Sign moved in parking row

ParkRight bosses had a Shropshire road sign uprooted and moved during a row over a £60 parking ticket, it was revealed today.

Brenig James, of Whitchurch Road, Shrewsbury, had to fight a year-long battle to have the ticket cancelled. Adjudicators also awarded him more than £400 in compensation.

ParkRight met county council bosses three months after issuing Mr James with a ticket and asked them to move a sign, the positioning of which was at the heart of the appeal.

Mr James was fighting a ticket issued while his car was parked after a "zone ends" sign in pedestrianised Claremont Hill, Shrewsbury, on May 6 last year. He had taken pictures to back up his case.

After the meeting Shropshire County Council instructed contractors to remove the sign and remount it further along the pavement, bringing the area where the car was parked inside the restricted zone.

ParkRight informed the appeals co-ordinator that the sign had been moved, but said it believed it was in its new position before the ticket was issued.

Mr James submitted a Freedom of Information request to the county council to find out when the sign had actually been moved.

It revealed the meeting between Parkright and the council happened on August 6 "following ParkRight's receipt of a challenge to a Penalty Charge Notice". The sign was moved on August 22.

Mr James appealed twice and finally won a third appeal after showing what he had uncovered to the adjudicator.

He said: "We won the appeal on the basis that it should have been quashed on the first appeal because the sign was in its previous location at the time the ticket was being issued.

"How many people are not fighting them because they don't know how or are scared they will lose? I don't think it's right."

ParkRight is a partnership of the county council and Shropshire's district and borough councils. County council group manager for traffic and highway engineering Hugh Dannatt said an investigation would now be carried out.

Exclusive by Rhea Parsons