Driver gets four parking tickets after disabled bay painted around his car while he was on holiday

A London council has apologised after a man received multiple parking fines when a disabled bay was painted around his legally parked car.

CCTV footage shared on social media showed a contractor measuring and painting a disabled parking pay around a car, which was left on an unrestricted road outside the owner’s home.

The vehicle owner, who spoke to the BBC but didn’t wish to be named, received a total of four penalty charge notices (PCNs) between 22 and 26 November after the bay was constructed on 17 November in New Addington, south London.

“It really put a damper on my holiday because I kept checking [the camera] to see what was wrong and there was nothing I could do,” he told BBC London. “I didn’t want to go out and do the things I wanted to do because I was worried about the amount of tickets I was accumulating.”

The owner saw two tickets on their windscreen when they got back from their travels; a further two had been removed by an unknown individual.

The disabled bay was put in place in response to a request from a resident, and while the owner agreed the disabled bay was important, they criticised the council for not giving any notice.

“It’s the same as doing an extension or any other road work – you let people know,” he said. “Without any communication with your community, that’s the wrong way to do it.”

He decided to share the footage on social media after residents took to Facebook alleging he had parked in the bay knowing he was not supposed to.

“It really upset me. I just thought, ‘Why are you looking at me as the bad guy?’ He said. “But I do understand, somebody obviously didn’t know that I parked there before the bay was drawn.”

The resident told the BBC that he hadn’t received direct confirmation from the council that the PCNs were cancelled in relation to the new bay.

“Nothing in writing. Only a comment from them on the video,” he said. “I think the issue here is because there was no communication in the beginning, there has been a snowball effect of wrongdoing.”

Your Croydon commented below the CCTV footage shared in response to the owner and said “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.”

A spokesperson for Croydon Council said: “Our road markings contractor painted lines for a new disabled bay on 17 November in response to a request from a resident. The contractor painted around a car, as is standard practice, otherwise they would have to wait for the space to be free, which may have taken weeks.

“The contractor took a picture of the car, so we knew not to give the owner a fine. Unfortunately, one of our parking attendants was not informed and issued parking tickets. However, these were not processed into fines because we had a note on the system from our contractor. The tickets were cancelled a week before the video was uploaded to social media, and we have apologised for the confusion.

“It is unacceptable that our parking attendant has received verbal abuse online. We ask that any residents with concerns should contact the Council directly and not abuse any member of staff carrying out their duties.”