London, England
Paint and Switch!!!
Restricted Parking Spot Drawn Around Vacant Car
Published
Instagram/@silvastone
Talk about highway robbery! A London man was ticketed 4 times for leaving his car in a disability-accessible parking space … but it turns out, the space was painted around his car while he was out of town!
The vehicle owner told BBC he couldn’t even enjoy his trip last month … because he could see on CCTV footage he was racking up fines.
When he came back from his ruined vacation, he found 2 tickets on the windshield, as 2 others had inexplicably been removed by an unknown passerby. Thanks for nothing!
He said, “There was nothing I could do.”
But don’t worry, he won’t actually have to pay the fines … probably. The council in charge — clearly not great communicators — still hasn’t let him know directly one way or the other. They apparently commented on a video he posted online, but have neglected to send any official notice.
But how did this happen in the first place?
A spokesperson for the council said, “Our road markings contractor painted lines for a new disabled bay on 17 November in response to a request from a resident. The contractor painted around a car, as is standard practice, otherwise they would have to wait for the space to be free, which may have taken weeks.”
They added, “The contractor took a picture of the car, so we knew not to give the owner a fine. Unfortunately, one of our parking attendants was not informed and issued parking tickets. However, these were not processed into fines because we had a note on the system from our contractor. The tickets were cancelled a week before the video was uploaded to social media, and we have apologized for the confusion.”
Still, the person who requested the accessible parking space noted residents should’ve been given a heads-up.
“It’s the same as doing an extension or any other road work – you let people know,” he said. “Without any communication with your community, that’s the wrong way to do it.”
