Frustration is growing over the number of parking fines being issued at Fairfield Leisure Centre.

Last week we revealed how members were being left hundreds of pounds out of pocket by wrongly-issued parking fines, with one woman – June Mace, 78 – issued with four £100 notices.

Swimmers and gym-goers who pay a monthly fee to use the facilities in Lowfield Street are meant to be able to use the on-site car park free for three hours and operator Places for People Leisure (PPL) says an investigation is ongoing.

MET Parking – the company PPL relies on to manage the car park – defended the fines being handed out, but one member says he has now written to Dartford council with his concerns.

Drivers have to key in their registration number into a machine in the centre’s reception; it then matches it to their membership details which gives them three hours free parking.

Darryl Langton, 43, of Ingress Park, Greenhithe, had been using the pool on a weekly basis since it reopened in February, almost two years after it shut for a £12 million refurbishment.

“I have stopped using Fairfield and have gone back to swimming out of the borough as I did during the refurbishment. I cannot stress how sad this makes me, given how outstanding the new facility is.” Darryl Langton.

“Recently, and entirely unexpectedly, I received a parking charge notice from MET Parking in regard to an alleged incident at the centre on June 2,” he said.

“I was definitely at the centre at the time and, as always, I had entered my vehicle registration into the machine in reception after paying my admission.

“I felt the only possible reason for the charge was that I had absentmindedly entered the registration number of our other car into the machine in error.

“I filed an online challenge on MET Parking’s website that day.

“One week later I received a response from MET Parking rejecting this challenge and stating neither registration number had been entered.

“Worse still, on the same day I received a second parking charge notice from MET Parking in regard to a further alleged incident on June 9. It is inconceivable that, after correctly following the due process for many weeks, I had suddenly not done so for two successive visits.”

The issue has driven Mr Langton and his family away from Fairfield and he accused MET Parking of having “no interest in anything other than attempting to extort huge amounts of money out of leisure centre customers”.

He continued: “I have stopped using Fairfield and have gone back to swimming out of the borough as I did during the refurbishment. I cannot stress how sad this makes me, given how outstanding the new facility is.”

Plenty of disgruntled members took to the Dartford Messenger’s Facebook page to comment on our original story.

Emma Wake said she would not be going back to Fairfield until the issue was resolved, while Joel Bowden also suggested people would become hesitant to use the centre. Others said they had been hit with fines and were yet to hear back on whether their appeals had been successful.

Council leader Jeremy Kite (Con) is aware of the concerns and this week convened an ‘urgent meeting’ between PPL and MET to resolve the issue.

He posted on a Facebook forum in response to some complaints: “Visiting should be a stress-free process and fines should belong only to those who use the car park without having paid.”