Kirklees Council backs down over Brendan Hynes’s parking fine

Jan 6 2010 by Katie Grant, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

A DRIVER has hit out at new powers given to Kirklees Council to fine people for poor parking.

Brendan Hynes, from Almondbury, says the council don’t have a “good enough grip on the law” or enough “common sense” to issue the penalty notices instead of the police.

Rules which came into force at the beginning of this year mean drivers caught parking more than 50cm away from the kerb could be fined £50.

He says his run-in with the council for parking at the bottom of his driveway without a permit last summer is a case in point.

The Scotsman has successfully appealed against a £35 charge issued by the Highways and Transportation department last year.

After giving them a valid reason and asking them to waive the fee they wouldn’t back down and increased the charge to £70, so Brendan took it all the way to a tribunal.

The day he got the ticket the BBC satellite engineer had popped inside to get his parking permit after having a full valet on his car – but when he came out he’d been given a parking ticket.

He told the Examiner: “My car had been at Huddersfield Audi to have some work carried out as well as undergoing a full valet inside and outside.

“So because it was having a valet, before I left the car at the garage I took out all of my belongings and documentation, including my parking permit.