Food bank users and volunteers threatened with £170 parking fines

Clients and staff sent bills after firm contracted to manage Sunderland site was taken over by multinational

Food bank users were pursued for parking charges of up to 170 and threatened with court action after an enforcement company took over management of a community centre car park in Sunderland.

Clients and volunteers at the Youth Almighty Project (Yap), which runs a food bank and community services, were hit with parking charge notices (PCNs) for using the charity's free car park after the firm contracted to manage the site was taken over by an Australian multinational called Smart Parking.