An Edinburgh driver has been fined £30 by the council for abandoning his electric car at a charging point after taking unwell.
Walter Grieve, 66, was using his local point at Drumbrae Library Hub and left the car all day to charge but failed make it back within the 12-hour limit due to coming down with a stomach bug.
Realising that he would be fined, he emailed Edinburgh Council explaining the troubling situation to appeal - but only received one response over a three-month period despite escalating the query to a complaint.
READ MORE - Edinburgh man 'impaled on spike' after horror fall as emergency services rush to scene
Walter - an electric vehicle owner since the start of 2021 - explained the March 6 incident. He said: "I usually charge it for about six or seven hours. You register with the council and get a card to use their electric car charging points then you receive an invoice later.
"I had left my car on charge at ten in the morning and went home to have some lunch, I had been feeling unwell but managed to eat some food then became much more unwell later on.
"I had an upset stomach and was an hour late collecting it, when I arrived at around 11.30pm I knew it had gone over the 12 hours limit. So I emailed the council early the next day to explain as I knew I would get a fine. I received the £30 overstay fine on March 6, and 11 weeks later I have still had no official response.
"I chased up my appeal three times in the following weeks having had no response. I then made a formal complaint to Edinburgh Council by telephone. I had to chase that up a couple of times over the following weeks. This resulted in one email stating they would get back to me by the end of that week but never did.
"I then raised this lack of response from the council with my local councillor who is 'looking into it', but I have still had no proper response and it is now about 11 weeks since I first appealed!"
He continued: "It's the whole process of emailing and not getting a response, chasing it up and not getting a response, to then complaining and still not getting a response.
"Finally they got in touch today and asked for evidence to back up my extenuating circumstances but I had a stomach bug and diarrhoea - you wouldn't go to the GP for that even if you could get an appointment.
"It's coming up for three months now since I got the ticket and it still has not been dealt with which is frustrating."
A spokeswoman for the council explained that officers have now responded to Walter asking for further information to assess the appeal and have advised this will be dealt with as a priority.
Sign up for Edinburgh Live newsletters for more headlines straight to your inbox
Last week Edinburgh Live reported that appeals against fines handed to drivers for parking in Edinburgh council-owned electric car charging bays for too long have had a near 50 percent success rate.
The data found that 103 overstay tickets have been cancelled by the council since penalties were introduced a year ago, out of a total 226 appeals made.
The maximum stay at council-owned EV bays is 12 hours for a 'standard' charging point (7kW), three hours for 'fast' (22kW) and one hour for 'rapid' (50kW). Overstay penalties have been scrapped at fast EV points between 11pm and 8am under new tarrifs introduced this month.
Anyone who parks at an EV power point beyond the permitted stay period is slapped with a £30 fine.
READ NEXT-
West Lothian teenager missing as local police appeal for information
Edinburgh holidaymakers warned of banned hand luggage items on budget airlines
Former ITV presenter Eamonn Holmes claims Holly 'stabbed Phil in the back'
Woman left distraught after DNA kit exposed husbands affair with her own mum
New limited Edinburgh Lewis Capaldi tickets on sale for intimate O2 Academy gig
