Fines issued after disabled bay painted around car

A man received four parking tickets when a disabled bay was painted around his legally parked car while he was away on holiday.

CCTV footage shared on social media shows a contractor measuring and painting the bay, after the owner, who did not wish to be named, had left his car on an unrestricted road outside his home.

A total of four penalty charge notices (PCNs) were placed on the car between 22 and 26 November following the construction of the bay on 17 November in New Addington, south London.

Croydon Council "apologised for the confusion" and confirmed that "the tickets were cancelled a week before the video was uploaded to social media".

The vehicle owner told BBC London: "It really put a damper on my holiday because I kept checking [the camera] to see what was wrong and there was nothing I could do.

"I didn't want to go out and do the things I wanted to do because I was worried about the amount of tickets I was accumulating."

After he got back from his travels, he saw he had two tickets on his windscreen and that a further two had been removed by an unknown individual.

The disabled bay was put in place in response to a request from a resident.

While the owner agrees the disabled bay itself is important, he criticised the council's lack of notification before its creation, saying: "It's the same as doing an extension or any other road work - you let people know.

"Without any communication with your community, that's the wrong way to do it."

The video shows the contractor photographing the car after the painting is complete to alert the council not to issue a fine.

However, a parking attendant later placed tickets on the vehicle on separate days, as she was not made aware of the situation.

The man decided to share the footage on social media after facing a backlash on Facebook from residents who believed he had parked in the bay knowing he was not supposed to.

He said: "It really upset me. I just thought, 'Why are you looking at me as the bad guy?'

"But I do understand, somebody obviously didn't know that I parked there before the bay was drawn."

He added that he had never had direct confirmation from the council that the PCNs in relation to the new bay were cancelled.

"Nothing in writing. Only a comment from them on the video," he said.

"I think the issue here is because there was no communication in the beginning, there has been a snowball effect of wrongdoing."

The council said contractors painting the bay around the car was "standard practice" to avoid delays, explaining: "Otherwise they would have to wait for the space to be free, which may have taken weeks."

A council spokesperson said: "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 council added that its car parking attendant had suffered abuse online after the video and asked that "residents with concerns contact us directly and not abuse staff carrying out their duties".

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