Bailiff nightmare over parking fine (From Bournemouth Echo)

Bailiff nightmare over parking fine

7:00pm Wednesday 12th March 2008 in

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A DISTRAUGHT pensioner has told how bailiffs tried to take her car over a disputed parking ticket - despite the fact she had a valid permit.

Ann Bool, 68, of Princess Road, Branksome, was given a parking ticket outside her home last July.

Weeks earlier she had visited the civic centre and paid £30 for a new residents' permit.

It had been issued but not sent to her.

In the meantime she rushed to London to look after her husband who had suffered a heart attack.

But hours after she got home she was ticketed - while her new valid permit sat on the front desk at the civic centre.

Mrs Bool disputed the fine, but the council claimed she had asked for the permit to be kept for her collection - something she denies.

The council refused to budge and the dispute raged on for months, coming to a head on Monday last week when bailiffs arrived at her door.

The fine, which started at £30, now stands at £200.

She said: "I feel absolutely hounded.

"Nothing like this has ever happened to me before.

"I always pay my way, and any other time I would have paid it, but my permit was there, I'd paid in advance.

"They should have posted it to me - it was sat on that counter for over a month - they told me it was normal procedure to send it in four days. It's so unjust."

Steve Tite, principal manager for transportation services, Borough of Poole, said: "This is a regrettable situation and one which the council has gone to some lengths to avoid.

"It is our normal procedure to issue permits to residents via the post.

"We do not hold permits ready for collection unless it is at the specific request of a customer.

"During frequent correspondence with Mrs Bool, she has been advised of the independent appeals procedure and made aware the case would be passed to bailiffs as a last resort."