackett’s salon<\/p>\n
| <\/p>\n
GOOGLE STREET VIEW<\/p>\n
The company initially alleged that salon owner Carla had incorrectly entered the registration details, but Carla disputed this claim, maintaining the system had malfunctioned for two days. <\/p>\n
Documentation seen by local outlets revealed VCS was arranging new access credentials for her following the June incident.<\/p>\n
Sophie, who lives in Lowedges, expressed relief that the legal threats had been withdrawn but dismissed VCS’s explanation as “utter rubbish”. <\/p>\n
She told The Star: “We have the email that they were looking into the fault. They are trying to pass the blame on to the salon owner rather than taking accountability.”<\/p>\n
Lynda Eagan, who advocates against VCS and its parent company Excel Parking, assisted Sophie with her case. <\/p>\n
She emphasised that customers bear no responsibility in these situations, explaining: “The hairdresser is the only person who can enter the VRM (registration number). <\/p>\n
“The system locked her out, so she kept emailing VCS to get her back in again. Meanwhile, they are issuing PCNs to her customers.”<\/p>\n
Eagan outlined the system’s fundamental flaws, noting that businesses paying for the service should have the ability to cancel their customers’ penalties. <\/p>\n
She explained: “If the businesses here are paying for this service then they should be able to get their customers’ PCNs cancelled. The very last person responsible here is the customer.”<\/p>\n
The e-permit technology relies on tablet terminals for registration entry, but offers minimal confirmation.<\/p>\n
“But the big problem is that you have to take it on trust that the system is working and you only get a message on screen to say it has been recorded. There’s no paper ticket, no SMS message, no email,” Eagan said. “We would always advise taking a photo of the confirmation screen.”<\/p>\n
Paul Hood, who runs Fellas hairdressers nearby, described the website as a “shambles” and disclosed he has covered parking penalties exceeding \u00a31,000 for his clients to preserve business relationships.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/the-mother-eventually-had-her-fine-cancelled.jpg\")
The mother eventually had her fine cancelled<\/p>\n
| <\/p>\n
GETTY<\/p>\n
A spokesman for VCS said the site is for the \u201cexclusive use of e-permit holders only\u201d and the adjoining salon (Carla Hackett) has an online portal to create them for customers.<\/p>\n
They added: \u201cDespite claims, the portal was not working on the day in question, we can confirm it was working.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe salon e-permit portal was used to enter a vehicle registration that resembled Miss Wilson’s vehicle, but did not match.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are however satisfied that Miss Wilson\u2019s visit to the site was genuine and have withdrawn the charge.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A mother from Sheffield has successfully challenged a parking fine of \u00a3170 that she received following a visit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":585858,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8817],"tags":[113921,748,346,393,4884,388,12,2975,512,1620,16,15,2302],"class_list":{"0":"post-585857","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sheffield","8":"tag-across-the-uk","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-cars","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-lifestyle","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-parking","16":"tag-sgg","17":"tag-sheffield","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom","20":"tag-yorkshire"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115590911951649762","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=585857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/585858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=585857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=585857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=585857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}