Confused drivers penalised for parking on pavement
8:55am Saturday 2nd February 2013 in News
CONFUSING car parking spaces are causing chaos for shoppers and businesses in Little Lever.
Drivers have been hit with fines for using what looks like two ordinary spaces on the car park at the back of the precinct in Fletcher Street.
Even though the area is faintly marked out with white paint as two spaces, the asphalt is part of the pavement— a council-owned highway.
Furious drivers claim the fines are unfair because of the confusing lines and layout of the car park.
Now the council has agreed to suspend parking enforcement on the two bays “as a gesture of goodwill”
until the owner of the car park restores the pavement boundary.
Miller Ltd — the Gibraltar-based company that owns the car park — has been given 21 days to remove the white lines. If they fail to do so, the council will carry out the work.
Kelly Powers, who owns Bolton Windows in Little Lever, said: “A lot of shop-owners have been caught out by the spaces. I was issued a fine last week for parking there and I know at least eight other people who have too. It just looks like an ordinary parking space — you can see the white lines. I’ve written to the council to say it was not acceptable, but they’ve just emailed me back to say I have to pay it.
“I’m disgusted that the council is making money out of the public like this.”
But the council says it is Miller’s responsibility to make their boundaries clear.
A council spokesman said: “Motorists have been parking on the footpath, which is illegal, and we are taking action to resolve the matter.
“In the meantime we have suspended parking enforcement on these bays as a gesture of goodwill.
“It is frustrating that we can’t immediately resolve this issue, but we have to follow this legal process first before we can take action.”
No one from Miller Ltd or their Londonbased agents, Winex Services Ltd, was available to comment.
Comments are closed on this article.
Comments (6)
12:41pm Sat 2 Feb 13
John Edwards says...
6:31pm Sat 2 Feb 13
Smartguy says...
They have suspended parking enforcement because they have shown they KNOW some drivers are being misled. Nothing at all to do with that "goodwill" humbug.
They are duty bound to refund every penalty charge already paid where the situation on their enforcement territory has been known by them to be misleading and not enforceable and that they are at fault for not having had the obviously misleading marking removed off their territory.
Yet again they are conducting parking enforcement when they know the enforcement conditions are not in proper order to allow it. So we must now expect a prompt apology and refund to all those they have wrongly penalised, and KNOW that they wrongly penalised, unless the lucrative benefits of theft are too strong for this council.
6:47pm Sat 2 Feb 13
angus macoatup says...
8:31pm Sun 3 Feb 13
Albert Wesker says...
8:38pm Sun 3 Feb 13
Albert Wesker says...
Absolutely furious reading this though - the council parking dept continues to issue tickets despite knowing there is an issue with the markings (see http://www.thebolton
news.co.uk/news/dist
rictnews/districtstt
oz/9159760.Clear_up_
village_car_park_con
fusion__council_urge
d/, from 2011 no less), and then hides behind the "it's not our fault, we're just applying the rules correctly, it's the owners of the car park that are causing the confusion" excuse.
Why did they not contact the company that owns the car park when they first realised there was an issue, you know, back in 2011 ? The reason ? Because they are happy to let the situation ride so they can trouser a couple of quid out of it. Says everything you need to know about our peerless leaders really.
9:39pm Mon 4 Feb 13
macauley says...