Ipswich man issued parking fine despite displaying ticket

Damian Warburton returned from a day at work to find he had been issued a parking fine in the Portman Road Car Park B on September 17.

Mr Warburton had paid for a ticket, costing £7 for the day parking, but was given a fine on the grounds that the Civil Enforcement Officer (CEO) didn't see the pay and display ticket.

The ticket was placed in one of the back windows, displaying Mr Warburton had paid for the ticket and that it was valid until the following morning.

The parking ticket in the window (Image: Submitted)

He said: "I put the ticket in the side window because I was in a hurry.

"I needed to take something from the boot so put it in that side window just to save the steps to the front and be able to hurry off ASAP.

"I didn’t give it a second thought; it was visible, therefore displayed and that’s surely all that matters.

The car, with the parking ticket at the back and the parking fine on the windscreen (Image: Submitted)

"While it might not be common to put a ticket anywhere other than the windscreen, the requirement for compliance is simply that it has to be displayed, and it was, so I was seriously irritated to come back to a fine, issued only because the CEO was too lazy to look anywhere other than the front of the car."

Upon challenging the ticket to the council, he was told that the penalty charge had been cancelled on that occasion, however, if it happened again, they "may not be able to cancel it."

Photos taken by the CEO does show the window in which the ticket was displayed, however, was missed by the parking enforcer.

In a response to Mr Warburton's email to cancel the ticket, the council responded stating that the ticket was "correctly issued". 

They said: "Before issuing PCSN's our CEOs check for any parking items displayed and record the details. The CEO saw no Pay & Display ticket."

The car was parked in Portman Road B Car Park (Image: Submitted)

Mr Warburton continued: " I paid and displayed, and despite the ticket being clearly displayed, the enforcement officer was evidently so utterly lazy as to not look beyond the windscreen to see where else it might be displayed, and issued a fine while photographing the car with the ticket visible in their own photos."

Ipswich Borough Council said: "We would always encourage people to contact us directly if they want to raise an incident with us, so we can work directly with them to address it.

"Information on how and where to display tickets correctly is printed on tariff boards, along with being stated on the tickets themselves."

The car was parked in Portman Road B Car Park (Image: Submitted)