Parking ticket for trader Tony

A market trader has received two parking fines on a town centre car park – despite paying the correct charge on both occasions.

Macclesfield market trader Tony Brown was shocked to discover he had received a £50 penalty charge, even though he paid to park using an app on his mobile phone.

Despite supplying evidence that he had paid, Tony’s appeal against the ticket was refused – and swiftly followed by another penalty notice for the same ‘offence’, again after he had paid on the app.

The 54-year-old, who runs Rock a Little Records in Macclesfield indoor market, has a trader parking pass which means he can park all day for a £2.20 fee.

He said: “After the first lockdown, the car park went cashless so I started using the PaybyPhone app. That was going fine and I had been using it to pay for parking three times a week on the Churchill Way car park with no problems.

“Then in April, I got a parking ticket saying I hadn’t paid. I appealed it and sent them proof from my phone that I paid on the app. I got a letter back rejecting the appeal.”

Cheshire East Council ‘sresponse stated that it is not permitted to use PaybyPhone in conjunction with a trader’s permit, and a ticket must be displayed in the vehicle alongside the permit.

Tony said: “I phoned them up and they were still saying I needed to have a physical ticket in the window. In May, I got a letter through which though was going to be a follow-up about the first ticket, but it was a completely different parking ticket for the same thing again.

“I phoned up but got the same response again. On this occasion, I had paid for more time than I needed on the app.

“There is just no common sense. I have paid the money in a Covid-safe way, I’ve done the right thing. It’s taken up so much of my time – I’ve tried to go to the council office in Crewe, but I couldn’t because of Covid. There are no face-to-face meetings.

“I’ve been on the phone to them for ages, waiting to speak to someone, being passed around. It’s a hassle and a stress, it’s made me so frustrated and angry.”

Cheshire East Council said it would speak to Tony to ‘reach an amicable solution’. A spokesman said: “We are sorry to hear there has been an issue with a market trader paying for parking via our phone app.

“If this person paid for parking and was ticketed, we would be very happy to speak with them so that we can reach an amicable solution and hopefully prevent such issues from happening again.”