What do you pay your parking fee for? I assumed that it was to park. It is, in fact to purchase the ticket to prove that you have paid.
I parked in Wellington Street again so that I could buy my wife a birthday present. I paid for an hour, put the ticket in the car and, having brought the present, returned within half an hour. There was a parking ticket on my car. My ticket was improperly displayed. In fact, it was upside down.
It was a mistake, but I assumed that it was one that was easily resolved. A call to the Parking Enforcement Team revealed that having a ticket proved nothing. I could have picked it up in the street. The idea that people would scrabble around in the gutter looking for a parking ticket with their car’s registration number on says a lot about the mentality of the people who manage parking.
What makes the attitude even more ridiculous is the fact that the Traffic Wardens photograph the tickets in the cars and these photographs are placed on a website.On the photograph of mine the number is clearly readable and matches the one I have. I can therefore prove that I paid the fee. No compromise from the Enforcement Team. The offence is, "parking without clearly displaying a valid pay & display ticket or voucher."
I could pay £70 and accept the idiocy of the Council’s policy, but I will let it go to court. The court will doubtless support the council, but there is just a chance that the idiotic waste of time and the injustice of it may make someone think.
I paid to park. I can prove it. Is £70 a just penalty for a lapse of attention that left my ticket upside down?
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