We recently spent a long weekend in Yorkshire and whilst there spent a couple of hours in the beautiful town of Helmsley.
When we returned to our car, we were absolutely astonished to find that a traffic warden had just put a parking fine notice on our windscreen. As he was still within a few metres of our car we asked why this had been issued, and he advised that we had parked within a Motorhome Only space. When asked where it said that, he pointed to a sign three spaces down that said motorhomes.
We said that was completely misleading as no where did it say Motorhomes only, and he agreed so we asked why he had issued it then and he said “they had been told that they must issue them and we would need to challenge it to get it overturned”.
At that point the owner of the vehicle next to us returned, she was a local person, and she was also astounded that she had been given a ticket, as she was not aware that it was for motorhomes only.
We subsequently challenged this, giving photographs, but this has been refused. I have paid the £35 as don’t want this to cost me any more, but I have pointed out to the council that this appears to be a modern version of a council gaining money by menaces and I suggest that they make their notices far clearer in future, but I presume they won’t do that as they won’t make as much money.
I am afraid to say I won’t be visiting Helmsley again in the near future as that is a shame, as it is lovely and we also contributed to the local economy by making several purchases from their lovely clothes shops and visiting their cafe, and also an additional £35 fine.
Sue Foden, Shropshire
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