£55 fine for not displaying a ticket
LYNETTE ALCOCK
17 March 2006 06:30
A holidaymaker was yesterday ordered to pay £55 by a court for not displaying an 80p car parking ticket that fell from his windscreen.
And last night he promised never to return to the area for a holiday and said he would take his case to the Ombudsman.
Charles Glover parked for just five minutes in Newgate car park in Beccles during a short holiday to Suffolk.
But despite having bought a ticket, he was issued with a £55 fine from Waveney District Council for not displaying it, after he claims it fell from the windscreen into a footwell.
Thinking it would be an easy mistake to rectify, Mr Glover who works for Warwick District Council took the ticket to the council's offices in Lowestoft to prove he had paid.
But the council refused to back down saying the fine was for not displaying the ticket, and whether he produced a valid ticket or not was irrelevant.
Yesterday, after seven months of correspondence between the 52-year-old and the council, he returned to Waveney to appear before Lowestoft magistrates charged with failing to pay the £55 charge.
Speaking before his plea, Mr Glover said: “I think this is unjust, I am
being penalised even though I had bought a ticket just because it had fallen off the screen.
“I stuck it to the windscreen, I couldn't keep going back to check every five minutes, I was on holiday.”
Linda Damerell, prosecuting for Waveney District Council said: “At 12.10pmon July 2 the parking inspector in Newgate car park in Beccles saw no ticket displayed in Mr Glover's car and issued a penalty ticket for £55.
“In his view he wouldn't think that the ticket would have fallen off the windscreen.”
Ms Damarell went on to explain that having bought a ticket was not enough,it needed to be properly displayed.
After a short adjournment Mr Glover, who had travelled from his home in Bromsgrove near Birmingham for the hearing, agreed to plead guilty.
He was given an absolute discharge and ordered to pay the £55 owing to Waveney but nothing towards the council's £40 costs.
Speaking after the case, Mr Glover said: “They don't care that I bought a ticket, all they care about is whether it was displayed.
“I feel very aggrieved that I pleaded guilty but it sounded like I would lose whatever, and it is a five hour drive over here. I don't think my wife and I will ever return to Waveney.
“We came down for a long weekend in Corton and had just gone to Beccles for a day to arrange a boat trip. We were only there for about five minutes.
He added: “I asked the people in Warwick council's parking department what would happen, and they said if I produced the ticket to them the fine would be quashed. They give you the benefit of the doubt.
“But with Waveney they even wrote to us suggesting the ticket we had might not have been genuine and that they thought it “unlikely” that the ticket had fallen off.
“But we are not giving up here, I'm going to take the case to the Ombudsman.”
17 March 2006 06:30
A holidaymaker was yesterday ordered to pay £55 by a court for not displaying an 80p car parking ticket that fell from his windscreen.
And last night he promised never to return to the area for a holiday and said he would take his case to the Ombudsman.
Charles Glover parked for just five minutes in Newgate car park in Beccles during a short holiday to Suffolk.
But despite having bought a ticket, he was issued with a £55 fine from Waveney District Council for not displaying it, after he claims it fell from the windscreen into a footwell.
Thinking it would be an easy mistake to rectify, Mr Glover who works for Warwick District Council took the ticket to the council's offices in Lowestoft to prove he had paid.
But the council refused to back down saying the fine was for not displaying the ticket, and whether he produced a valid ticket or not was irrelevant.
Yesterday, after seven months of correspondence between the 52-year-old and the council, he returned to Waveney to appear before Lowestoft magistrates charged with failing to pay the £55 charge.
Speaking before his plea, Mr Glover said: “I think this is unjust, I am
being penalised even though I had bought a ticket just because it had fallen off the screen.
“I stuck it to the windscreen, I couldn't keep going back to check every five minutes, I was on holiday.”
Linda Damerell, prosecuting for Waveney District Council said: “At 12.10pmon July 2 the parking inspector in Newgate car park in Beccles saw no ticket displayed in Mr Glover's car and issued a penalty ticket for £55.
“In his view he wouldn't think that the ticket would have fallen off the windscreen.”
Ms Damarell went on to explain that having bought a ticket was not enough,it needed to be properly displayed.
After a short adjournment Mr Glover, who had travelled from his home in Bromsgrove near Birmingham for the hearing, agreed to plead guilty.
He was given an absolute discharge and ordered to pay the £55 owing to Waveney but nothing towards the council's £40 costs.
Speaking after the case, Mr Glover said: “They don't care that I bought a ticket, all they care about is whether it was displayed.
“I feel very aggrieved that I pleaded guilty but it sounded like I would lose whatever, and it is a five hour drive over here. I don't think my wife and I will ever return to Waveney.
“We came down for a long weekend in Corton and had just gone to Beccles for a day to arrange a boat trip. We were only there for about five minutes.
He added: “I asked the people in Warwick council's parking department what would happen, and they said if I produced the ticket to them the fine would be quashed. They give you the benefit of the doubt.
“But with Waveney they even wrote to us suggesting the ticket we had might not have been genuine and that they thought it “unlikely” that the ticket had fallen off.
“But we are not giving up here, I'm going to take the case to the Ombudsman.”
posted by Neil Herron at 10:29 AM
1 Comments:
Looking forward for more interesting travel posts like this one.
compare airport parking
meet and greet at gatwick
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