Frustrated theatre-goers were forced to stand in an underground car park for more than an hour – just to queue to pay for parking.
Frank Skinner fans failed to see the funny side following a gig at Folkestone’s Leas Cliff Hall as they tried to leave Sandgate Road car park.
Folkestone and Hythe District Council (FHDC) has cut three hours of free parking at the site after introducing a new “customer-friendly” automatic number-plate recognition (ANPR) system.
Charges now apply until 9pm every evening but theatre-goers 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 Birmingham comic’s evening show last Thursday.
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However, she was forced to queue for an hour as audience members waited to get to the two ticket machines currently in the car park.
“I had no idea how difficult the council has made it to enjoy a night out in Folkestone,” Ms Kerrigan said.
“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 thinks a card swipe mechanism should be installed on the barrier at the exit of the car park to allow drivers to make a swift getaway.
She says a number of audience members were unaware of the new rules and thinks the system “has to be changed quickly before there is an incident”.
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“The Frank Skinner crowd was a very patient group of people; many others would not have been so tolerant,” she said.
“Lots of us tried to log into the Autobill app but with several tonnes of concrete above us, the reception was poor.”
Leas Cliff Hall has a standing capacity of 1,500 and regularly welcomes big-name acts, including Jimmy Carr, who brought his new show to Folkestone earlier this month.
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”.
“Two additional mini touchscreen payment terminals have been ordered and are due to be installed later this month,” they said.
“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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