Council adds insult to injury after car shunt

A STUNNED motorist was horrified to find her parked car had been shunted into a tree — and then slapped with a £50 parking fine.

Despite the car being shoved over a kerb and into undergrowth, an over-zealous parking warden had failed to notice that it had been in an accident, which had caused a parking ticket to fall from the window.

Joanne Billington (27), from Halifax, had parked her Ford Ka on the Bradshaw Street car park in Oldham town centre before heading to work at NatWest.

But while hard at work another driver hit her car, causing £2,000 in damage, and then fled. The impact knocked the parking ticket she had purchased on to the seat.

Joanne appealed against the fine and Oldham Council has now backed down and revoked it after admitting the warden didn’t realise the car had been in an accident

Joanne said: “I was absolutely devastated.It was obvious the car had been crashed into but I still got a fine. Nobody parks their car like that. It’s unbelievable that the attendant had the gall to issue a fine.

A council spokesman said: “At the time of the incident the attendant did not know that the vehicle in question had been forced out of the bay it occupied by another vehicle.

“The outstanding penalty notice will be written off.”