Disabled bay painted over parked car
Disabled bay painted over parked car
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Saturday, 24, Jun 2006 08:58
Everyone hates parking tickets but imagine how shocked you'd be if you were issued with a £60 fine for parking in a disabled parking spot that was painted in after you had parked your car.
That's exactly what happened to Shirley Hatcher, who had parked her silver Ford Fiesta legally in North Road, Southampton, while she went to have haircut, but when she returned she discovered that a disabled bay had been painted around her car.
"I had just gone to the hairdressers and when I returned there was this disabled bay and the £60 fine," the 67-year-old said.
"I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it. My car was covered in polka dots from the paint they had used. I was fuming, absolutely fuming, all I could think was what sort of idiot did this," Ms Hatcher added.
However, she admitted that after she had cooled down and received an apology and a promise to meet the cost of damages caused from the city council, the absurdity of the scene, worthy of inclusion in a comedy sketch show, dawned on her.
"I saw the funny side of it the next day - you couldn't make it up."
A spokeswoman for Southampton council pledged, thankfully, that such incidents were rare, with a new policy of zero tolerance on painting disabled parking bays over parked cars set to be introduced.
"Occasionally things go wrong no matter how hard we try to get things right. We were in error, as was our painting contractor, and we're very sorry," the representative said.
"We are doing everything we can to put it right, and to examine our processes to prevent anything like this happening again," she added.
We can all sleep (and park) easily again then.