Slough Borough Council has been accused of using underhand companies to enforce parking at one of the town’s leisure centres by members of the public, who believe the parking spaces are either too small or inadequately marked.

Members of the public have raised issues with the car park enforcement company UK Car Park Management (CPM) after they received tickets for parking incorrectly within the parking bays at Montem Leisure Centre.

One particular leisure centre user, who wished to remain anonymous, said that he had received parking tickets for not parking within the parking bays, even though his car simply would not fit.

He said: “I have been visiting Montem Leisure Centre for 12 years several times a week with my children for various lessons. I have recently bought an Audi Q7, which has been damaged by other car doors hitting my car when I park my vehicle within the marked bays. The car park bays are too small to park large family SUVs and many of my friends have been issued tickets at Montem Leisure centre. This unfair practice is extremely lucrative for the parking company and must be stopped. It is hard enough for families to make ends meet and we can all do without allowing companies like CPM to practice as they do.”

The standard parking space in the UK is 15.7ft (4.8m) in length, by 7.8ft (2.4m) in width and the members of the public claim that the spaces at Montem Leisure Centre were closer to  2.2m wide by 4.2 m long.

Furthermore, members of the public were angered by spaces they claimed to be inadequately marked in a gravel parking area, where instead of fully marked bays, the car park is divided up using just small chalk crosses.

The same member of public wrote to CPM saying: “There are no marked bays on the ground where my car is parked.

“You have very small markers on the tarmac before the gravel starts, but it is impossible to judge the position of the car when it enters the gravel area. If you are to enforce parking within marked bays then you must tarmac the car park in full and clearly mark the bays fully.”

A spokesman for CPM said: “The parking bays in the gravel car park were marked by a contractor prior to our appointment at the leisure park. We were instructed to implement an enforcement service to prevent unauthorised parking.”

Slough Borough Council could not be reached for comment.