£100 fines for poor parking

The sum will be reduced to £60 if paid within 14 days, but further charges will be incurred if it is not paid within 28 days. Motorists will have the right of appeal.

Transport authority Centro, which is responsible for free park and ride stations, said it had problems getting a replacement coach service through Stourbridge Junction car park on September 2 because of bad parking but said there were issues across its 59 sites.

See also: Parking tickets on the decline in Walsall.

Warning notices are being put up and more than 20,000 leaflets distributed to users about the fines.

Is £100 too much for a parking fine? Leave your comments below.

Councillor Roger Horton, Centro lead member for rail and Metro, said the scheme was being introduced because innocent motorists parking correctly were suffering at the hands of a selfish few whose lack of consideration was also putting pedestrians at risk.

He said: "Incorrectly parked vehicles have seen other motorists blocked in for hours at a time, while pedestrians are put at risk because of cars parked on pavements.

"Then there are emergency service vehicles that may need to access the station being obstructed by badly parked cars. This cannot be allowed to continue.

"Park and Ride has been a real success story in the West Midlands. We want that to continue and a selfish or thoughtless minority cannot be allowed to undermine it."

See also: Parking fines make Staffordshire councils £500,000.

The scheme will see parking officers working for a private company patrol Park and Ride sites using handheld ticket machines.

Fines will be issued to any vehicle not in a marked bay, on double yellow lines, obstructing emergency services, creating a hazard, in a disabled bay without a valid permit or using the car park for any other reason that to take the train or Metro.

Is there enough parking at the stations? Leave your comments below.

All money raised from parking tickets will go towards the costs of the running the enforcement scheme.

Most park and ride sites are full before 8am on week days, resulting in drivers parking on grass verges, pavements, double yellow lines or in disabled bays because there were no spaces available.

On one occasion at Cradley Heath 170 cars were blocked in for three hours as a result of a line of vehicles parked outside of marked bays. On another, 80 correctly-parked vehicles were blocked in by just one car.

Similar problems have occurred at car parks in Rowley Regis, Coseley, Wolverhampton's Priestfield, Wednesbury Parkway, Selly Oak and Northfield in Birmingham, and Whitlock's End near Shirley.

In 2013 there were 80 recorded complaints, and in a two month monitoring scheme in January and February this year Centro received 20 complaints.

Councillor Horton said that since 1997 £15 million had been invested in Park and Ride.

He said: "Funding and land cannot keep pace with demand and we have an obligation to all of our customers to manage the sites safely.

"We understand it is frustrating when you can't find a parking space but people just cannot be allowed to park where they like."

See also: Sunday parking charges in Wolverhampton rake in £1,140 a week.

Stephen Rhodes, Centro's director of operations added: "A further 1,000 spaces are being provided at 16 locations in 2014 and 2015 through extensions.

"Also, nearly 250 extra spaces have been created through optimising existing layouts ahead of the introduction of the enforcement scheme."

"A large proportion of people that park at stations live within 800m away from them but still choose to drive when there are good alternatives such as cycling, walking or the bus, and we would encourage them to perhaps consider using one of those."