A PENSIONER who once described himself as a “thorn in the side” of Bolton Council’s parking department is set to star in a BBC documentary.

Parking Mad airs on BBC 1 tomorrow and features the story of Barry Moss, from Westhoughton.

He waged an unsuccessful High Court case against Bolton Council’s auditors KPMG in 2010, after he claimed the authority had gained money from issuing “unlawful” tickets.

During the 60 -minute documentary Mr Moss — who the show describes as “one of the country’s most high profile parking campaigners” — drives around Bury town centre deliberately looking to be given a parking ticket.

He looks for what he claims is stretch of road where lines are not painted properly and leaves his car there, returning later to find he has been given a ticket, at which point he shouts “success!”.

In the show, a woman passer-by remarks “that’s awful” when she sees the ticket — to which former roofer Mr Moss, aged 66, replies “it’s alright love, I did it on purpose”.

He says he will contest the decision at a tribunal on January 24.

Mr Moss, of Hindley Road, says people contact him from all over the country asking him to take up their case, and he claims he has overturned 92 of 96 parking ticket decisions over the last six years.

He said: “Filming was quite an interesting experience.

“They came up to see me twice and we drove around Bury.”

He said: “A lot of people think I’m against parking or against councils enforcing regulations but I’m not. If people park on yellow lines, they deserve everything they get.

“But councils have a legal and moral duty to make sure their highways are painted as per traffic regulations.”

He said: “Bolton’s lines are all yellow and that’s the way it should be. I’ve not had to get on to Bolton Council for over a year.”

The show also features a masked suburban motorbike gang who campaign against CCTV camera cars, and a man with more than £10,000 worth of parking tickets.

The show’s director James Ross said: “It’s easy to be negative about parking campaigners but most of them feel they’re genuinely fighting for something. There’s a civic-mindedness about them even if some of them do it in a slightly bizarre way.

Bury Council said it could not comment as an appeal was pending.

Parking Mad will be showed on BBC 1 tomorrow at 10.35pm.