A NEW trampoline park has warned it may have to close if its customers keep being given parking tickets.

Rebound Revolution opened Oxfordshire's first trampoline park in Bicester in September last year but has hit out at its landowners, West Oxfordshire District Council, after 12 tickets were issued in the past two weeks – including to a customer whose child has cancer.

Co-director Matt Tofts wants parking restrictions to be suspended in the Talisman Business Park, off London Road, on weekends when his company is at its busiest but large swathes of the rest of the car park is empty.

He said: "Since we opened, we're doing 95 per cent of our business on weekends.

"We are often at capacity with 120 people on site but we have been given a limited number of parking permits.

"Most of the other businesses around us are closed at this time so there is plenty of space, but our customers are getting tickets if they don't have a permit and we don't have enough to go round.

"It can take up to 15 minutes to register [for a permit] and we've had cases where our customers have been fined within 10 minutes of arrival, before they even get the chance to put the permit on their car.

"We've agreed to cover the cost of the fines and it is harming our business.

"Ultimately the area could lose a successful leisure facility."

Tenants at the business park previously requested a 'round the clock' parking enforcement scheme after spaces were taken up by local residents, commuters and overnight lorries, some of whom were parking unsafely.

Each organisation, which also includes South Central Ambulance Service, Warburtons and Ecolab, is given an allocation of permits.

A neighbouring tenant has given Rebound Revolution use of its spaces out of office hours meaning it now has 57 bays during these times.

Some customers have not returned parking permits, meaning Rebound Revolution has had to use photocopies, which have not been accepted by wardens, exacerbating the problem.

Mr Tofts said: "I've spoken to some of the other tenants who would be happy to see restrictions lifted.

"It is a safety issue more than anything – parents are having to leave their children whilst they sort our permits and it makes things very difficult.

"People are coming to us for a good day out and it is very upsetting for them to have to experience these issues."

West Oxfordshire District Council said the system had been explained to Rebound Revolution before it moved on to the site.

Frank Wilson, strategic director at the council, said: “We are pleased that Rebound Revolution’s business is successful, but we must protect facilities for all our tenants as well as the accessibility of the park.

"We are looking at ways of supporting them that do not encroach on the parking scheme, for example, as so many of Rebound’s permits are not returned by its customers we will be suggesting it issues them with a returnable deposit.

"We will also be suggesting that it approaches other tenants on the park to see if more will agree to having their spaces used outside of normal hours.”