Anyone who parks in a handicap parking space without a valid permit deserves to get ticketed or towed. However, one man found himself in a unique pickle when a new handicap parking space was painted around his car after he had already parked there. To make matters worse, he was out of town at the time, unable to move the car while more tickets continued to pile up on his Audi TT’s windshield.
Fortunately, Silva Stone had a camera pointed at his car the entire time. He posted a video on Facebook that clearly shows his car parked legally, and then the painting crew parks right in front of him to create the new handicap parking space around his car. It then shows multiple visits by the same traffic warden, taking pictures and leaving multiple tickets on the windshield. To make matters even worse, a picture of Stone’s car in the new parking space was posted to a local Facebook group. This angered neighbors who were unaware of the situation, leading to calls for it to be towed away and even, “It would be a shame if all the tyres went down.”
Poor communication
The official Croydon Council Facebook page responded to Stone’s post in a comment, which I’m sure is the approved channel for official government communication:
Hi Silva Stone, we’ve looked into this and can confirm that no fines have been or will be issued to you for this. We were installing a new disabled bay for a resident and we do allow some time for new bays to bed in before enforcing. We are sorry for any confusion this may have caused and please get in touch if you have any queries.
Communication is the key issue here. The council told the BBC that painting a new handicap parking space around a car already in its designated location is a standard procedure, which saves time waiting for the space to become available. Apparently, blocking the space off a day or two before painting to ensure it was empty didn’t occur to them. After painting, the contractor takes pictures of the car that was already parked in the space and sends them to the council to ensure that it does not get ticketed unfairly. Stone’s video clearly shows the crew taking the pictures, but even the council admits the parking attendant was not informed. She certainly allowed no “time for the new bays to bed in before enforcing.” Stone has received no written communication from the council besides the Facebook comment, which I’m sure would hold up in court.
The council also states that although parking tickets were issued, a note was already in the system not to process them as fines. But how was Stone supposed to know that? If you get a parking ticket or four, you’re probably not going to ignore it. Unless you’re the federal government, unpaid tickets usually lead to even worse consequences, like additional fines, a suspended registration, or even an arrest warrant. If Stone had simply paid the undeserved fines to avoid further trouble, or if he hadn’t posted this video, what are the chances that Croydon would have just pocketed the money anyway?
