We arrived in London last Tuesday at 3.02pm and by 3.10pm I had my very first parking ticket. Two excited children, luggage and, it would seem, nowhere to park. The first day of our holiday seemed destined to be our last. What a scam Barnet Borough Council are running, especially preying on tourists and the vulnerable. The parking space clearly stated a telephone number to call to purchase a ticket, bearing in mind you would need access to a mobile phone to do this and even in this day and age, not everyone has one or more often than not you could have a dead battery, but I called the number given. I was sent around in circles by an automated service that kept asking for a PIN, which as a visitor and never having used the system I clearly did not have.

Frazzled after a five-hour journey with two children, I gave up on the call and took the children up to my mother-in-law’s flat, which is just metres away, to ask her what I should do. By the time we had got back down her stairs and asked the garage next door what to do and where he thought we could park, a parking warden had crept up and was issuing me with a ticket. This was now, according to him, 3.10pm and he had issued the ticket after a three-minute absence from the car. I pleaded with him to take the ticket back and explained the situation but he wasn’t interested.

I spent the next two days on the phone trying to sort it out, only to be told I could only appeal through email. I have done this over a period of a week and still have had no response. Of course, they have this covered too. You have to allow 14 days for a response and by then the ticket of £30 could turn into a ticket for £60. So I concede and will pay the fine but what I’d like to say is shame on you Barnet Council for ruining the start of my children’s holiday. That £30 could have enabled us to have another day in London and, as for your sneaky antics making it impossible to successfully appeal, I warn all fellow tourists from other parts of the country to stay put.

Leanne Packer

Tregrehan Mills, St Austell