The boss of British supermarket chain Iceland has personally intervened in a row over parking fines at the company's Oswestry branch.

Recently a number of complaints about the parking penalties received by customers at the store have been raised, with many shoppers taking to Facebook to share their frustrations when faced with £100 fines from the food store.

Now, after months of appeals, Richard Walker, the store chain's managing director and the son of Malcolm Walker, who founded Iceland in Oswestry, has stepped in to resolve the situation after being contacted by a town councillor – and he said part of the problem had been caused by an "unknown third party" covering up the pay machine.

Mr Maguire said: "I first saw the situation on social media a month or so ago but thought it must be a one off but it got more and more regular seeing peoples comments saying they had been fined and that the machine had not been working or wouldn't take their money.

"Even though the site is not owned or or looked after under Oswestry Town Council's portfolio, I felt as an elected town councillor I needed to help highlight the situation in the right places."

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He added: "Richard Walker was not aware of the problems, but straight away contacted the properties team to get the situation sorted."

When contacted by the Advertizer, Mr Walker explained that the car park Iceland owns in Oswestry store is intended for short stay use by customers, and as in many other locations a parking management company is employed to ensure that spaces are kept free for their own customers’ use.

He said: "The car park was managed on a “pay and display” basis for many years, but it became clear in 2022 that a greatly increased number of parked cars was not matched by the number of customers passing though the store, and that genuine customers were finding it increasingly hard to secure a space.

"To remedy this, our management company installed an ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) system and a new pay parking machine in August 2022."

He continued: "Iceland customers were able to reclaim the cost of their parking in store, subject to a minimum spend of just £5.

"This new approach has given rise to a large number of appeals against parking penalties, aggravated by an unknown third party covering up the pay machine to make it appear out of order when the ANPR system was, in fact, working as normal."

Mr Walker added that a lot of the penalties that have been appealed have already been cancelled, and that Iceland will respond to any further outstanding appeals.

"We naturally apologise for any upset or inconvenience caused," he said. "We are currently reviewing options for the future management of the car park to maximise the availability of spaces for Iceland customers."