Grandmother slapped with parking fine because warden couldn’t see ticket for snow

Published 06th Dec 2010

When Sue Cooke braved the snowy conditions for a shopping trip last week, she was careful to pay for plenty of parking time at the car park and and display machine.

But while the grandmother was battling through the Christmas shoppers in blizzard conditions, a council warden who arrived at the car park to check tickets on car windscreens was a little less diligent.

With snow now covering the car windscreen, the warden decided that health and safety rules prevented him wiping the flakes away to check for a ticket because he could be accused of scratching the windscreen.

Instead, he prised the frozen windscreen wiper from the glass to slap a £50 parking fine underneath it for failing to display a ticket.

Mrs Cooke, 55, told yesterday how her ticket still had two hours and ten minutes of parking time left to run when the warden pounced.

She confronted the warden shortly after discovering the fine when she returned to the car in Leek, Staffordshire on Wednesday.

'I showed him the ticket and he said he had not been able to see it because of the snow,' she said.

'I was absolutely livid. He said he was not able to touch the car, but he was able to lift the frozen cold windscreen wiper, which must have been absolutely stuck solid.'

'There was more of a chance damaging the car doing that, than wiping away snow.

'There was an absolute blizzard that day. I bet I was not the only one to have got a ticket and I hope everyone else also appeals.'

The mother-of-two will now have to go through the appeals procedure against the £50 penalty - at a cost to the council taxpayer.

Traders now say they fear over-zealous parking wardens will deter customers from shopping in the run-up to Christmas.

Other motorists, who were unable to move their cars from the town's High Street car park during heavy snow were also fined.

Vice chairman of Leek Chamber of Trade Marc Briand, who is the co-owner of the town's homeware store, Colloco, said the fine was 'outrageous' given the atrocious weather conditions.

Former mayor Steve Povey said residents had also been concerned about traffic wardens preying on motorists parked on double yellow lines obscured by the snow.

He said: 'They seem to have lost sight of their main priority and that is to stop motorists breaking the law and causing a traffic hazard.

'Someone in charge of them should sit them down and remind them they are ambassadors for the town and they are failing in their ambassadorial role.

'It is wasting thousands of pounds to contest these frivilously issued fines, which would never stick in a court of law.'

Figures show 6,353 penalty charge notices were issued by Staffordshire Moorlands District Council in 2009/10, compared with just 3,873 the previous year. That meant an increase in revenue from £96,900 in 2008/09 to £171,600 last year.

But 15 per cent of fines were cancelled last year at a loss to the council of £33,793.

A spokesman for the authority said: 'The council is sympathetic to Mrs Cooke's situation.

'However, heavy snow also causes problems for our civil enforcement officers as it can obscure the pay-and-display ticket bought by the motorist concerned.

'Should Mrs Cooke produce a valid ticket, the council would be pleased to cancel the penalty.'

Source: ' Daily Mail '

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