BROOK Retail park in Hereford has for the first time in recent years got five very good shops to visit – but only if you are a trolley dash shopper.

You have Pet Hut, Poundstretcher, Pets at Home, Lidl and Pound World, all of which are big stores in their own right. But the fly in the ointment comes with the CCTV car park control system operated by a private company who will send you an invoice (not a parking fine) for £60 if you pay within 14 days, or £100 if you pay later. This for exceeding their self-imposed time limit of just two hours.

Putting it into perspective, that is just 24 minutes per store, excluding the checkout waiting time or any trips to the car to load your bags. This 24 mins, also applies to disabled parking which generally is up to three hours – and you don’t get any acceptance that being disabled is any excuse.

I’m disabled and it would take me an hour to go to one shop on my own.

I spoke to an employee at Pound World who said that even some of their staff have been invoiced £60 in spite of parking in staff bays at the rear of the shop.

I might sound rebellious, but if everyone refused to pay these parking tickets, the legalised parking sharks would have no business to get rich.

BBC Watchdog and Rip Off Britain have highlighted the shady practices of wheel clampers and that has been phased out, only to be replaced by cameras, computers and fancy imitations of legal-looking invoices.

STEVE LLOYD Paradise Court, Leominster