Thank you all for your advice. So far, Lidl have agreed to let just one of us park in the car park as they say they will only allow one vehicle per house, and as the letter I have didn't explicitly detail two different vehicles they are sticking to this line. I'm continuing to negotiate with them as for the past 3-4 years we have parked without a problem based on an agreement being place. I'll keep trying! Thanks again for your help.

Hi, Firstly, I'm new to this forum so apologies if the answer is somewhere amongst the many responses already posted, athough it does look like my issue is a little different. My house is directly adjacent to Lidl and, when I moved in during 2007, Lidl were happy for my partner and I to park in the car park. Shortly after, Euro Car Parks took over and, after a bit of wrangling which involved getting an authorisation letter from Lidl, they also agreed we were authorised to park. Athena are now taking over the parking management so I have contacted Lidl again and they are now referring me to their property managament arm (Magna Propetry) but this is the company who is implementing Athena. It seems I'm stuck in a cyclical situation where Magna Propetry want me to confirm authorisation to park from Lidl, but Lidl refer me back to Magna when I try to make contact. So, my questions are: What is the legal position here, if there is a legal position at all? Lidl have been happy for us to park in the car park for years. Is this something I need to worry about? I've read in other forums that Athena does not actually have any power to collect fines. Is this the case? Thanks in advance for any advice - we really don't know what to do as we're in the town centre so no 'on road' parking is available anywhere. Sarah