A PASSENGER who complained about the lack of parking at Bache station was told to “get on at Hooton” instead.

The Rev Martin Hardy, of Sedum Close, Handbridge, used the Upton station next to Morrisons on a trip to Liverpool.

Because of the lack of car park spaces, he parked on a verge and was charged £30.

“I called Merseyrail to appeal because there weren’t enough spaces,” he said.

“But the man I spoke to told me to get on at Hooton because it has a bigger car park. It’s ridiculous. If I was going to do that, I might as well drive all the way to Liverpool.”

A spokesman for Merseyrail said: “In an ideal world, every station would have unlimited free car parking but land availability and other constraints mean that some stations have very little or sometimes no car parking.

“Bache car park has 61 free car parking spaces. It is owned by Network Rail and leased to Merseyrail for the use of Merseyrail passengers on a first come first served basis.

“If Bache station car park is full there are possible alternative stations in the area for car parking.

“Capenhurst has 25 spaces, Ellesmere Port has 109 spaces and Hooton has 418 spaces although the latter is operated by Cheshire West and Chester and charges 80p per day.

“My colleague was merely trying to be helpful by advising your reader of the alternatives so that he would not be in danger of another parking charge notice in the future.”