A parking ticket was branded ‘unlawful discrimination’ by a furious campervan driver who claimed he was selectively targeted.
Steven Foakes drove down from Yorkshire to see his sister in Bournemouth. But instead of enjoying his time with family, he ended up being slapped with a £70 fine within 17 minutes of parking up.
He reached his sister’s at 5:30pm Tuesday and parked along Cecil Road where she lives, DorsetLive reported.
When parking up, Mr Foakes left space some space for the car in front to reverse into, so they weren’t blocked in, leading to him partially covering a dropped kerb.
By 5:47pm he realised he had an enforcement notice slapped on the windscreen of his Citroen campervan, hitting him with a £70 fine - £35 if he paid it promptly.
The Brit claimed the fine was ‘unlawful’ and he feels he was unfairly targeted and that the fine should not be enforced.
After being fined, he took photos of “at least” seven other cars on the street which had also blocked dropped kerbs but had not been fined.
He was later told by Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council - which enforced the fine - that he was fined because of a complaint by a resident.
He said: “It’s not the fine that bothers me. It’s the principle. My vehicle is parked partially blocking the dropped kerb, but at least seven others are completely blocking it.
“One car behind my van there’s a space, then another dropped kerb, and a car is completely blocking that one but was ignored. It’s blatant unlawful discrimination against me and my vehicle.
“I left my vehicle slightly back to be courteous, but now I cleared the kerb I’m tight up to them. It seems so petty. Again, it’s not about the money for me, it’s the discrimination, against myself and the vehicle.
“Fair enough I’ve parked at a drop kerb, but so have at least seven or eight other vehicles. I’ve just been singled out, maybe because it’s a campervan.”
An email to Mr Foakes, regarding the offence from this week, read: “Thank you for your email, in order for a Penalty Chare Notice to be issued for this type of contravention we must receive a report directly from the resident affected, once we have the report a Civil Enforcement Officer will be tasked to attend to review and issue a Penalty Charge Notice to the vehicle that we have received the report on, there is no discrimination based on the type of vehicle you are using.
“If we had received a report from the resident of the vehicle parked in front of you then a Penalty Charge Notice may have been issued to that vehicle too. Your vehicle was issued because we received a direct report from the resident that was affected.”
This wasn’t the first time that Mr Foakes felt like he had been unfairly singled out and received a parking fine. Last year, also in Bournemouth, he parked his campervan in a bay marked for cars and bikes.
He had seen other vans and a recovery truck in those bays so thought it was fine, and yet once again he was the only vehicle to receive a fine.
A BCP Council spokesperson said: “Parking in front of dropped kerbs can have an impact on the safety of people including those with lower levels of mobility such as wheelchair users and those with pushchairs. It can prevent members of the public from gaining access to the road or carriageway or from getting their vehicles in and out of their driveways.
“Members of the public are able to report blocked access by contacting our parking team via the BCP Council website where enforcement action may be taken.
"For further details about the dropped kerb policy see here: https://www.bcpcouncil.gov.uk/Roads-and-transport/Dropped-kerbs/Report-a-vehicle-parked-in-front-of-your-dropped-kerb.aspx."
