Where things stand on Festival Place parking

Over the last week, a number of residents have contacted me about parking charge notices they received after visiting Festival Place, Basingstoke.

What has concerned me is that some say they did pay for their parking. Some have also told me that, after providing evidence of payment when appealing, they have still been asked to pay £20 because of what is described as a registration or “keying error”.

I do not yet know why this is happening, and I do not want to jump to conclusions. But enough people have now raised similar experiences that I think there are reasonable questions for Hozah and UK Parking Administration (UKPA) to answer.

This update sets out where things stand as of 4 September 2026. For the full correspondence so far, see:

• Residents report Festival Place parking charges despite payment
• Follow-up questions on keying errors

Festival Place escalates the issue

I had copied Festival Place’s parking team into my email of 28 August.

On 1 September, Festival Place replied:

Hi Alex,

Thank you for your email.

We have ensured this has been escalated to Hozah and note they are copied into your email.

We will await their response.

Kind regards

As of 4 September 2026, I am still waiting for a substantive response from Hozah or UKPA to the questions I raised.

Luke Murphy MP has also raised the issue

Luke Murphy, MP for Basingstoke, wrote directly to Hozah on 3 September 2026 following concerns I had raised on behalf of residents and concerns residents had raised with him directly.

His letter records reports of residents receiving parking charges despite having paid. It also describes one reported case where the payment system did not recognise the vehicle’s arrival time correctly, while the parking charge relied on the automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) record showing when the vehicle entered the car park.

Luke has asked many of the same questions I have raised, including how many parking charges have been issued and appealed, what triggers the £20 charge, whether payment records are checked against ANPR records, and whether Hozah or UKPA has identified technical or data-matching problems at Festival Place.

He has also raised another issue residents had reported to him directly: difficulties some residents have experienced when trying to submit evidence through the online appeals system.

Luke has asked Hozah and UKPA for a substantive response and to confirm whether they are reviewing parking charges issued at Festival Place since September 2025.

What happens next?

There are still important questions to answer.

We do not yet know why residents who say they have paid are receiving parking charges, how many people have been affected, or whether there is a wider issue with the way payments and vehicle registrations are being matched.

Those are questions for Hozah and UKPA to answer, and I hope they will now do so.

If you have been affected and have not already contacted me, please get in touch. I am particularly interested in hearing from people who paid for their parking but subsequently received a parking charge, including what happened if you appealed.

And if you have already contacted me, thank you. I will get back to you.

This is part of ongoing work on Festival Place parking. I will share further updates as the situation develops.