ASSUMING the facts are as stated, Keith Poultney is right to be angry about being "fined' for overstaying the McDonald's arbitrary 90 minute parking limit while using the restaurant (Review, March 16). He is also right to expose this sort of behaviour in the local press. It is bad enough that a bona fide customer of McDonald's should end up receiving a parking charge notice when using a McDonald's car park. It is even worse that McDonald's should then do nothing to recompense their customer on the basis that "they did not control the car park."

Regrettably, this "we do not control the car park" attitude is the shield that many commercial companies hide behind when their customers are hit by charges from the parking control companies that they employ. The fact that McDonald's say customers can exceed the stated maximum parking time if they let the restaurant staff know their registration details shows that McDonald's actually do have a say in controlling their car park.

I suggest that from now on, everyone who uses a McDonald's car park should provide their registration details and tell the staff that they may exceed the stated maximum parking time. Also, in case people forget, perhaps staff should now ask: "Do you want fries with that and are you aware of our 90 minute parking time limit?"

Although I fully understand McDonald's need to prevent misuse of their car parks, I am very disappointed at their apparent lack of customer- facingness as regards this incident. I have regularly used McDonald's all over the world, but in view of their treatment of Mr Poultney, I am minded never again to cross the threshold of a McDonald's restaurant.

– ex-customer, Chepstow.