A PENSIONER who was given a parking fine despite not being on a stretch of double yellow lines had to go to three different council buildings in an attempt to pay his £35 charge.
Anthony Robin, who is 72, parked his Audi on a road in Eight Ash Green, but was not impinging on double yellow lines.
However, a parking warden adjudged Mr Robin was parking on a dropped footway – an area of walkway where the kerb is level with the road.
Despite this, Mr Robin sent pictures to the parking partnership, arguing much of the stretch of the road his car was parked on, Propelair Way, was level with the pavement.
He said: “[The council] said I was parked on a dropped footway, when actually the reverse is true.
“I’m in my early seventies – I’ve been driving over 50 years and I’ve only ever had one parking fine.”
Mr Robin was unsuccessful in his appeal, however, with the parking partnership saying in their response he was parked across what is known as a tactile kerb, a part of the pavement characterised by six beige or pink paving slabs.
He was only able to pay his £35 fine – which he had opted to pay via cheque – after visiting three different council offices.
“I thought ‘I’m not going to get anywhere with this’, so I thought I would pay the fine and stop [appealing].”
There was to be more inconvenience for Mr Robin, however, who tried to pay the cheque in person because he doesn’t send money electronically, and postage strikes were taking place throughout December.
He said: “If I tried to rely on the post, it wouldn’t have been delivered, and then I would be told I had to pay £70.
“I thought it would be easier to hand the money in and get a receipt.”
But Mr Rowan found himself trying to pay his fine at Rowan House, which was closed for refurbishment, then the town hall, which could not accept his cheque, before he could finally pay his fine in full at a council office in Gosbecks Road.
He said: “I don’t think it should have been a fine, but if it should have been, then maybe other people will be glad of being warned.”
