A MOTORIST has blasted “spiteful” council chiefs who brought in £4-a-day parking outside her home – then hit her 14 days later with a £60 fine when her car broke down.
Furious Jennie Patterson posted a video of the ticket on her windscreen under a note in which she explained her plight and pleaded not to get a ticket.
The 45-year-old carried on filming as she put the key in the ignition and tried repeatedly, and unsuccessfully, to get the engine to start.
Jennie, from Carnoustie, Angus, posted the video to social media with the caption: “Angus Council – this is just spiteful.”
The video has unleashed a torrent of criticism of the council and is likely to increase concern about the apparent determination of councils nationwide to generate as much cash as possible from fining motorists for parking and bus lane violations.
Angus Council introduced the controversial new parking charges on November 1, leaving Jennie and her neighbours with an extra bill of around £1,000 a year to park outside their homes.
Yesterday, a fortnight after the charge was brought in, she discovered her Fiat 500 would not start.
Fearing a ticket, Jennie left a note on the dashboard which read: “Please don’t give me a ticket, engine won’t start waiting for garage to attend.”
She then left the car for an hour to walk to her local garage to try to get some help.
When she returned she discovered a traffic warden had ignored the note and slapped a ticket on her windscreen.
Among those outraged by her treatment was LorraineEWilson, who wrote: “Come on AngusCouncil. What’s jennie_patt supposed to do? Lift the car on her back! #jobsworth”.
Chalmclan added: “That is despicable but since change of leadership doesn’t surprise me”.
Bonniebraefilm wrote: “Absolute swines!”.
Nicola1Donnelly said: “That’s so sad. I am sad karma did not reward you today. Either someone who doesn’t feel like they can make the decision to be helpful due to pressure, or someone who is just mean”.
Arts_curios added: “That’s shocking,hopefully with footage you can get that overturned!”.
HaggisGordon wrote: “Yet, I’ll bet the traffic wardens are the first to complain if you draw a c**k and balls on the back of their Hi-Viz with a marker pen. They can’t have it both ways. Pathetic”.
Angus Council admitted it was introducing the charges to raise an extra £700,000 to spend on public services.
The Council has invited Jennie to appeal the decision.
A spokeswoman said: “Angus Council is aware of the particular case and if the car owner wishes to appeal with evidence of the breakdown, such a recovery service report or garage invoice relating to the incident, they may appeal on these grounds. We are confident the issue can be resolved through this route.
“As with most councils, our wardens have a process in place for such incidents and we would not expect them to have to make decisions regarding enforcement on their own. Further details regarding our parking enforcement, including an online form for appeals, may be found on our website.”
Scottish Councils over the 2015-16 financial year took £40m of parking fines, up 12% on the previous year according to a survey by the RAC.
Across the UK, local authorities issued out 888,760 bus lane fines to motorist last year totalling to £42m. Glasgow was the highest earner making over £6.5m in the fines.
Last year a bus lane at Nelson Mandela Place in Glasgow issued 22,317 parking fines worth £1.3m, making it Scotland’s top earner.
