Don Asher, of Sandford View, Newton Abbot, writes:

One recent Sunday, at 1pm, I parked in the Quay car park at Kingsbridge.

I started to put one pound coins in the ticket machine but after the first coin the next two coins dropped through and a ticket was printed for one hour.

I called the telephone number on the ticket machine.

To my consternation, a disembodied voice told me my car registration number and the number of the ticket machine I was said to be using.

It was not the number of the machine I was standing at and how on earth did it know I was the driver of that car registration?

The disembodied voice then asked me how many hours I wanted to park for by credit card, so I pressed eight on my telephone to be told that the charge was £8.50.

This, I thought, was extortionate.

Being rather spooked that the 'voice' knew I was the driver of the car I was trying to pay the parking charge for, I ended the call to try again.

The same scenario was repeated.

There did not appear anyway I could speak to a real person to ask why a ticket was issued for one hour when I wanted to pay the £6 for parking over four hours.

I found this so scary and disconcerting that my reaction was to get the hell out of that car park and find somewhere else to go to. 'Big Brother' 1984 has caught up with us.

It was a most unpleasant and disconcerting experience. I shall be avoiding Kingsbridge and South Hams car parks in the future.

Teignbridge is much more user friendly and reasonable.