Frank Skinner fans queue for an hour after the show to pay for parking

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Frustrated Frank Skinner fans claim they were forced to stand in an underground car park queue for more than an hour waiting to pay after the council brought in a new parking system.

After a gig by the comedian in Folkestone, Kent, the new parking system caused ‘unnecessary chaos’ with queues snaking around the building.

Folkestone and Hythe District Council (FHDC) has cut three hours of free parking at Sandgate Road car park after introducing a new ‘customer-friendly’ automatic number-plate recognition (ANPR) system.

Charges now apply until 9pm every evening, but theatregoers say more ticket machines need to be installed as the current set-up is an ‘accident waiting to happen’.

Natasha Kerrigan, 51, left the hall at about 10pm following the comic’s evening show last Thursday and was forced to queue for an hour as audience members scrambled to get to the two ticket machines currently in the car park, she says.

Comedy show attendees reported having to wait up to an hour to pay for their parking after a late night gig

Comedian Frank Skinner, 67, performed at a theatre in Folkestone but fans were left frustrated by lengthy queues at a local car park

There are currently only two machines that visitors can use to pay for parking – the local council says another two have been ordered

Ms Kerrigan said: ‘I had no idea how difficult the council has made it to enjoy a night out in Folkestone.

‘The new system photographs your number plate on the way in and you pay on your return, but it’s ill-thought-out and is an accident waiting to happen.

‘There was a line of people snaking around the car park, blocking cars from leaving their spaces and generally putting people at risk of being hit. It was unnecessary chaos.’

FHDC has introduced the new ANPR system for a 12-month pilot following a parking review.

It recommends signing up for an online ‘Autobill’ account on the authority’s website to avoid the queues.

But Ms Kerrigan says a number of audience members were unaware of the new rules and she thinks the system ‘has to be changed quickly before there is an incident’.

She added: ‘The Frank Skinner crowd was a very patient group of people; many others would not have been so tolerant.

‘Lots of us tried to log into the Autobill app but with several tonnes of concrete above us, the reception was poor.’

The venue, Leas Cliff Hall, regularly welcomes big name acts, including Jimmy Carr, who brought his new show to Folkestone earlier this month.

Photographs of the car park show it is now using a new automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) system

Signs in the car park advise visitors to sign up to an online service which would enable them to skip the queue

Fellow comedians Rhod Gilbert and Al Murray will also perform new shows at the venue in May, before Graham Norton brings his tour to the town in September.

In a statement, an FHDC spokesman said the authority is ‘aware of delays caused by people queuing at the payment terminals following evening events’.

They said: ‘Two additional mini touchscreen payment terminals have been ordered and are due to be installed later this month.

‘This, along with improvements to the ANPR software, including enabling blue badge holders to register in advance, will help to reduce the wait some residents and visitors have experienced in recent weeks.

‘We would also encourage motorists to register for Autobill, an automatic parking payment system.

‘This means they’ll not need to visit a payment machine at the end of their stay at the Sandgate Road car park and can drive straight out.’

On its website, FHDC says it believes the new parking system is ‘much more efficient and customer friendly’.

It plans to roll out the system to other car parks if its 12-month trial – which started in February – is successful.

‘Our parking enforcement officers currently spend a lot of time in our car parks,’ it said.

‘They will be able to spend less time in car parks if this system is rolled out, freeing them up to spend more time at parking hotspots in and around the district, such as our seafront areas during the summer and around our schools.’

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