Grandad questions a sign of the times

PARKING bosses have been forced to replace an incorrect restriction sign on a busy main road after a driver had his ticket quashed.

But they say that no other motorists have been fined incorrectly because of the blunder.

David Barker was slapped with a £70 fixed penalty notice, reduced to £35 if he paid within 14 days, after he parked on a single yellow line on Ashton Road East in Failsworth, close to Hampton Road, on a Saturday.

However, the 24-year-old of Hunt Lane, Chadderton, was told to appeal by his grandfather, Charles Newell, who was convinced that the parking restriction sign on that part of the road was wrong.

It said that the restrictions applied from 8am to 6pm, but Mr Newell thought that it should also have included the words Monday to Friday.

And he was right, forcing parking bosses to change the sign and quash the fine.

Mr Newell told the Chronicle: “About 60 metres down the road there is a plate that says Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.

“If my grandson hadn’t come around that morning, if he’d just gone straight home and paid the fine, he would never have known.

“The parking restrictions are about 20 years old and I do not know how long the plate has been there.”

He believes others driver could have been affected, but Oldham Council’s parking manager Pauline Phillips said the sign was new.

It was queried by the officer who issued Mr Barker’s ticket and she added: “No other people have been affected.”