A REGULAR user of the short term car park at Luton Airport was incensed when she was charged for a full hour although she had only parked there for 32 minutes. Mrs Alva Laskey, 69, of Aldwickbury Crescent, Harpenden, visits the airport regularly to pick u

A REGULAR user of the short term car park at Luton Airport was incensed when she was charged for a full hour although she had only parked there for 32 minutes.

Mrs Alva Laskey, 69, of Aldwickbury Crescent, Harpenden, visits the airport regularly to pick up and drop off her partner.

She said: "I fully expected to have to pay for three quarters of an hour as I had gone over the half hour but I think it's a bit steep to have to pay �7 for the full hour."

Mrs Laskey also complained that the times shown on her parking tickets never seemed to correspond to the actual times of her arrival and departure.

She said: "Having paid for a full hour on that occasion I drove home and was inside my house five minutes before the date stamped on my ticket!"

A spokesperson for Luton Airport confirmed that the tariff band timings had changed from quarter-hourly intervals in August 2009 when the present owners of the car park ACPOA altered them.

At present the intervals for charging in the short-term car park were 15 minute intervals and half an hour and then up to one hour and at hourly intervals after that. The clock was reset on a weekly basis to ensure it reflected the correct time as accurately as possible.

She added: "The time printed on the car park exit ticket is in fact the time the passenger has paid up to and not the time at which the ticket is paid."

ACPOA took over management of the car park from NCP in September 2008.