Epic battle over £40 parking fine

9:02am Monday 3rd September 2001

A WOMAN pursued for a £40 parking fine had the ticket quashed when she decided to appeal.

Sheila O'Neill, from North Cray, got a parking ticket for leaving her car in a “restricted” area of Grassington Road car park.

But the space was not marked as restricted, so Mrs O'Neill protested to Bexley Council.

After looking at her case, Bexley wrote back and told her it had not accepted her argument and the parking fine had to be paid.

Mrs O'Neill, 70, told the News Shopper she felt so strongly she was in the right she decided to take her appeal to the Parking Appeals Service in London.

She took photographs of her car and others, fitting neatly into the unmarked space.

She also detailed a conversation with a Sureway parking attendant she saw in the car park.

“I asked her if it was all right to park in the space and she told me she didn't see why not,” said Mrs O'Neill.

After preparing her case, she sent it to the appeals service and was surprised, several months later, to receive a letter from Bexley telling her it had now decided not to contest her appeal and would be quashing the ticket.

And she says the parking bay she used has still not been marked out as restricted.

She said: “I still feel an injustice has been done.

“It took the council six months to decide not to pursue it and then only after I appealed to an outside body.

“I don't think Bexley considered my case at all and it still hasn't, because the bay is still unmarked.”

A council spokesman said a decision was taken not to fight Mrs O'Neill's case when the council saw the evidence she was producing for the appeals service.

He said: “When we saw the photographs of cars parked in the bay and that there were no hatched markings, it was decided the restriction was not clear and Mrs O'Neill had made a genuine mistake.”

He confirmed the council did intend to mark out the bay but said until this was done, no parking tickets would be issued.