A family visiting a tourism beauty spot were puzzled to find themselves with a parking ticket for the tiniest of blunders and they were horrified to discover a parking ticket slapped on their car minutes after leaving it in a Devon car park because one of the wheels was barely inches over the white line.
Rebecca Edge, a teaching assistant from Teignmouth, was out with her three-year-old twins Teddy and Peggy in Cockington, South Devon when she got hit by the fine.
She alleges she managed to squeeze her vehicle into a tightly packed car park just off Cockington Lane near the Rose Cottage Tea Room.
On her return, she found a ticket had been written only minutes after she left her car, initially to her total bemusement and at first, she couldn’t work out why she had been given the ticket and it was only after taking photos she understood what it was for.
It was absurd. It’s a really compact car park anyhow with loads of other vehicles and when you have children in big child seats, it’s not easy getting them in and out in a confined space.
She saw other larger vehicles getting tickets as well, so it wasn’t just her. She said that if one of the wheels had been completely over the line then she could have understood it, but this was only a few inches and that it was very petty because it had been written out minutes after she parked the car, so she couldn’t help but think they were watching all the time.
Rebecca Edge said that she’s already contested the ticket and she further said it was a shame as she’d intended to go for lunch with her children at the nearby pub, however, the parking ticket forced her to rethink her plans.
She said they were going to do their bit and support the local economy by dining in the pub afterwards, but they didn’t after getting a £50 parking ticket, which means that now the local economy has missed out on that little bit of additional help.
She said that she’s appealed it and might even take it to court if they reject it as she feels really strongly about it.
The thing about the law is it’s pretty black and white and there are no ifs and buts, no grey zones and as far as they’re concerned the law was broken, so these petty rules apply and a ticket was issued.
And there’s seemingly no way she will win in court because as far as they’re concerned she did violate the parking rules and this country loves to punish and criminalise, there’s very little understanding and the income from these penalties appear to be more important to the local council than the financial hardship it causes to people.
And these money-grabbing fools employ these loafers to get money for the council coffers and the best thing to do is to avoid places like Cockington.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 